Page 16 of At Their Mercy: Part I

Reese inclined his head. “I called the day before. Em wants to know what’s goin’ on in our lives.”

Okay. How were they not fucking seeing the problem?

“They live in the area, right?” I asked to make sure.

Reese weighed his response. “They have a ranch just south of Fredericksburg.” Roughly an hour away, in other words. “Then they have a condo in Arlington too. The agency has a block of apartments and condos across the street where operators can secure housing. We lived there once.”

“It’s popular among out-of-state operators who have permanent homes elsewhere,” River added.

That was less riveting.

I pulled my legs back from Reese’s lap so I could sit up straighter. “Did either of you call Danny to wish him a happy birthday in March? He turned fifty. It’s a special birthday.”

Reese’s forehead wrinkled, and then he let out a chuckle and squeezed my leg. “We don’t have that kind of relationship, sweetheart. We were coworkers, and River and I retired. We left all that behind us.”

I cocked a brow. “They invite you for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

He nodded once. “They do that with all operators who don’t have a place to go for the holidays.”

River cleared his throat and shifted where he sat, and I caught the look in his eyes. He wasn’t totally on board with what Reese was saying. The hesitation spoke volumes.

Reese noticed it too. “What?”

River shrugged with one shoulder. “They haven’t exactly been secretive about us bein’ special to them, have they?”

See?! That right there!

“But we retired,” Reese repeated, as if he was clinging to it.

“You retire from a job, Daddy, not from people,” I told him. “For two former military operators—where I know one worked in intelligence—you’re not very bright when it comes to family dynamics. Which—I mean—I get it, given your past with family. But come on. If you wanna know who pissed in Danny’s cereal, look no further than in a mirror. Or, you know, at each other.”

It was almost funny how quickly they looked at each other, although not for the reason of finding answers. Just sharing their perplexity. And maybe wondering if I was right.

I was right, probably.

“Look at the facts,” I went on. “These two men trained you. You go back over twenty years. You worked together in some of the world’s most hostile territories. They invite you over for holidays. They gave you those folding knives when you became contractors—or operators or what you call it.” Yeah, I’d seen the knives. River even kept his wrapped in a nice cloth in his underwear drawer. “And if I overheard you correctly earlier today, they also call you on your fucking birthday.”

Yeah, let them ponder that.

CHAPTER 2

River Tenley

Come on, make the call.

Reese wasn’t asleep either. I could feel his restlessness in the air between us, and I depended on it. Because I didn’t make rash decisions. That was his job—and now was the time for his impulsiveness, just like it had been so many times in the field. There was a reason he’d been the best security detail Hillcroft had ever seen, in my opinion. His mind raced faster than anyone I’d ever met.

I let out a breath and stared up at the ceiling.

After years of counting the wooden boards in the ceiling of the cabin, I was now staring at nothing. Just white. Or dark blue in the moonlight.

I’d worried initially that leaving the cabin would spread us all out too much. I mean, our new house was pretty big. Three bedrooms, living room, spacious outdoor area, garage, home office, kitchen, two and a half baths, dining area… But other than Reese tinkering on shit in the garage and Shay spending more time in the kitchen, I’d had nothing to be afraid of. We all ended up in the living room more often than not, needing the same level of closeness.

Shay shifted in his sleep, throwing an arm across my chest.

“Not in the bed, Lima,” he mumbled.

My mouth twitched. His occasional sleep talk was my crack, unless he was having nightmares.