The Alpha Bodyguards Books #4-6

Chapter Sixteen

T y and P reston were arguing on the driveway next to Preston’s vehicle du jour. Every time I saw him, he had a different car, and no matter where he parked, he always backed into spots. Tonight was no exception. He’d backed the SUV into my driveway, like he’d need to make a quick escape later.

I sighed.

Turning, I smiled at my son and spoke slow enough for him to lip read. “Go take a shower and get ready for bed.”

His sweet six-year-old smile hit his face, and he hugged my leg then he signed. Okay, Mama.

I rubbed his soft hair then signed back. I’ll come tuck you in after I finish dishes. I love you, sweet boy.

Okay. Love you too.

I watched my son run off before peeking out the front window again. They were still standing in the driveway, and Ty’s hands were on his hips, which was never a good sign.

Unable to stop myself, I cracked the front door so I could hear them.

“It’s been seven years since you, me and Rollins took that leave and came here for the weekend.” Lethally calm, my brother’s tone said he was walking a fine line. “A week later the IED hit our Humvee and Rollins was dead.”

My chest constricted.

I knew what’d happened to Sam, in every gruesome detail. Ty had gotten rip-roaring drunk a week after it’d happened and called me. The day I’d taken a pregnancy test, my brother had called me and told me every agonizing, painful, heart-destroying detail of the events of that fateful day. Tears had dripped down both of our faces, and I’d felt a loss so profound, I’d had no words for it. Sam may have been my brother’s best friend, but he was also Nash’s biological father.

I’d never admitted that fact. Not to anyone. I could never bring myself to say the words out loud. My unborn child would never meet his father. And that was as much my fault as Sam’s. But he was gone and I only had myself to blame.

Not that Sam knowing may have changed a damn thing. I hadn’t been in love with him. I wasn’t even sure I’d liked Sam Rollins. Sure, he’d had a heart-melting smile and he’d been flirtatious, but I knew he was a player, and he’d never so much as offered to call me.

Not that I’d expected him to.

I was a fucking mess after a sloppy orgasm, and a mountain of regret had pitted my stomach when I’d had to walk back in the house and walk past a man who’d promised me the world… if only I’d waited.

But I hadn’t been strong enough to wait.

I’d made a shit decision, and it’d gone downhill from there.

On the walk of shame back to the house, I’d been dreading seeing Preston so bad, I’d accused Sam of having a smug smile. He’d shaken his head and grinned as he’d kissed my forehead, calling me crazy. I’d pulled away from him and gone straight to my room, but not before I’d felt the tension radiating from the living room from the man sitting on the couch, the man I’d kissed only moments before. Then my brother had come home, and I didn’t know what set him off, but he’d started yelling.

The next morning, Sam didn’t talk to me. He wouldn’t even look at me, but Preston did. Preston had watched me like a hawk as I’d made them all pancakes. Everyone ate in silence, then my brother had called for a cab, refusing to let me drive them back to the airport. A few minutes later, their ride showed up, and Sam hitched his duffle over his shoulder. Walking out of the house with a smile on his face that I was one-hundred percent sure wasn’t real, he got in the cab. Ty had hugged me and refused to say goodbye like he always did, but Preston had lingered.

Making like he was messing with the closure on his duffle, Preston had spoken under his breath.

“Are you okay?”

I’d lied. “I’m fine.”

Not looking like he’d been buying it, Preston had stood there with his green-blue eyes boring in to me. “He’s a fool, and you’re worth more than that.”

I’d forced a laugh and tried to cover my mountain of regret by feigning misunderstanding . “That’s why he’s now my ex-boyfriend.”

Preston’s voice had dropped even lower. “I wasn’t talking about your ex.”

My mistake of the night before had magnified, and I’d watched Preston walk to the cab. But he didn’t get in without so much as a backward glance like Sam had. Preston Vos had turned and nodded at me. Then he’d gotten in the cab and watched me as they drove away.

The three of them left for the airport, and my life changed forever.

But I wasn’t the only one.

The two men who were arguing on my driveway weren’t the same men who’d gotten in that cab seven years ago.

Preston scanned the street. “I remember what happened seven years ago.”

“Then you remember what I said back then,” Ty bit out.

Preston’s gaze cut from the street to the porch.

The light by the front door was burned out, and I knew he couldn’t see me, but I still shivered.

Never taking his eyes off the two inches I had the front door opened, Preston answered my brother. “You told us to stay away from your sister. I did. Then when we got out and came back here, you said if I went near her, you’d kill me.”

I stilled.

But Preston wasn’t finished. “Did you know Rollins never looked back at her?”

Oh God, no.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Ty ground out.

I yanked the front door open. “Preston,” I snapped.

Ignoring me, Preston’s gaze cut to Ty. “After he fucked her. The next morning. He got in the cab and never looked back. Didn’t even say goodbye to her.”

The earth shifted under my feet, and I flew down the front steps. “Goddamn it, Preston! Shut up, just shut the fuck up!”

Preston didn’t. “I didn’t kill him. He asked to die that day. He told me to let him go. He saw his wounds, and he said if I put another tourniquet on him, he’d shoot me.” Succinct and measured, he enunciated every word of his next sentence. “He wanted to die.”

Horror mixed with despair and bile crawled up my throat as I stopped dead in my tracks.

Oh dear God.

Ty had thought Preston let Sam die.

And oh my God, Sam. Sam . What he’d seen, what he’d asked of Preston, oh God oh God oh God.

My brother never knew.

I knew he didn’t. He’d never told me that part of it. All he’d said was he’d come to and saw his friend missing his legs.

Oh sweet Jesus , Preston and my brother had been carrying this on their shoulders for so long.

Tears dripped down my face, and for one shocked moment, we all stared at each other. Then my brother lost it.

Ty grabbed Preston around the throat. “You disrespect my sister or Rollins’s memory again, I’ll kill you!”

Preston didn’t even flinch. “I’m not the one who disrespected her.”

“Rollins is dead, and you’re at her fucking house,” Ty roared before his voice broke. “ Rollins is dead .”

“Stop it, both of you.” I reached for my brother.

Protecting me, but keeping his eyes on my brother, Preston held a hand up to me. “Yell all you want. I’m not the one you’re mad at. You blame yourself for switching seats with him that day. You blame yourself for everything. Your sister’s pregnancy, Rollins’s death, the deaths of the four other brothers we lost that day. The IEDs, the casualties, you blame yourself for all of it. It was war, Tyce.” Preston’s voice dropped to a lethal calm I had never, ever heard. “ It was war .”