Chapter 17
Wyatt awoke to sunlight streaming through the bedroom window, so damn tired despite what was obviously a later hour than he was used to getting up.
Mornings usually began before the sunrise, but he’d lain awake for hours thinking about Teslyn and wondering why she’d balked in the middle of driving him wild.
His mind instantly resumed its quest to understand as his body remembered her kisses.
He forced himself to drop the subject on both counts.
If Teslyn didn’t want to sleep with him, that was her prerogative—whether he understood why, or not.
He could only hope not to have a hard-on the entire time he was in her company, and that their newfound camaraderie could withstand what was bound to be a very awkward morning.
He needed coffee.
Ivy laughed in the distance and he grinned despite his aggravation. He’d never enjoyed kids before her, never knew what to say to them or felt like he was anything but terrifying in their eyes, but Ivy was different. She was precocious and adorable, and he would miss her when this was all over.
He swung his legs out of bed and tugged on a clean pair of briefs. At least he’d gotten to sleep naked and been in an actual bed, even if he was alone and sexually frustrated. Still beat the hell out of sleeping on the floor. He finished dressing and went in search of the girls.
Teslyn’s voice carried down the hall. “… put the chocolate chips on now.”
“Like this?” asked Ivy.
Something smelled wonderful and made him realize he wanted more than just caffeine. When was the last time he’d woken to the smell of someone cooking breakfast? Years, at least. He rounded the corner into the kitchen. “What smells so good?”
Ivy stood on a chair beside the stove, Teslyn cooking in front of it with Jett by her side. The little girl clapped. “Pancakes!”
“Pancakes?” he bent down and touched Ivy’s nose. “I love pancakes.”
She smiled wide. “With chocolate chips.”
“With chocolate chips?” he gasped, straightening as he met Teslyn’s wary gaze. “Good morning,” he said, smiling at her warmly. There was no reason for this to be uncomfortable. He wasn’t sorry he’d kissed her, he was only sorry she’d stopped him from doing more.
One side of her mouth hitched up into something resembling a smile. “Morning.” She turned back to the stove, her cheeks flushing a pretty pink. She was beautiful when she blushed.
She’s beautiful no matter what she does.
He bent down and rubbed the puppy. “There’s my little traitor. Which one of you did he sleep with last night?”
Ivy pointed to Teslyn. “Really?” he asked, and the little girl nodded with a conspiratorial grin.
“It’s not like I invited him,” said Teslyn. “I woke up around two-thirty and he was curled up next to me. I tried to shoo him away, and he had the audacity to lick my face.”
Wyatt laughed at the picture she painted. “Does this mean you two are getting along now?”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’m thinking about it.”
“I’m going to make some coffee,” he declared. “Want some?”
“Sure,” said Ivy.
Teslyn smirked at her sister before saying, “I’m more of a tea person.”
“I might have some.” Damn, he was in a good mood this morning. He opened several cupboards, looking for a stray tea bag as he considered that. He never woke up in a good mood, especially after so little sleep. He found one, and put water in the kettle before setting the coffee maker to brew.
Sitting at the table, he watched the sisters work together, the aroma of coffee deeply satisfying.
I could get used to this.
The thought was so sudden and unexpected, his face fell.
Wyatt had a plan for his life, a plan that didn’t include marriage and children.
He enjoyed being alone, free to date whomever he wanted whenever he wanted.
Settling down was for men who liked predictability and safety.
He liked his freedom, the unexpected and dangerous.
He chalked the thought up to temporary insanity, and moved to get coffee cups out of the cupboard. “Milk and sugar?”
Teslyn shook her head. “Not for me.”
“Yes please,” said Ivy, and he wondered if the girl was actually going to drink coffee. Teslyn didn’t seem to find it strange, so he went along with it, pouring two cups of coffee and making one cup of tea.
Teslyn laughed softly, taking one cup of coffee and pouring most of it back in the carafe. “She gets a tiny bit of coffee with a whole lot of milk.”
“And sugar,” said Ivy, climbing down from her stool to grab the sugar bowl Wyatt had set out.
Teslyn clucked her tongue. “Not too much.”
“Two scoops?” the girl asked.
“One.”
Ivy seemed to consider that, her lips settled into a pout. “I have three pancakes?”
Teslyn put a hand on her hip. “Two.”
“With syrup?”
“Mmm hmm.”
Ivy smiled. “Okay.”
Teslyn shook her head as she turned the flame off beneath the skillet. “Marilyn used to let me have the whole bowl,” she said quietly to Wyatt.
He gestured to Ivy’s cup, which was barely off-white by the time Teslyn got done with it. “She make you coffee like that?”
“Sometimes, when she wasn’t too hungover to get out of bed.” She brushed past him. “That’s why I drink tea.”
How many pieces of Teslyn’s life were chosen solely because they were the opposite of what she’d grown up with? He thought of the way she dressed, all pants and buttoned-up collars, suspecting he was on to something. “Why do I get the feeling that’s your motivation for a lot of things?”
She glared at him, the intensity of the look gone so quickly, he wondered if he’d imagined it. “Who knows why people do things?” she asked. “Eat a pancake.”
“And stop talking, is that it?” He stabbed a pancake with his fork and brought it to his plate, cutting off a piece and popping it in his mouth.
The chocolate chips were melty and chocolatey, contrasting with the perfect golden fluffiness of the pancake.
He made a display of liking them for Ivy’s sake, though the sentiment was genuine. Teslyn made a damn good breakfast.
When everyone was finished, he volunteered to do the dishes, surprised when Teslyn appeared by his side to dry them. “Maybe,” she said quietly.
“Maybe, what?”
“Maybe it was the motivation for a lot of things.”
He felt like he’d spotted a wild rabbit while on a walk through the forest, and he was staring at it, hoping it wouldn’t run away. He said nothing, waiting to see if she would fill the silence.
It took her a while, but she did. “I never wanted to be like her. The way she dressed, the way she talked. All of it.”
“That’s why you dress conservatively.”
Teslyn nodded as she dried the skillet. “She wore leather pants and halter tops to McDonald’s.
I hated the way people looked at her, the way men would stare at her body.
But she loved it.” She shook her head. “Like it was the only way she knew to communicate with the opposite sex. It was pathetic, really.”
It seemed the more she told him about her childhood, the less he liked Marilyn and the more he wanted to shield Ivy from the storm. But Marilyn was dead, and danger was still very much out there.
He looked at his phone. Logan hadn’t texted, which meant he still hadn’t found Marilyn’s high school. That seemed insane. How hard could it be to locate something so basic? Yet he knew the other man was the best there was, and if he couldn’t find the information quickly, then no one could.
His thoughts turned to their options, and he said them out loud. “Maybe we should go to the Georgia State Patrol. Even if our bad guy had ties to local law enforcement, his reach wouldn’t extend this far.”
“Absolutely not.” Teslyn dropped the dirty skillet into the sink with a clang.
“We have to figure out who’s behind this. Right now, they’re looking for you, not the real perpetrator. The sooner we clear your name—”
Her eyes shot to Ivy and back again, her voice a harsh whisper so her sister couldn’t hear. “They’ll take her away from me. I may never get her back, even if they believe me. If they don’t, I’m going to jail for arson. Did you think about that?”
“The truth is on your side. We can make them believe the truth.”
She sighed. “How?” She shook her head. “That’s a chance I’m not willing to take.”
She moved to walk past him, and he grabbed her arm. “What if we can’t figure this out on our own? What’s the alternative, Tess?”
“We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”
His phone rang and he picked it up. “I’ve gotta take this.” He answered. “Hey, Jax. How’d it go?”
“Hawk and Ralph didn’t return from the mansion last night.”
“What?” Panic gripped his heart in his chest, and wouldn’t let go. They should have been out of the building in two hours, three at the most.
“Homeland Security is going in at oh-nine-hundred hours unless we hear from our men.”
Wyatt checked the clock on the wall. It was 10:05 a.m. in Georgia, but Colorado was two hours behind them. His mind was running through exactly what could be happening to his teammates at that very moment.
Ralph shouldn’t even be there.
It should be me.
Ralph went instead of me.
“Why fucking wait?” demanded Wyatt, aware of Ivy as she flashed him a frightened look. He headed for the porch and pushed outside, talking as he went. “What if they need help now?”
“Homeland is weighing all the options. They’re in charge here, not us.”
“That’s bullshit, Jax, and you know it. This is a HERO Force mission. Those are HERO Force lives on the line.” He thought of Jessa, at home without Ralph. He imagined her going through her pregnancy alone. “They need backup.” His voice cracked, and he squeezed his hand into a fiercely tight fist.
“We’re doing the best we can. I’m fighting hard for our men, Bulldog. You know I am.”
He did know that. Jax would never let them down. He’d sooner sacrifice himself than let one of the team get hurt. “Let me know as soon as you hear anything.”
“Will do.” The line went dead.
Wyatt stared at the phone before putting it down.
The screen door squeaked behind him and he turned. Teslyn crossed to him, her eyes full of worry. “What’s wrong?”
“The mission I was supposed to go on with my team. The men didn’t come back last night.”
“Oh, God.” Her hand went to her throat.
“I should be there. It should be me.”
“Are they going to be okay?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.” Fear tied his throat in a knot. “If they don’t come out, Homeland Security’s going in at the top of the hour.”
“Oh, Wyatt.” She pulled him into her arms, her fingers sliding into the hair at his nape as she held him to her.
He resisted, his brain wanting to shut her out, to shut the world out, to go back to sleep and rewind time so none of this had ever happened.
He wanted to scream, to yell and throw things, to run into Steele’s compound and pummel every face he could find until his brothers walked out of that place by his side.
He wrapped his arms around Teslyn and squeezed her tightly against him, needing to feel anything, needing something, someone, to be okay.
But try as he might, he couldn’t shake the terrifying certainty that Hawk and Ralph were not okay, and the fear that nothing in his life would ever be okay again.