CHAPTER 10
“Where’s Tae and Ash?” Cochise asked when he noticed they weren’t in the living room with the others.
“They’re in Tae’s room, lying down,” Kane said. “I think everything exhausted them. And maybe they were feeling anxious about you coming home.”
“Why?”
“I think you should talk to them.”
Cochise nodded and headed for the bedroom.
He paused outside the door and listened.
Silence inside. He eased the door open to find Ash and Tae asleep on the bed, Tae’s head resting on Ash’s shoulder.
Cochise’s eyes fell on their bruised faces, and his rage at the dead men bubbled back to life.
Maybe he should have prolonged their suffering.
Cochise knocked lightly on the door. Ash stirred first, eyes widening at the sight of the Egyptian. Easing out from under Tae’s head, Ash started to rise and go to Cochise, then faltered and sat back down.
“What’s wrong?” Cochise stepped into the room and closed the door, then approached the bed.
“I…” Ash looked down, eyes misting. “I was the oldest… I should’ve done something.” Ash looked up as tears glistened. “I’m sorry.”
“No.” Cochise shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry for. You did what you could, and that was enough.” He cleared his throat. “I’m proud of you—and Luke—for trying to help him. You did good. And recording them was smart; it helped a lot.”
Ash stood, hesitated, then hugged Cochise. “I’m glad you’re home,” Ash whispered.
Cochise returned the hug. “Those men will never hurt anyone else.”
Ash held onto him and spoke softly, tentatively. “I feel safe here. I’ve never felt safe anywhere. No one’s ever protected me before.” Ash swallowed. “They’ve only… hurt me.”
“Never again,” Cochise murmured. “You’re my kid now. No one touches my kids. Those men who grabbed Tae… they found out what happens when they try.”
“Dad…?” Tae mumbled sleepily. He sat up, rubbing his eyes. “You’re home.”
Ash stepped back. “I’m gonna go see if Kane needs help with dinner.”
“All right.” Cochise touched Ash’s face. “Your face will heal,” he murmured. “And you’ll be as beautiful as ever.”
Ash smiled shyly, cheeks warming. “Thanks… Dad.”
When he was alone with Tae, Cochise sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Tae into his arms. The boy trembled. “Are they really gone?” His quiet voice shook, betraying the lingering fear.
“They’re gone,” Cochise confirmed. “As gone as anyone can get.”
“I heard what Ash said,” Tae whispered. “I feel safe here, too. No one’s ever protected me either.”
Tae fell silent, though the tremor persisted. Cochise rubbed his back. “What is it, son?”
“I wanted to be brave… like you.” Tears strained his voice. “But I wasn’t. I was so scared.”
“Grown men abducted and assaulted you,” Cochise said, a tightness grinding his words. “You’re a kid, Tae. Even adults would be scared in that situation.”
“Were you… scared?” Tae pressed his face to Cochise’s shoulder. “When they took me?”
Cochise tightened his arms around the boy. “I was terrified, son. I knew I would get you back, but I was scared they would hurt you before I got there.”
“That’s what Rodriguez said,” Tae whispered.
“What?”
“When I felt bad because I wasn’t brave like you. He said you get scared, too. That you’re afraid of losing us.”
Cochise closed his eyes, holding his son closer. “He was right.”
“He said…” Tae’s voice trembled. “He said you were my real dad because… because you love me like your own flesh and blood, and you’d do anything to protect me. He said that’s a real dad.”
Cochise swallowed hard, his affection for the young Spaniard growing by leaps and bounds. “I am your real dad,” he said thickly. “He was right about that, too.”
Kane and Cochise stayed up long after dinner, after the kids were all in bed.
Sitting at the kitchen table next to the Egyptian, Kane ran a fingertip along the man’s forearm where tiny burns marred his skin.
A few years ago, a young dog was brought to the vet's office for an emergency visit. The poor animal had suffered acid burns. The marks on Cochise’s arm looked remarkably similar, to a lesser degree.
“Do I want to know?” Kane asked, gently tracing the speckled burns.
“No.”
Kane believed him; he never asked the Egyptian for details.
Kane had been a pacifist his entire life, so it felt ironic that he had fallen in love with a man who often righted wrongs through violence.
Even more ironic was that Kane understood and accepted Cochise’s methods as necessary.
If not for those methods, Tae would be caught in another nightmare right now rather than safe at home, asleep in his own bed.
Kane remained a pacifist. But every time Cochise saved a child—whether their own or another—he thanked God that Cochise wasn’t.
“Do you want to talk?” Kane asked, stroking the man’s hand. The Egyptian wasn’t a man of many words and rarely initiated meaningful conversations without being prompted.
Cochise remained silent, watching Kane’s fingers trace the lines of his palms. Kane knew these hands could cause destruction, yet they were the same hands that held his children close; the same hands that caressed Kane’s body with tenderness and passion.
The fact that earlier that day these hands had surely been covered in blood didn’t make Kane flinch.
Cochise wasn’t needlessly violent. If he shed blood—it was for a reason.
And that day his reason had been to protect his son.
“I told him we weren’t the good guys,” Cochise said, his voice low, almost distant as he continued to watch Kane’s fingers caress his palm.
“Who?”
“One of the men who took Tae.” Cochise slowly raised his eyes to Kane’s face.
“He was begging for his life, said he had a family. I told him we weren’t the good guys, or heroes.
” He swallowed. “I said the only ones that mattered to me were my own… and I would burn down the world to protect them.” He stared at Kane for a brief pause.
“And I didn’t care who I had to sacrifice. ”
A shiver ran through Kane—not unpleasantly.
Cochise curled his fingers around Kane’s hand.
“I meant it. I’m not the hero who would sacrifice one to save many—if that one was mine.
No one will ever matter more than those who matter to me.
” He brushed his thumb over Kane’s engagement ring.
“That’s who you’ll be marrying. Not a good guy.
Not a hero who gives a shit about saving the world.
” Cochise brought Kane’s hand to his lips and kissed his fingers.
“You, my kids, my friends… that’s all that matters. ”
Kane leaned forward and kissed him. “I’ve known who you were from the beginning.
If I didn’t love that man, I wouldn’t have agreed to marry him.
” He kissed Cochise’s fingers. “But I have to disagree with you on one thing.” Kane drew him closer and kissed his mouth again.
“You are the good guy, the hero. To your family, your friends, the kids you’ve saved—you are.
” He blinked back tears. “And they would know.”
Touching his head to Kane’s brow, Cochise whispered, “I don’t deserve this life.”
“Yes.” Kane kissed him. “You do.”
Cochise closed his eyes, his grip on Kane’s hand tightening. “When Ishmael died in that prison… he saw his wife and girls… he called them his angels… they were waiting for him.” He swallowed hard. “Clint asked me what we would see when it was our time to go.”
“What did you say?” Kane whispered, trembling.
“Not angels.” Cochise opened his eyes, and a quiet fear hovered behind the gray depths.
“I never feared death before now.” His throat worked.
“Men like me… we don’t go to heaven. I’d accepted that.
Then I met you… and you gave me the family I never knew I needed.
” He swallowed hard. “I don’t need a lake of fire or demons to torture me.
” A tremor ran through him. “Being separated from you and my kids for eternity is the worst hell I can imagine.”
Warm tears slid down Kane’s face. He slid his hands around Cochise’s head and pulled him into his arms. The Egyptian clutched him fiercely.
“You’ve done more than enough to deserve a place in heaven,” he whispered, stroking his fingers through the man’s hair.
“And I don’t want to spend eternity with a God who disagrees.
Protecting your family—and innocent children—by any means necessary is not a damning offense. ”
The man shuddered in his arms.
Drawing back, Kane cradled Cochise’s face in his palms. “Did you ever consider that you and Clint are, in fact, God’s angels?
Warring angels sent to fight for all those innocent children?
On the last stretch of your trek to Canada…
what you, Clint, and the others did out on that tundra…
” He sniffed. “You think God didn’t see that?
He did. And when you stand before Him, you won’t hear, Depart from me, evildoer.
” Kane’s chin trembled as he kissed Cochise. “But… Well done.”
Touching his head to Kane’s, Cochise whispered, “I love you.”
Kane stroked his fingers along the man’s neck, feeling the rapid pulse of his heart beneath his fingertips. “Take me to bed,” he said softly. “And show me.”