Regardless of her feelings for me or mine for her, Kinley won’t tolerate less than what she deserves. She’ll fucking walk away and not look back. I respect the fuck out of that.
Many women I’ve dated only saw the badge and said whatever they thought I wanted to hear. It eventually became easy to tell from the first date just how shallow a woman is, but in all honesty, it wouldn’t have mattered, I was never looking for anything more than casual.
My job has always come first, but now, the structure in my life has been knocked down and rearranged like bowling pins. Out of the fucking blue. When I wasn’t looking.
But it’s more than that. Every time she lets her walls down and I see her soft side, she becomes even more beautiful to me. Her veracious strength hides her sensitive heart, and each time I see it and feel it, each time it shines on me, I want to keep that warmth for myself.
Since my fucking hard-on is gone, I step off the porch to walk to the big house. I walk slow so I can get a feel of the area around the cabin.
About ten yards behind the cabin is wild woods, not just trees, but untamed woods full of bushes and plenty of hiding places. To the south are the garden, stables, barn and the big house. The stream that cuts through the property runs northwest across the other two sides, and on the other side of that is just trees for miles.
The sound of arguing can be heard as soon as I walk in the back door.
“She’s not a child, Mason, she needs your support. You know as well as I do that the more you try to control her, the harder she’s going to push back.”
“I’m not trying to control her, Marley! I’m trying to keepher safe. Look what happened! I never should have let her go to that agent’s house. She could have got killed today.”
“But she didn’t. You heard her, when he knew she was in trouble, he handled it. He wouldn’t knowingly put her in danger.”
The mudroom is almost as big as my bedroom at my house, and when I walk around the corner, I see Kinley’s brothers, dad, and Marley standing around the kitchen island.
Reminding myself that these people are her family and that she loves them, I take a deep breath and try to push my anger down. “No, I wouldn’t.”
All heads swivel in my direction. The guilt I’ve felt since I watched her walk out of that bathroom covered in sweat and bleeding has been wrapped around my fucking neck like a goddamn noose all day. Hearing her brother allude that I am the reason she’s hurt pulls it tighter.
Mason and I lock eyes, his anger palpable in the room. Mr. Harlow tips his head forward and pinches the bridge of his nose.
Stepping toward Mason, he squares up, and Gray stands at his back. With my jaw locked from trying not to say anything that will make things worse, I take a deep breath before I speak. Keeping everything above board is the best way to do this, normally I wouldn’t give civilians details, but this is Kinley’s family, and she’s most important.
“I found out last weekend that I have a mole on my team. I can’t prove it right now, but I think he works for the same outfit as the two guys Kinley saw. He was actually here on Saturday and tried to get Kinley to go with him.”
Marley’s fingertips go to her lips. “Oh my God, was that him? When Hallie told her there was an agent at the door for her, she thought it was you. She doesn’t like him, so she told him to leave.”
Mason, Gray and her dad swing their heads in herdirection and Gray says, “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Marley looks at him and tilts her head, and her face softens. “Because it was the FBI. Because all of this is happening. Why would we be suspicious? There was no reason to think the FBI is the enemy.”
Gray scrubs his hands over his face and sucks in a deep frustrated breath as he looks toward the big window over the kitchen nook.
Looking back to Mason, I continue. “He shot my colleague and tried to get to Kinley in. my. home.” I tap the island with my finger to punctuate my words. That fact pisses me off more than anything - that bastard walked right up to my front door. Rolling my head from one shoulder to the other, I stretch the muscles in my neck that feel like they are tied in knots.
“She knew all the security feeds would go to me, and she did what she could to let me know something was wrong.” I take another step toward him. “As soon as I saw what was happening, I dropped what I was doing and got to her as fast as I fucking could. Just the thought of something happening to her was worse than taking a fucking bullet.”
His eyebrows twitch and his eyes narrow. Good. He heard me.
“So now I’ve got a rogue agent, another agent in the ICU, and the woman I would do anything for is in danger. What I need right now is someone I can trust to help me protect her while I eliminate the fucking threat, because by any means necessary, I am going to ensure her safety.”
The room is quiet as I let the information sink in. I just told her family, in not so many words, that I love her. There’s not a fucking chance I will say those words out loud to anyone else before I say them to her, so they’re going to have to figure it out on their own.
The first person to speak up is Jax. “What do you needfrom us?”
Keeping my eyes locked on Mason’s, we have a silent stare-off. As I wait for him to accept what I just said, I can see the questions and distrust on his face. He is wondering if he can trust me with his little sister, and what my intentions are.
Being an only child, I don’t know what it feels like to feel tethered to another person’s well-being and safety, a person who is not a spouse or parent. My only frame of reference is my love for my parents, maybe it would be something like that. It’s something I wished I had when I was a kid, I always wanted a sibling to play with.
Grabbing his chin, he looks out the big picture window and winces like he’s not sure about what to do. When he looks back at me, his features are still guarded, but he nods and asks, “What do you need?”
Fucking finally.
