Chapter 6
SIX
“Anything.” Kyle felt Arden lift her chin beside him. Her voice was steadier than the rest of her—he could still feel her trembling against his side. “Anything you need, it’s yours.”
“That’s the thing,” Maren said, squeezing the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know what we need. Except protection.”
Charlie spoke first. “I’ll take point.” Her arms were still folded tightly across her chest, her jaw still set. Her voice was pitched at that controlled register she used when she was holding herself together through sheer force of will. Kyle knew that register. He also knew what it meant.
“Charlie—”
“Full detail,” she said. “Shane on rotation.”
“No,” Shane said, which was the first sound he’d made since Maren and Juni walked into the room. He was still looking at the blank wall. He pulled his gaze away from it with effort and looked at Kyle. “I’m taking point.”
“No, you’re not,” Charlie said.
“I am. Sean was my best friend.”
“Mine, too.”
“I grew up with him, King.”
Kyle’s fists closed at his sides. He opened them deliberately. “Both of you stop now, that’s an order. I’m taking point.”
Charlie shook her head as she closed ranks with Shane. “She’s our team’s responsibility.”
“She’s Sean’s daughter.” Kyle’s voice didn’t quite come out the way he’d meant it to. He felt Arden’s hand tighten on his forearm and didn’t look at her. “She’s his daughter and she’s sitting in my conference room and I’m not handing her off to anyone—”
“Handing her off?” Charlie’s voice went very quiet. “Is that what you think this is?”
“That’s not what I—”
“Because I was on that boat, Kyle.”
Shane put his hand on Charlie’s arm. “Charlie.”
She shook it off. “I was on that boat and I got the team out but I didn’t—” She stopped. Charlie closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, they were level and hard. “I’m taking point.” She turned on Shane, her gaze daring him to say anything.
Shit.
Kyle was looking at two people wearing four years of guilt like armor plating. And they were ready to put it between Juni and anything that came for her.
At the end of the table, Lachlan had not moved. The pen casing was still in his mouth. His sea-colored eyes had shifted, though—they were on Gina now. Gina’s gaze moved from Charlie to Shane to Kyle and back to Lach. She gave him a half-millimeter nod.
Kyle didn’t need to hear what passed between them. He’d worked around those two long enough to know the hell they’d gone through for each other.
Maren was sitting very still with Juni pressed against her chest, watching the three of them, wary and regretful. She looked like she was calculating staying or reaching for her keys and running again.
Dammit.
“Maren,” he said, gentler. “We’re going to figure this out. Nobody’s arguing about whether we’re protecting you and Juniper. Just who and how.”
“I know,” Maren said. Her voice came out thin. “Okay. But please don’t scare my niece, she’s been through enough.”
Juni’s silver-gray eyes moved from Charlie to Shane to Kyle. She didn’t look frightened to Kyle. She was watching. “I want the first man.”
“The first man?” Kyle asked. He glanced at Arden who looked just as puzzled.
Juniper nodded. “The man in the box.”
Kyle looked at Maren, whose confusion suddenly cleared. “She’s talking about the man at the gate. Colin?”
There was a gentle knock on the conference room door as it opened. Jodie leaned in, smiling.
“I was thinking,” she said, looking at Maren and Juni as though the rest of the room wasn’t there, “that these two might want a quick potty break, a snack, and a look at the other dogs. I’ve got cheese and crackers in my office, and I happen to know there’s a litter of puppies about twenty feet from here who are absolutely ruining everyone’s productivity today. ”
Juni’s head came up off Maren’s chest. “Puppies?”
“Puppies,” Jodie confirmed with a solemn nod. “They’re very soft, and they smell like heaven, and I’ve had to go see them three times already today and I still haven’t gotten any work done.”
Maren looked at Kyle. Kyle nodded.
“Go,” he said. “Take your time.”
Maren stood carefully, Juni on her hip, Snoopy and the remnants of the teddy bear and the fairy doll clutched against her shoulder. She let Jodie steer her out with a hand at the small of her back. Camo got up from where he’d planted himself at Juni’s feet and followed them without looking back.
The door clicked shut.
Nobody spoke for a second.
Kyle blew out a breath. “I need to give Jodie a raise,” he muttered. “I’m not paying her nearly enough for her psychic powers.”
“You’re not,” Gina said mildly. “She’s underpaid by a lot.”
“Affirmative.”
Then Charlie cleared her throat. “Kyle. I’m doing this. I was on that boat—”
“I know where you were—”
“—and I got six guys out and I didn’t get out the seventh, and the seventh was that little girl’s father and my best friend and I am going to do this—”
“The hell you are,” Shane started in again. “We’re doing this.”
Kyle shook his head. “Neither of you—”
“I grew up with him—” Shane shouted.
“Shane.” Arden said quietly beside Kyle. “Shane. Hey. Look at me.”
Shane shook his head once and deliberately kept his gaze off hers.
Kyle’s jaw locked. He could feel every wrong thing he was about to say lined up and waiting.
She’s my wife’s niece. She’s Sean’s daughter. I just watched her put her hand on Camo’s head and I watched Camo come home. She brought my dog home in his head. She’s my responsibility. Mine.
“I’m doing it.” His voice came out hard. “End of discussion.”
“That’s not how this works,” Charlie said.
“My wife. My agency. My call.”
“Kyle, son.” Lachlan’s voice wasn’t loud but it was firm. “Your call is wrong.”
Kyle turned. Lach had taken the pen casing out of his mouth. The look in his sea-colored eyes was the same as when he’d once told Kyle come back whole when Kyle went after Camo—a move that had changed his whole life, bringing Arden into it.
Kyle had been a different man then. But judging by his behavior today, not by much.
“Let’s talk this through,” Lachlan said as he stood up.
“She came here,” Kyle said. His voice was controlled. Just barely. “She came here because of Sean—because Juni is family. That makes Maren family. And that means this is mine.”
“Yes, it does. Which means you’re too close,” Lachlan said.
“I’m aware of how close I am.”
“Then you’re aware that’s exactly the problem.”
Not the problem. The point. Kyle’s jaw set.
Arden’s hand tightened on his forearm. He’d been married to her long enough to read her touch. Let him finish, California.
“I was there,” Charlie said. “I owe him.”
“Charlie.” Shane’s voice came out rough.
“I owe him,” she said again, quieter but no less certain.
“He wouldn’t want that.” Shane looked away. His throat moved. “He wouldn’t want you carrying it that way.”
She folded her arms. “You don’t know what he’d want.”
“I grew up with him.” The words came out sounding like gravel. “I know exactly what he’d want.”
“Do you?” There was an edge in Charlie’s voice. “Because I’ve been asking myself that for four years and I still don’t have a good answer.”
“Neither do I.” Shane turned to look at her.
They’ve been carrying this since the day he died.
And Kyle was trying to shove his way past them with his own claim.
Damn it.
“No,” Lachlan said.
Kyle opened his mouth.
“No,” Lachlan said again. “Kyle. You are her family now. That is not the same thing as being her bodyguard, and you know the difference.”
“Lach—”
“I know.” His voice was quiet. “I know exactly what you want to do. But you can’t be both.
And right now, what that woman and that little girl need more than anything is someone who can think clearly.
” He looked at Kyle steadily. “You cannot think clearly about this. I’m not criticizing you, son. It’s the truth.”
Kyle sat back.
Think clearly. The two words he’d built a career on. He’d said them to every new hire in an orientation speech he’d given so many times Jodie mouthed along from the doorway. If you can’t think clearly, you can’t protect anyone. If you can’t think clearly, you’re a liability.
He stopped arguing.
Lachlan turned his gaze on Charlie next, then Shane. He didn’t have to say it twice. Charlie drew a breath and let it out slowly through her nose. Shane’s gaze went back to the wall, but the set of his shoulders had changed. He knew he wouldn’t like what he was about to hear.
Gina had not moved. Fleur hadn’t moved either, though her eyes tracked every face in the room in sequence.
“Who, then?” Charlie asked.
Lach turned to Kyle, giving him back his leadership, but with a look of warning in his eyes.
“Colin.”
Charlie tilted her head. Shane turned and stared at Kyle.
Kyle nodded. “Colin called this in from the gatehouse with exactly the right read on a situation he had no information about.”
And he had no skin in the game. Which was, Kyle realized, the entire point.
Charlie shook her head. “Colin doesn’t do kids. We all know that.”
“He’ll turn you down,” Shane said.
“Then Mac’s secondary,” Kyle told him. “He’s great with kids.”
“Juni asked for Colin,” Gina said. Kyle looked at her and she looked back steadily, golden eyes warm and entirely unreadable.
“I caught that, too,” Lachlan said mildly.
“Kids know. They always do,” Gina continued.
Kyle blew out a breath. He felt some of the starch go out of his shoulders.
Think clearly.
“Fine,” he said. “Colin primary. Mac secondary.” He was already running the assignment in his head—the rotation, the coverage, the briefing, the—
“I want them at the ranch,” Arden said.
“Arden,” Gina said softly. “The ranch isn’t a safehouse.”
“No,” Arden said. “It’s better. Maren and Juni have been terrified for days.
A safehouse feels like a jail cell. The ranch is a home.
” She looked at Gina and Lachlan. “It’s as defensible as any safehouse.
You know it is. The gatehouse, the road, the terrain—you helped us set it all up.
And,” Arden added, “that little girl just met her family. I am not letting her be put in a safehouse.” She would not be persuaded.
“They come home with me today. They’re family. Blood family.”
Gina held up her hand. “It isn’t Maren’s safety I’m thinking about here. It’s yours.”
Arden’s eyes widened. “Mine? Why?”
Kyle felt his stomach clench. He squeezed Arden’s hand.
And this is exactly why Lachlan is right. Kyle had been about to agree. He’d been about to say yeah, baby. The ranch.
And let a woman they’d known for less than two hours waltz right into their home.
He squeezed Arden’s hand harder. Dammit.
He was too close to it. Lach had said it out loud and Kyle had nodded and agreed and then turned around and almost done it anyway.
And Gina was throwing herself on the grenade for him.
“Yes, Arden. Your safety.” Gina’s voice was the warm one she used when she didn’t want to make something harder than it had to be. “There’s no question in my mind that Juni is your niece. I’ve seen the photos of you when you were her age. She’s you as a child, come back to life.”
Arden’s hand gripping Kyle’s eased a fraction.
“But we don’t know Maren,” Gina continued. “We don’t have her story yet. Not all of it. For all we know right now, she could have kidnapped that little girl. And until we know—really know—she does not walk into your home.”
“Gina.” Arden was already shaking her head. “She didn’t. I know she didn’t. I watched her with Juni. She’s terrified.”
“I’m not saying she did.” Gina’s golden eyes were steady. “I’m saying we don’t know her. And until we do, she doesn’t take one step into your home, Arden. Please don’t make this harder than it already is.”
Arden’s mouth opened. Closed.
“You are my friend,” Gina said quietly, her eyes pleading in a way Kyle had never seen before that hurt his heart.
“I hate denying you anything, especially this. I know your heart is breaking. Mine is too. For you.” She looked around the room.
“For all of you. But until we get more intel, we have to keep everyone safe. All of us. Including you.”
Arden pressed her lips into a thin line and looked at the wall behind Gina’s left shoulder. Kyle pulled her in against his side. He bent his head close to her ear.
“Baby,” he whispered. “I know. I know. This is so damn unfair.”
She nodded. “It is. It’s very unfair.” Kyle watched his wife blink back tears.
Arden looked at Gina and Lach again. “I want Elissa on this.” Arden kept her voice steady.
“Elissa and Flint. Now. Today. I want everything they can find on Maren Walsh and her sister. Juni’s mother.
” She sucked in her lower lip and paused, until she could speak again.
“Everything. Because the second she’s cleared—and she will be cleared, Gina, I’m telling you right now she will be—they are out of that safehouse and in my home where they belong. ”
Gina’s golden eyes held Arden’s silver ones for a long moment.
Then she nodded.
“Done.”
Lachlan took the pen casing out of his mouth and held it between his fingers. Kyle swore he was about to blow out a stream of smoke.
“All right,” he said quietly. “Gina, you get Elissa on the horn. Shane, go get Flint. I saw him in the cubicles. Juni can stay with Jodie if she’s amenable to that.” He turned to Kyle.
“Let’s go tell your bodyguards.”