Chapter 26
“ Someone is in my attic?” Jordan whispered.
“Right now? He’s still there?” Gaines clarified.
“Yes. And based on the evidence I’d say he’s been living there about the past couple of months,” Esther added. She sounded so deadpan, but that was probably because no one was living in her attic, Jordan thought, shuddering.
“I guess this is where I come in,” Leo said, moving Esther aside to check his gun. His eyes flicked to Gaines. “You coming?”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” Gaines replied.
“You’re just going to…go get him?” Jordan asked weakly.
“Obviously,” Gaines replied. Then, sensing how rattled and upset she was, paused to kiss her cheek and whisper in her ear. “It’s going to be okay, Jordy. Back in a minute.”
“You’ll need to move the little girl. The access point is in her closet,” Esther said.
This time Jordan wasn’t the only one disturbed. “He’s been using Charlotte’s room this whole time?” Gaines clarified, knuckles popping.
Esther nodded. “Do you need me to help move her, hold her…something?” She trailed off, sounding uncertain for the first time.
“I’ll put her in my bed. She’s so exhausted she probably won’t even notice,” Jordan said. She followed the men to Charlotte’s room, shuddering as they stood sentinel by the closet. As she’d predicted, Charlotte was too far gone to stir, even when Jordan deposited her in her oversized bed and slid the covers up.
There was some ruckus overhead as she returned to Esther, though not as much as she might have imagined, and then they were back, leading a dusty looking boy between them, his arm wrenched painfully to the middle of his back as they frog marched him.
“Do you know him?” Gaines asked her.
Jordan made herself look at the boy, or rather young man. If she had to guess, she’d peg him at twenty. He looked familiar somehow, but she was sure she’d never met him. “Were you at Jay’s funeral?”
He didn’t answer until Gaines twisted his arm, and then he gave a curt nod, avoiding eye contact.
“Who are you?” she asked.
But the boy wouldn’t answer, no matter how much Gaines nudged him.
“I think I know,” the ever-prescient Esther inserted. Everyone looked at her. She pointed toward the window, out the door, toward the neighbor’s house.
“You belong to Nan and Kurt?” Jordan said, but she looked toward Esther for the answer instead of the boy.
“I cross referenced missing people, drifters, registered pedophiles, and domestic complaints on my way here,” Esther explained. “There were two calls from your neighbor regarding their son in recent months. One to report erratic behavior and request a psychiatric evaluation, and one to report him missing.”
“What are we doing with this guy?” Leo asked.
“I think we need to start with his parents,” Jordan said.
“And obviously the police,” Gaines added.
The boy jerked like they’d shocked him. “No. Can’t you just let me go? Look, I’m sorry. I was trying to do the right thing.”
“How so?” Leo asked because Gaines was a little too overheated to respond in a reasonable manner and Jordan was still speechless with shock.
“My parents dragged me to the funeral and I…I don’t know. You were all alone and you had these kids. It seemed like someone needed to watch out for you.”
“And you thought that should be you,” Gaines said, tone derisive. “What about me?”
“You’re never here,” the boy flung back at him, and it was oddly reminiscent of the fights Jordan had had with Jay the last few months before his death.
She tilted her head at the boy in renewed suspicion. “What’s your name?”
“Thomas,” he said, tone miserable.
“Thomas, I think you’re lying. And I think you’ve been coming and going from my attic long before my husband died, am I right?” Little noises she’d heard on the nights Jay was away began to make sense.
Thomas shrugged, his expression shifting from plaintive to mutinous, erasing any of Jordan’s sympathy. Clearly the boy was troubled. Clearly he needed more help than she or his parents could give. “I think the parents and police are still our best option here,” she said.
Gaines tightened his grip on the boy’s shoulder. “And you should know that I plan to be here fulltime from now on. Don’t come back. I’ll be watching.”
The boy’s answering smirk held a challenge, but so did Gaines’s set features. In a contest between the two, Jordan wasn’t worried about who would come out on top, and woe to the boy if Gaines ever caught him near her again.
They waited in awkward silence while Leo went to retrieve Nan and Kurt who arrived with tears and anger, tears for Nan, anger for Kurt.
“Of all the…” he began, then apparently ran out of words as he stared at his son. “Tormenting a widow with children. When I heard she was hearing sounds, I wondered, but I never thought you would stoop so low,” he finished at last, shaking his head.
“He didn’t mean it,” Nan volunteered.
“You don’t know what he meant,” Kurt snapped.
And then the awkward silence descended again until the police arrived. There were interviews, forms to fill, pictures to be snapped until at last the house cleared out. Only Jordan and Gaines, Leo and Esther remained.
“Thank you,” Jordan said, feeling drained in light of the night’s events and resolution.
“You’re welcome,” Esther replied, sounding oddly chipper for four in the morning.
“This is her normal wakeup time,” Leo explained to Jordan, darting his wife an affectionate glance.
“I was raised on a farm. Old habits die hard,” Esther explained.
“Maybe we could have coffee sometime,” Jordan inserted before Esther could get away. She was a little different, but likeable and ridiculously interesting. And Gaines clearly liked Leo. Maybe the four of them could…but no, she and Gaines weren’t a twosome. She kept forgetting.
Esther gave her the tiny smile again. “I’d really like that.”
Behind them Nash began to stir. Jordan pressed a thumb to her forehead, feeling exhausted. “He’s never going to wean,” she murmured.
“My mom’s a midwife. I can tell you exactly how to get a baby to wean,” Esther said.
Jordan’s brows rose hopefully. “Really? How? Because I’ve tried everything and I’m getting kind of desperate.”
“All you have to do is get pregnant again. Milk turns salty in the second trimester. Babies don’t like it and wean themselves.”
Leo snorted a laugh and turned it into a cough.
“Was that bad?” Esther asked him, but he merely shook his head. Gaines answered in his stead.
“No that was amazing. Best plan ever.” He tossed Jordan a smile, smiling harder when her face turned four shades of purple.
Esther scratched her temple and regarded Leo. “Despite your reassurance, I feel like I said the wrong thing there.”
“It was perfect, I promise,” Gaines said, ushering them to the door. He waved, closed the door, and leaned against it.
“So that is your wolfish smile. I thought so,” Jordan said.
“Can’t help it if you’re all kinds of hot,” Gaines said. He left the door and began stalking toward her.
“You must be delirious from lack of sleep. It’s the middle of the night and I slept in my makeup and I need a shower and…”
“What did I tell you about believing me when I tell you things?” he warned, continuing his advance.
She took a step back and landed against the back of a chair, feeling suddenly like cornered prey. Her hand came up, attempting to halt him. “Gaines we need to talk.”
“I’ll say,” he agreed, taking her hand and using it to pull her against him.
“I can’t be with you,” she breathed.
“Why not?” he asked, nibbling her neck.
“Because of your job,” she said, standing on her toes to get closer.
“Okay,” he said. His thumb caressed her bottom lip and then he kissed it. Jordan so badly wanted to respond, but she was hanging on to reason by a thread and pulled away.
“You’re not listening to me, but you have to because I can’t do it anymore. I can’t do it again. I can’t go back to that life of not knowing, of saying goodbye and wondering if I’ll ever see you again. I can’t do it to me, and especially not to the kids.”
“Okay,” he agreed.
She huffed a little sigh and stamped her foot. He made the mistake of smiling, but she was so ridiculously cute. “Gaines, would you listen to me and what I’m trying to tell you?”
“Jordan, would you listen to me and what I’m trying to tell you?” he echoed. She attempted to wriggle away. He grasped the front of her pants and hauled her back. “Woman, if you’d stop trying to escape and let me talk I’d tell you that I quit my job.”
“You did what?”
He squinted. “You sound mad. That’s kind of the opposite of the happy I thought you’d be.”
“You quit your job?” she said, slowly and loudly.
He nodded.
“For me?” She pointed to her chest, in case there was any confusion.
“Who else?” he countered.
She looked away, panic stricken, ready to flee again. He captured her hands, holding her in place. “Tell me what’s going on here, so I can talk you down.”
“I knew you were having some feelings for me, some attraction, but enough to quit your job? Gaines, your job is everything to you. You love your job.”
“I like my job, but it’s just a job, Jordan. A job can’t love you back. What, no, who I love is you.”
She was still doing the panicked rapid blinky thing. “You don’t believe me,” he surmised.
“I have my doubts,” she said. “We’ve been friends for so long, and the last few weeks have been intense. I’d rather you take some time and think…” she had to stop talking because he pulled out his phone and began flicking through his contacts. “What are you doing?”
“I’m about to prove a point. This is going to be epic. Before I make this call, answer one question for me: what is my favorite food?”
“Meatloaf,” she answered without hesitation.
“Perfect. Hang on.” He pushed a button. After a few rings a woman’s groggy voice answered.
“There’d better be a stupendous reason you’re calling me.”
“Hi, Mom. Did I wake you?” He winked at Jordan.
“You know you did not. I just got off work at the hospital and am catching up on Wheel of Fortune on my DVR. So I repeat that there better be a good reason to interrupt Pat and Vanna.”
“There is. I have an important question.”
“I wait with baited breath, child of mine.”
“What’s my least favorite food, the thing I hate the most in the world?”
She sighed. “Meatloaf. If I had even a portion of the time that I spent trying to get you to eat your meatloaf, I’d be able to finish this show. Why do you ask at five in the morning?”
“Settling a bet with a friend. Give my love to Pat and Vanna.”
“Give my love to whichever random and secret thing you’re up to.” She disconnected without saying goodbye.
“I know I haven’t met her, but I love her,” Jordan said. “Also, I’m really confused. Gaines, you love meatloaf. You’ve always loved meatloaf. It’s what you asked for the first time you came into my restaurant.”
He stuffed his phone away and licked his lips, looking suddenly nervous. “Okay, rewind thirteen years. I’m walking down the street, looking in windows at myself in my nicely fitting uniform, when what do I see but this adorable blond waitress standing behind a counter? I walk in, realize I’m breathless and insensible and say the only thing I can think of.”
“‘What do you recommend’,” she said with sudden remembrance.
He nodded. “You recommended the meatloaf. I lacked the heart to tell you how much I hated it. So I ordered it and ate every bite.”
“But you always ordered the meatloaf,” she said.
“Because I was desperate to do anything to impress you, to keep you talking, to steal you away and keep you forever.”
“Gaines,” she exploded, tossing her hands wide. “I have been making you meatloaf on the regular all this time, for thirteen years , and I’m just now finding out you loathe it? Why?”
“Because all that time I spent hating meatloaf, I was loving you. I tried so hard and for so long to not love you. I guess eating your meatloaf was my one concession to that secret, a tangible way to let myself remember and bask in those feelings.”
A little puff of air escaped, but nothing else.
“Say something,” he prodded, poking her.
“You don’t mean that,” she whispered.
He nodded.
“I need a better explanation. Say more words,” she said, eyes going teary.
“From that first moment, the first sight of you through that window, I lost my heart. Just totally and completely head over heals gone. But then you met Jay and you were gone. So I kind of gave up on the idea of us. But I figured as long as you still held my heart, it would be safe. And so I never really tried to get it back again. I figured I’d go on loving you forever, and you’d never find out. Maybe someday I would find someone I loved as much. But then…”
“But then…” she agreed. A bulldozer could have driven through her house, and she wouldn’t have been able to tear her eyes away from Gaines, so vulnerable as he stood before her and made his confession. Suddenly everything in her life reoriented itself and she saw it, saw the way he’d stood on the periphery and loved her from afar. All the times he’d encouraged her, cheered her, helped her, supported her, stood by her, cared for her. Even watched over Jay for her when they were apart.
“You love me. You really love me,” she said softly, wonderingly.
“So much, you have no idea.” He smoothed his thumbs over the backs of her hands, still held gently in his. “I know it’s only been a few weeks since Jay died, Jordy. I know you’re not where I am, but I swear I’ll love you enough for both of us, if you’ll only give me a chance. I promise to…” He stopped talking. He had to, because her lips settled on his, making it impossible.
Nash began to stir again. They rested their foreheads together, trying to catch a breath. “Back to the job thing,” she prompted. “Did you really quit?”
“I really did. Effective as of this last assignment.”
“What are you going to do instead?”
“I’m going to open my own security firm. I have no idea if it will make it, but I think so. My finances are going to be tight for a while,” he warned.
“This is quite the coincidence because I’m looking to hire private security,” she said.
“Yeah?” he asked.
She nodded. “Apparently my neighbor kid’s been stalking me.”
“That sounds like a fulltime problem that’s going to require a fulltime solution.”
She sucked a breath. “Yikes, sounds expensive. I’m not sure how much I can afford to pay, seeing as how I’m a widow and single mother, but what if I tossed in room and board?”
“Wow, that’s quite the incentive,” he said.
“I promise to never make you meatloaf again.”
“No, promise to always make meatloaf. I love how much I hate it. I’m very complex.”
“Deal. But if I’m going to cook for you, you’re going to have to sweeten the pot.”
“Destination wedding? Say the word and I’ll book the flight. I know a guy in Mexico who owes me a favor, and he won’t charge much because he’s technically legally dead.”
“Maybe, but it’s bigger than that.” She stood on her toes and kissed his jaw.
“Anything. Name your terms,” he said, voice more than a little unsteady.
“I need some help weaning a baby. I’ve tried everything, but recently I heard about a new technique I’m anxious to implement.”
He picked her up, bringing her eye level as he pretended to consider. “I find your terms acceptable.”
He kissed her.
She kissed him back.
Outside the sun rose on another day, and they lived happily ever after. And sometimes sadly. Occasionally irritably. But always together.
T hank you for reading The Broken and The Brave in the Spies Like Us series.