The Alpha Bodyguards Books #1-3

Chapter Twenty-Five

M y hands sweating and my heart pounding like it always did when I made a drop, I walked out of the dry cleaners. Holding my breath, I didn’t exhale until my hand was on the driver door handle.

But I didn’t inhale until I was behind the wheel and the engine was running.

And that’s when it hit me.

My heart fucking stopped, my eyes closed and I inhaled again. Deep.

No one smelled like him.

“Garrett,” I muttered quietly.

“Drive.”

His deep voice filled the space around me, and it almost broke me. Opening my eyes, knowing I would regret it, I looked in the rearview mirror.

Arms crossed, jaw set, he made everything in my world turn upside down and right-side-right at the same time.

Fighting and losing to calm my nerves, I stared at him. “He tracks me.”

“Coffee place around the corner. Go through the drive-thru.” No hesitation, he issued the command like he knew what he was doing.

“He has Maverick.”

Garrett tipped his chin. “Go.”

My hands shaking in earnest now, I carefully put the giant truck in reverse and backed out of the spot. “I heard what he said to you.”

Garrett scanned the street. “Use the right lane.”

I hit the turn signal and pulled out of the parking lot into the right lane. “I’m sure you want an explanation.” I didn’t pretend to not know him now. There wasn’t any point.

Anger bled off his presence. “I want to know my son.”

“Our son,” I corrected, telling him more than I should.

His jaw ticked and he ignored my statement. “Next right.”

I tried another tactic. “You got in my car. What do you want to know?”

“It’s my truck. You stole it.”

He was still mad. I couldn’t blame him. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t have an excuse for that other than I was weak. I’d always been weak.

He snorted. “The irony?”

I nodded, but he didn’t wait for a response.

“I would’ve let you have it.” He scanned the street again. “Use the fuck out of it until I got back, same as my place.”

A fresh wave of three-year-old guilt built on regret. “For whatever it’s worth, I wanted to stay.”

This time he half snorted, half laughed. “What’s wrong, had a fight with your husband? You were looking to blow off a little steam? Get back at him?” He shook his head and looked out the window.

A lifetime of shit choices and total shame culminated in that one single moment. I’d never felt good about myself, but seeing the only man who’d ever showed me something more than pity or deceit crammed in the back seat of his stolen truck next to his son’s car seat, a son he never knew existed before today, I didn’t just feel like an asshole, I knew I was worthless.

I’d failed Maverick.

I’d failed my dad.

I’d failed myself.

Yes, Nathan had manipulated and used me, but I’d let it happen. I had no one to blame except myself, but how did I explain a lifetime of shit decisions to a man who was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend his country?

I didn’t .

I couldn’t.

“Nathan isn’t my husband.” That’s all I had. “I don’t live with him.” Not technically. “Not in his house, anyway.” That was the only excuse I had for Garrett.

“Left lane.” Ignoring my explanation, Garrett glanced behind us. “Where’s Maverick right now?”

I fought tears and switched lanes. “At the estate, in the main house with Nathan.”

“I want a paternity test.” He tipped his chin toward the chain coffee place. “Pull in there.”

“You don’t need one. He’s yours.” It was the least I could give him.

“I’ll set it up.” Garrett pulled out his cell phone. “What’s your number?”

Panic edged out my anxiety. “You can’t call me.”

For the first time since I’d gotten in the truck, he met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “Why the fuck not?”

Inhaling, I said it as plainly as possible. “He’ll kill you. Or me.” I could barely bring myself to say the next words. “Or worse.”

Garrett scanned the parking lot. “Far end of the lot, on the right, pull into a space under those trees.”

I did as he said, then threw the engine in park. I wanted to turn to face him. I wanted to crawl over the center console and throw myself into his arms. I wanted to tell him to rescue Maverick and me. I wanted to say I was sorry. God, I wanted to say I was sorry.

But I didn’t say any of it.

A black Cadillac Escalade pulled up next to us and parked. The passenger window went down a few inches and the blond man from the city parking structure first looked at me then the back seat. I knew he couldn’t see into the truck’s tinted windows, but it felt like he could, and his stare felt as judgmental as Garrett’s.

Garrett reached for the door handle. “You’ll hear from me.” He threw the door open.

“Wait.” Every ounce of hope I thought I might still have started to slip through my fingers. “You don’t understand.” Nathan would kill me. It wouldn’t be violent or messy or sensational. It wouldn’t even be by his hands.

Nathan would simply make me disappear like all the other people he’d made disappear over the years. He didn’t even need to expend any effort to make it happen. All he had to do was smile and mention to one of his armed guards how he wondered what it would be like if I weren’t around. I wouldn’t even be a missing person an hour after that. I’d just be gone.

I turned to face the one man who was my last hope. Despite his anger, despite his hatred of me, I couldn’t make my heart see anything other than the tender, most caring man I’d ever met who taken me three years ago like I was the love of his life.

“I need a favor.” I couldn’t ask him to take Maverick, not outright, not yet. It would make it real and my heart was already shattered.

“You don’t get any favors from me,” he ground out.

Out of options, I outright begged. “He’ll kill me.”

One foot already out the door, Garrett looked at me. Really looked at me.

For a split second, I saw the man who I’d first met, but then, just as quick, it was gone and a new man, one harder and more controlled, one I didn’t know at all, replaced the old Garrett and a mask of impenetrable warrior slid over his expression.

Then he gutted me with the cold, honest truth. “Then Maverick will still only have one parent.” He got out of the truck.