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THE SUN WAS ALREADY up when Annie woke, leaving her completely disoriented. She pushed her hair from her eyes and rolled toward her nightstand, squinting at her phone. How was it so late? What happened to her alarm? She had to get showered and dressed for work. She had to pack Army’s lunch, fix his breakfast, wake him for school—
Oh. Right. Army wasn’t here.
Her stomach tumbled so quickly she thought she’d throw up. And then the rest of yesterday’s events rushed her. Slowly, anxiety like ants crawling over her skin, she rolled back, knowing without looking that Kyle had left her bed.
Had he gone after Army?
Or had he just... gone?
She slid from the bed and made it quickly as if doing so would hold his heat between the sheets. Last night had been... everything. Everything she’d dreamed could be real with a man but had never experienced. Gorgeous, gorgeous bliss. She’d laughed. She’d cried. Kyle had hated that, but she’d assured him those tears were happy ones.
That had been the truth. In those hours between getting out of her clothes and falling asleep—her legs tangled with his, her head on his shoulder, her hand on his chest—she’d been happy. It had been a moment out of time, and she’d woken often to find him, needing comfort when the room across the hall had whispered with the worst sort of loneliness.
Why hadn’t she known intimacy could turn her inside out? Not just her body but her soul? She’d had two short relationships since her divorce, but nothing like Kyle. His tenderness, his roughness, his coarseness. She’d loved his coarseness... the foul words that spilled out of his mouth, the way he used his fingers, the places he put his tongue.
The bathroom was spotless. She showered, breathing in the smells of her soap and shampoo and remembering them on his skin. He hadn’t even left his towel from last night but had washed it with the load of Army’s clothes waiting by the machine.
After that, he’d cleaned up the kitchen. It was spic-and-span too. Not a speck of last night’s flour or fry grease, not a potato peel remained to prove she’d cooked for him. The sink was empty. The dishes in the drainer put away. He’d left without breakfast, without making coffee.
He hadn’t written her a note. His truck was no longer the view she saw when looking out the window over the kitchen sink. She stood there staring at her car, thinking of Army’s bike inside the garage, how nothing today was different from last night.
Army was gone and she had to find a way to get him back.
And yet everything was different because of Kyle.
Though if not for her body’s raw aches, she’d never have known he’d been here.
She grabbed a fork from the drawer and carried the rest of the cake to the table. She didn’t want to think he was the love ’em, enjoy their fried chicken and gravy, and leave ’em type.
And she knew he wasn’t. The few men she’d known wouldn’t have intervened when she was being threatened. They would’ve decided she deserved whatever was happening, she’d stepped out of line, forgotten her place—
“Mom! Cake is not for breakfast!”
She dropped the fork, rocked sideways in her chair, and nearly lost her balance. But then her son was there in her arms, his hug so fierce and loving. “Oh, sweetie. Are you okay? I missed you like crazy.”
“I’m fine, Mom.” He wrested himself free and eyeballed the cake. “Can I have some?”
Her heart was beating so hard she almost couldn’t find her voice to answer. “Of course you can. You can have as much as you want.”
“Cool,” he said, reaching for her fork and digging in.
He smelled like Army. His hair, which she couldn’t stop mussing. And his shirt, which made her think of his classroom and his bedroom and the orange juice he loved and always spilled. It smelled fresh. She wondered who’d known—
The screen door opened again and there was Kyle walking into the kitchen, holding an empty plastic bottle in one hand, the cap in the other. She wanted to go to him. She wanted to stay beside her son. She had so many questions. Her emotions were bouncing up and down and around. He didn’t give her time to ask anything.
“You still have that... item you got out of the bed of my truck yesterday?”
She nodded. The gun was in her bedroom between the mattress and box springs.
“And you’re sure you’re up for getting out of here for good?”
He’d said it with one brow arched. She swallowed hard and nodded.
“Do you trust me?” He was about to upend her existence. He had to know.
“With my life,” she said, ruffling Army’s hair. “With his life.”
Kyle’s throat constricted. “Then this would be a good time to pack.”
#
“WHERE ARE WE GOING?” Army asked from the truck’s back seat.
While Annie had rushed through the house gathering any and everything she didn’t want to leave behind, Kyle had secured Army’s car seat and grabbed his bike from the garage, adding it to the boxes in the bed of the truck. Where they were going there were trails to ride and he’d make sure the boy had the right tires, a kickstand, and a compass.
They’d been on the road within the hour. Crazy to think someone could wrap up four years of living in one place so quickly, but Annie had. She’d had next to nothing of sentimental value, she’d said. What mattered most was her son. Army had helped by grabbing his most prized possessions and every graphic T-shirt he owned. Kyle had helped by offering his arms for Annie to load down with boxes. He’d wanted to offer more. So much more.
They hadn’t said a word about last night. They hadn’t had time.
After leaving her asleep around zero-three-hundred, he’d done a quick recon run around the warehouse at the edge of town. His gear verified no sounds coming from inside. No movement either. No cars were parked around the perimeter. Security was lax. He hadn’t thought he’d find the boy there, but the building was on the way to the grandparents’ gated home.
Vince’s parents’ place had been easy enough to access. Simple security, seconds to disarm. It never ceased to amaze him what civilians considered safe. He’d found Army immediately. The boy had been sound asleep. Kyle had pressed a finger to his lips, leaned close to whisper into his ear, and scooped him into his arms. Piece of cake.
Behind him, Annie sat as close to her son as possible, the rest of the seat piled with backpacks and duffels. “I don’t know exactly but I’ll bet it’s going to be a place you’ll like.”
“Cuz Kyle will be there?” Army asked, looking out the window as fields rolled by, dry and brown giving way to green piney woods.
“That’s part of it, yes,” she said, a smile in her voice, relief too.
“Kyle’s cool. Like a ninja,” Army said, then after thinking for a moment, added softly, “Or a real dad,” and Kyle thought his heart would burst from his chest.
“Is that so?” Annie’s voice quivered as she met Kyle’s gaze in the rearview mirror.
Her eyes were damp and full of joy and he’d waited his entire life to have someone look at him that way. Yes, there was gratitude for safely bringing home her son. But the rest—
“And he’s super strong. He carried me all the way out of the house and across the field to his truck and never even dropped me once.”
“Wow.” Eyes wide, Annie stifled a laugh. “That took a lot of muscles.”
“His are huge. Like Captain America’s. No. Like the Hulk’s.”
“That’s really big.”
“And he runs like the Flash. I wasn’t scared even for a minute.”
“I’m so proud of you,” she said, reaching over to ruffle his hair.
“I couldn’t be scared because he told me he was bringing me home.” Army shook off her hand and smoothed his hair back down, making her laugh, and making Kyle do the same. “And I knew he was because he knew our secret word. I told you Tabby Danger was the smartest cat ever!”
#
KYLE DROVE ANNIE AND her son to the Avenging VIII compound. He’d squared things with Asa after Army’s extraction and worked out a short-term fix. The team would then deal with what had apparently—according to Nate’s digging—been a long-term drug problem in Markit.
One with a distant connection to Lucinda Bruce’s assault.
The fact that she’d recovered did not take vengeance off the table.
A scattering of small houses had been built on the property away from the training facilities. The several hundred acres of private woodland allowed each branch of the Bruce organization to operate independently... and covertly. Ezra and his wife, Alexa, lived in a similar one.
Annie and Army would be safe. Kyle wouldn’t have to worry about them while going after—
“Are you going to stay?”
Annie had returned to the main room after walking through with Army.
Kyle had wanted them to see the place on their own. It was going to be their home for as long as they needed. He hadn’t wanted to get in the way while they talked about where to put Army’s comic books. Or which drawer would hold his Marvel T-shirts. And if it would be okay for him to sleep with the window open and look at the stars.
But Annie’s question fed the hope Kyle had been having hell with for miles.
“I’d like to. If you’d like that.” His palms were sweating. He dried them on the seat of his jeans, then crossed his arms and shrugged. “See if we’ve got something here.”
He sounded lame. So lame. His throat tightened and he glanced over his shoulder to where Army was opening every cabinet in the kitchen.
She walked closer, her steps nearly silent on the hardwood floor. “Love at first sight?”
The idea left him unable to breathe. “I...”
“There’s something for sure,” she said, saving him from having to name the feeling. She came nearer still, pressing a kiss to the center of his chest. “Thank you, Kyle. Thank you. I owe you more than I can ever repay.”
“You owe me nothing. I don’t expect to be paid.” He wrapped his arms around her because that was where they belonged. “Though I wouldn’t say no to more fried chicken.”
“Every night if you want it,” she said and laughed as she snuggled into him.
The sound that rolled up from his gut was primal. “Chicken isn’t what I want every night.”
“As long as you’re here with us, I’m yours,” she said, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. Tears he knew were happy because he was fighting the same.
Army came running into the room then. “He can sleep in my room if we put a bunk on top.”
Kyle laughed, wanting to ruffle the boy’s hair—why was that even a thing?—but high-fiving him instead. “I’m afraid I’m a little too tall for a bunk bed, buddy.”
Army thought for a long moment, then sighed. “Okay. I guess you can sleep with Mom if you want to. She gets scared sometimes being by herself, but I never do.”
“You’re a really brave kid,” Kyle said, glancing at Annie who had her fingers pressed to her lips as if holding back a laugh. “Maybe you could start unpacking your things. I’m going to check and see if there’s a spare kickstand in the utility shed.”
Army’s face lit up, his eyes wide with what looked like as much disbelief at the idea as joy. He laced his hands on top of his head and asked, “For my bike?”
“None other,” Kyle said, grinning. “And there might be another bike in there so maybe you and I can hit the trails tomorrow. We’ll have to find one for your mom too.”
Army gave a fist-pump and a really loud, “Sweet!”
The boy’s exuberance punched Kyle like a fist to the gut. It was too much. He needed some fresh air, some time to process what the last eighteen hours had done to his life. How everything he hadn’t known he’d been looking for had been delivered, costing him nothing but a few scrapes and bruises, and a knife wound held together by yellow duct tape.
He turned. Annie caught him by the T-shirt, stopping him in his tracks.
“Before you go...” She moved in, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him. There in the middle of the living room for all the world—and Army—to see.
“Gross!” the boy yelled, turning and running for his room.
Annie shook her head, as amused as Kyle was. “Don’t be gone long.”
“I’ll be back like the Flash.”
“Good. Because we need to have a long talk about who you are. And what this place is.”
Yeah. He’d known that was coming. “Let me check in with the boss and I’ll tell you what I can. I can’t promise it will be everything.”
She nodded as if that was good enough for now.
#
SUCCESS. I’M GOING to stick around.
Funny how things worked out, Kyle mused. As often as he’d come to the compound, the innumerable laps he’d made on the obstacle course, the countless nights he’d tried to sleep in the barracks but had been kept awake by feelings of guilt and failure...
Now here he was. And for the long haul, it seemed. Making a home with Annie and Army. Things with Vince would need to be settled. And his drug empire in Markit investigated. Law enforcement in his pocket meant he’d done for the higher-ups what they’d needed.
They’d obviously scoped out Markit for a reason. And they’d been there long enough that the team would have no problem tracing their movements, present and past.
One step closer to avenging Lucinda. One step closer to finding Loren.
And all without Asa’s parents knowing what the kids they’d rescued all those years ago and trained as lethal weapons had done out of honor, respect, and love.
Good choice. Sleep there as long as you need to.
An Avenging VIII sleeper agent. Not bad for a nobody, Kyle mused. More money than he’d ever need. An adorable kid. A beautiful woman who might just love him.
And whom he already knew he loved.