Chapter 2
MICHAEL
This was not the homecoming I had planned.
Pacing the waiting room, I watched as every single person in my family eyed me with either suspicion or unease. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. I was supposed to explain that my dishonorable discharge had been erased, and I had been honorably discharged from the military.
This was a huge deal for me. Getting accused of raping a woman while deployed was enough to send me into a tailspin, but then to be kicked out of the military without so much as a good word to my name…it had ruined my life, and now, that was over.
My life was finally normal.
Except, it wasn’t. My brother was in the hospital fighting for his life, and every single one of them looked at me like I was somehow involved. So much for starting over.
“Are you okay?” Blake asked, resting her hand on my arm.
“Yeah,” I sighed, taking a seat.
Sitting next to me, she wrapped her arm through mine and rested her head on my shoulder. “I take it this was not how you planned on making your big return.”
Chuckling, I turned and pressed a kiss to her forehead, grateful she was here beside me.
We’d had a hell of a time recently, and I was exhausted from everything, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that senators had conspired to unleash a deadly virus on the population, all in the hopes of gaining control of the government.
And nobody knew about it. All of it had been swept under the rug.
Aside from the few people in government who worked to take control from the men trying to seize power, and the men and women I worked with at Reed Security, the rest of the country—hell, the world—were blissfully unaware of the danger they had been in.
How close they had come to dying for a few selfish men.
They didn’t know how we had fought to kill the men responsible, to keep the virus from being unleashed on everyone, and what it took to survive.
I was still coming to grips with the haunting images I’d seen on that screen in the cell I’d been trapped in. When they locked me up and had Blake in another room all alone where I couldn’t get to her…They wanted information, and she wouldn’t give it. There was nothing I could do to save her.
I closed my eyes, hoping to banish the images of Blake being waterboarded, but they just wouldn’t go away. No matter how hard I tried, nothing could erase the image of her limp body being pulled from that water basin.
“Hey, I’m sure he’ll be fine,” Blake said, trying to reassure me, pulling me from the depressing thoughts roaming in my brain.
“Yeah, I’m sure he will be.”
Three months ago, I was just praying to one day be able to return to my home at some point. Now that I was here, nothing was going as planned.
About half an hour ago, my parents had disappeared behind the double doors leading to Liam’s room. It had been a relief—a sort of stay of execution for lack of a better word. But now they were both headed this way, and my father didn’t look at all happy to see me.
Not that I thought it would be any different.
Pop and I had always had a slightly contentious relationship. We didn’t always see eye to eye on things, but we always managed to work shit out.
When I left the last time, I knew things would be harder when I returned. Ma had been devastated that I was leaving her again, and Pop had been pissed as hell that I was disappearing when he needed me at the ranch.
But I knew I couldn’t stay. Not with the way the rumors were swirling around me. They wouldn’t die down until I left, and only then would my family find peace.
I was a rapist.
I deserved more than a dishonorable discharge.
I should be in jail.
Those were just a few of the things I’d heard the last time I’d been home, and I didn’t expect that to change right away, but at least now I could hold my head high, knowing that my DD had been overturned.
It would take more than that for Pop to forget the way we left things, and that was clear as he approached with a scowl permanently etched on his face.
My muscles bunched in anticipation of the fight we were about to have. Blake wasn’t too much better, her nails digging softly into my skin. This wasn’t the way I’d planned to introduce her to the family, and it definitely wasn’t the way I wanted my father to look at my future wife.
We both stood at the same time, waiting for the fallout that was sure to come. Pop’s eyes were dark and stormy, but Ma…she looked at me with all the love in the world, just grateful I was home.
And then those dark eyes turned on Blake, and I felt a chill skate down my spine. I hadn’t exactly expected a warm welcome, but I hadn’t thought he would actually look at either of us like he wanted to murder us.
“How is he?” I asked, breaking the silence.
“He’s on a ventilator right now. We’ll know more in a day or so.”
Though the words were directed at me, his eyes never left Blake.
“We haven’t been introduced,” he finally said, his voice low and gruff.
“This is Blake, Pop.” I wrapped my arm around Blake and pulled her into my side. “She’s my girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend,” he grunted, not sounding very impressed. “Thought you were out there hiding from the world.”
He really wasn’t going to make this easy on me. “I was, and then I met some people who helped me out. That’s how I met Blake.”
“Well, technically, we met when I shoved you through a window,” Blake grinned, only making the situation worse. I almost started laughing at the anger on my father’s face.
Blake was a spitfire, and she didn’t take crap from anyone. She was trying to lighten the mood, but clearly, that wasn’t in the cards for tonight.
“It’s usually a great conversation starter,” Blake muttered.
“You shoved my son through a window?” Pop snapped.
“Well, in all fairness, he broke into my room.”
His eyes slid back to me in question, but Ma looked absolutely horrified.
“I mean, well, he broke in because he was looking for information,” Blake quickly added. “See, we were both after the same guy, but I got the information first. He needed it too, and then we fought—”
“You fought a woman?” Ma gasped. “Michael Benjamin Parker, I taught you better than to hit a woman!”
“Hey, she shoved me through a window!” I snapped, defending myself, but inadvertently threw Blake under the bus. “I had glass sticking out of my stomach!”
“Yes, but I did take you to get help.”
“Yeah, and then you tried to ditch me,” I scowled, but quickly realized that our arguing was only making matters worse. “I mean, it was a rough time. We were…stuck in the middle of a job and…Look, it was complicated.”
We both stood stock still, waiting for the axe to fall. If only Blake hadn’t mentioned the window, not that it would have mattered much. The story would come out eventually.
But the look on Pop’s face said it all.
You’re a disappointment.
You never should have left us.
“So, while the farm was falling apart, you were off playing Army Ranger with your girlfriend.”
“I wasn’t playing anything,” I hissed in anger. “I was working to clear my name.”
“Yeah? How’d that work out?”
“Fucking great,” I snapped. “The president overturned my conviction and I was honorably discharged. He even offered me a job.”
“The president?” Ma murmured. “You had a meeting with the president?”
“It wasn’t exactly a meeting,” Blake clarified. “He sort of dropped by where we were staying and—well, we were both sweaty from working out, and it was not at all dignified.”
Pop’s eyes slid back to Blake. I wanted to tell her to shut up, to stop trying to make things better, but that would only make her look bad, and I needed her on my side.
“And what was your role in all this?” Pop hissed at her. “What did you get my son involved in?”
“Excuse me?”
“Pop, she didn’t get me involved in anything—”
“It sounds like she got you into a world of trouble. You should have been home,” Pop argued.
There was a lot I could put up with—attacks on me were a given—but Blake was off limits. Without her, I wasn’t sure I would have made it through any of the last few months. The thought of starting over with her was all that helped me push through.
“It’s because of her, and a few other people, that I’m even standing here today. She helped me get my life back!”
“Lower your voice, son. We’re in public.”
“Ben, maybe this isn’t the time,” Ma said, trying to ease the tension in the room.
“He brought her with him. I’d say now is the perfect time.”
“I brought her home because she’s going to be my wife!”
All the air in the room was sucked out, leaving it so quiet that the beeping of a monitor on the other side of the hospital could be heard with crystal clear precision.
Or so I imagined.
This wasn’t the way I had planned to pop the news to my parents, but I would not stand by as they berated the woman I loved.
“Your wife?” Ma beamed. “Michael Benjamin Parker, why have you kept her from us?”
“I wasn’t. I came as soon as my name was cleared.”
My eyes slid to Blake’s, and there wasn’t an ounce of regret there. She was just as much in this as I was. I had only known her a few months, but it was enough. She was mine, and I was never letting her get away.
“I wanted you to meet the woman I’m going to marry.”
Blake tore her hand from mine, her face turning a putrid shade of green. “Baby, are you—”
She bolted from the waiting area, shoving her way into the bathroom. Not knowing what to do, I went after her, but Ma caught my hand.
“I’ll go. You’ll only scare everyone if you rush in there to hold back her hair.”
As she disappeared, I quickly ran through all we’d done in the past day. We’d eaten practically the same things, but then again, she had rushed into the fire. Maybe she had smoke inhalation issues or something.
“Son—”
“Not now, Pop.”
He grabbed my arm and spun me around, his face marred with a cross between concern and anger.
“What’s really going on? Are you home for good or just long enough to say goodbye again?”
“That depends on how you treat Blake. I didn’t bring her home for you to be an asshole to her.”
“Watch it,” he snapped.
“No, you watch it,” I growled, getting in his face.
“I may be your kid, but I’m long past the point of giving a shit what you think.
I just went through hell with that woman, and after everything, I finally cleared my name.
I had hoped to bring her home and share my life with her, but if you’re going to treat her like shit, I have no problem turning around and finding somewhere else to call home. ”
“Just like that,” he scoffed. “She means that much to you.”
“You should know a thing or two about love. Would you ever leave Ma?”
“She threw you through a window!”
“Yeah, and it was the best fucking thing that ever happened to me!”
The tension reached a tipping point as we stood there, staring at each other, our chests heaving in anger. Though I doubted he would swing, I was ready in case he decided to take things further. It wouldn’t be the first time our relationship came to blows.
But it would definitely be the last time.
His cheek twitched, and just when I thought he was about to swing, a chuckle left his lips. “Not sure what to say when my son falls in love with the woman who kicked his ass.”
“Say you’re fucking proud I found a woman strong enough to deal with me.”
Clapping me on the shoulder, it took everything in me not to react and throw him down on the ground. But when he squeezed my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug, the tension finally leeched from my body.
“If that’s the woman you chose, I suppose you could do worse. She’s not gonna try and kill us all, is she?”
“God, I hope not,” I huffed out. “I have no doubt she could pull it off.”
“Then we’d better hide the guns just in case.”