CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER
TEN
Lana pulled into herself. She had truly been alone with the twins, but she’d made it through.
“Fuck, Lana. I’m so sorry. I should have swallowed my fucking pride and called you. I picked up the phone so many times but chickened out. How is little man doing now?”
“Healthy as a horse. No lingering issues from that time. He loves baseball and football. Dani loves baseball, also. I’ve considered putting them in Little League.”
“Where do we go from here? How can we do this? I can move to Texas if need be? I don’t care what it takes, I want to be a part of their lives.”
“We’ll figure it out. You have a life here. Your parents, your career, your girlfriend.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend, Lana. Yes, I have been with other women after you left. But not as many as people think I have been with. That game has always bored me to tears.”
“You still have your career and your parents here, though,” Lana reminded him.
“Yeah, I do. Just like you have your career in Texas. I want to be a part of their lives, not from a distance. We are still technically married, Lana. Unless you have…”
“No. There is no one in my life. The kids are my life, outside of work.”
Lana had tried to date a few times. But those dates turned out horrible.
They made her cringe when they tried to touch her or kiss her. She even had to admit she would compare them to how Jayson had treated her when they were together.
“Can we…”
“Jayson let’s focus on you and the kids for now. Okay? Let’s be friends for their sake. You are here and I’m in Texas. A long-distance relationship wouldn’t work between us with our careers. They Army taught us that.”
“No. The Army taught us that we needed to trust each other better. We allowed a viper to slither her way in. We learned that we needed better communication skills. Those are the things we can work on. Had we communicated better, and I honestly take the blame for that since I should have trusted you with what was going on with Brandie. I think, no, I believe we would still be together, still happy as hell with more kids. As hard as I tried to hate you, I still love you, Lana. Always have.”
Lana stared at Jayson. She could see the honesty and desperation in his eyes.
He still loved her, and it scared the hell out of him. Hell, it even scared the living shit out of her.
“I…”
Jayson’s phone rang just as she started to speak. She couldn’t help the smirk that came to her lips when Jayson started cursing as he answered the call.
“Kenwood…uh, yes, sir…how many?”
Lana listened as he spoke with whoever it was on the other end of the line. She had a feeling it had to do with work.
“Everything okay?” Lana questioned as he hung up.
“Unfortunately, no. Seems I’m needed at a crime scene.
Two girls were abducted the other day. Looks like one of them has been found in a field.
My boss has been pushing me to test for detective, but I’m not sure I want it.
Not when I have to see death all the time.
Saw enough of that shit in Afghanistan.”
“I agree with you there. How about I take you. I’m kind of intrigued.”
Lana was curious about the case, now. Plus, it would let her see Jayson in action again.
When she was the intelligence officer assigned to his team, she always got to watch his teamwork. Especially if she got lucky enough to go with them.
Those were her favorite missions. Jayson always put his all into his work.
She didn’t think this would be any different. She actually got excited at the idea of watching him work.
“What do you do in Texas?”
Lana bit her lip slightly. She was actually nervous about what she was going to have to reveal about their daughter.
“I am a detective. I was assigned to SVU, which is the Special Victims Unit. But with the rise in human trafficking, our department started a spec ops task force. Myself, Rocky, and Sunny are a part of that team.”
“Oh. Wow. That has to be rough though. Seeing everything that you do.”
Lana sighed deeply and gripped her steering wheel tight. It was one memory she wished she could unsee.
“I wound up in that division when my captain found out how I had tracked the man and woman down that had kidnapped Dani from the playground that she was at with their babysitter when she was four. She had been missing for two days by the time I had found her.”
“What happened to the kidnappers?”
Lana’s hands made the steering wheel squeak when she rotated her hand tightly back and forth on it. She would forever be haunted by that time.
“The woman is in prison for life. The man was killed when he came at me. I shot him several times. He was in the process of rap…”
Lana’s voice cracked as the image came rushing back at her. She had no regrets for her actions.
“Dani? He was hurting our baby girl?”
Lana’s eyes prickled at the venom in his voice. She knew Jayson wasn’t angry at her, but she still blamed herself every single day.
“No. Dani was unconscious in another room. When Rockey, Hollywood, Cullen, and I breached the house, the woman was beating a young boy they had kidnapped several years prior for not doing something she’d ordered him to do.
Aside from him, there were five other kids in the house.
Dani was their latest victim. The girl the man was sexually assaulting was a thirteen-year-old girl who’d just started her cycle several months earlier.
We fought and when he knocked me down, it was either take him out or Dani would have no mom.
So, I fired my weapon, two to the heart, one to the head. ”
“Dani?”
Lana loved how protective he was of the kids already. It gave her hope for their future.
“She’s good. It was rough for the first several months because she refused to leave my sight. She had nightmares for a few months, but we found a counselor who worked with kids that went through Dani’s situation, and she helped tremendously. She’s now working with our task force.”
“I’m glad she’s okay. I’m glad both of them are okay. I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
“We both made mistakes, Jayson. It’s time to put that in the past where it belongs and focus on the here and now. The twins.”
“Turn here and it’s just a few klicks down the road. I’m good with focusing on the here and now. I won’t push about something between the two of us. But I do want you to think about that. I want us to give this marriage a try, Lana. We owe it to ourselves before we just say it didn’t work.”
Before Lana could answer, once she’d put the car into park, Jayson got out of the vehicle and waited outside for her. Well, damn, she really wanted to kick his ass.
Somehow, she became the man who ran from a commitment while Jayson because the woman who wanted one. How the tables have turned.