Page 36 of Flawed Revenge

Which in and of itself wasn't a bad thing, since Whitney thought the woman was their best bet at possibly getting their hands on earlier versions of the drug that she could use to boost Ariella’s immune system and give the little girl the best chance at surviving.

But if the woman thought she was coming after them, she had another thing coming.

They were the hunters now. Not her. They were the ones with the power. They’d already crushed Dr. Gardner’s entire network. Not only was the man dead, but his labs were destroyed, along with all the formulas and notes detailing the drug’s creation. Whitney was on their side. There was nothing River Gardner could do, but that could make her desperate enough to think coming after them was worth the risk.

“This has to be my fault,” Kate said softly as she slipped across the aisle to take the seat beside his.

The tension on the plane was high. Thunder was flying with Maya sitting beside him. Although she had no idea how to fly a plane, she was there for moral support. For her, for Thunder, for both of them probably. The rest of the couples were sitting together around the private jet, all on edge, all shaken by the knowledge their safe place had been tainted.

Nowhere was that tension wound tighter than in Kate.

“We don’t know that,” he assured her, taking her hand in his and lacing their fingers together.

“It’s a safe bet. You’ve been safe there, hidden, for six years. I show up, and four days later, it looks like someone found you. It has to have been me. I'm sorry, I don’t know how I did it. I didn't even tell anyone where I was going. Well, I told our families I was going to look for you to see if you would donate, but I never gave them an address. I swear I didn't, Leo. I wouldn't have done that even when I didn't know why you’d left. I don’t remember anyone following me, but maybe they did. I mean, they must have, right? Eagle said not to give out the address to anyone, and I didn't. I thought it was a little weird, but I was too busy worrying about how you would react to seeing us and if you would reject Ariella. I guess I had to have been followed, but⁠—”

“Shh, Katie-Bear,” he murmured, reaching over to haul her into his lap. “It’s okay. No one is blaming you. We don’t know for sure that you were followed, and I believe you that you didn't give out our address. Everything is going to be okay.”

“It’s not.” She sniffed, her eyes already red and puffy from crying, like every drop of emotion she’d held in for a decade needed to escape before it consumed her and had now welled with tears all over again. “That place is your home. It’s where you felt safe, where you healed from what was done to you. Now that’s ruined.”

“It’s not,” he assured her. “Even if the address is compromised, and we do not know for certain that it was as of this moment, we already know Dr. Gardner has been hunting us for a decade. His mother likely has access to his searches and any progress he’d made. She could have found us on her own. And even if someone was following you, that still wouldn't have made it your fault. You were my emergency contact when we got engaged, so you would have been on my military files. It’s entirely possible they’ve been watching you all this time, waiting to see if you knew where I was and would make contact.”

Kate shivered in his arms at the revelation that she might have been unknowingly watched for a decade of her life, but he’d rather her be scared about that than blame herself.

The idea that she really might have had Dr. Gardner monitoring her all this time was just another reason to regret ever signing up for that program in the first place. It had cost him so much, and while that wasn't something he could go back and change, he was going to make damn sure that he didn't lose his girls a second time.

“Everything is going to be okay, I swear to you.” His hands began to rub soothing circles on her back, wanting to calm Kate down before Ariella realized something was up and became upset. “Even if they know that’s where we were, they didn't get us. Won't get us where we’re going. And even if the address is leaked on the dark web, we can always move somewhere new. Either with my team or just the three of us. But, Katie-Bear, you have to realize something. That place was my home, yes, but you are my true home. You and our daughter. As long as I have the two of you, I'm okay. I can assure you the others feel the same way. As long as they have the women they love, they know we can find another home. Because home is the people you love, it’s not a place.”

Her blue eyes searched his, and he allowed her to see the truth in them. “I love you, Leo,” she said softly, and when she pressed her lips to his, something shifted inside him. The peace of knowing he’d assuaged his girl’s fears.

Tangling his fingers in her hair, Lion cast a quick glance at Ariella, determined she was engrossed in whatever movie she’d chosen, and deepened the kiss. Nothing he’d told her was untrue. While he’d be sad if they had to leave that house behind, they didn't know that would be the case. But he’d rather lose the house and keep Kate and Ariella than the other way around.

His two beautiful, blonde girls were his future. One day, he hoped to marry the girl of his dreams, raise their daughter together, and maybe grow their family with more little ones. That was what was important to him, not a building.

This.

The feel of his girl on his lap, her tongue dueling with his, her fingers fisted in his shirt, her love for him pouring out of her, mingling with his own relief and gratitude that she was able to find it in her to forgive him, to still want him.

For one beautiful moment, everything was perfect.

Until it wasn't.

“Something’s wrong with the engine,” Thunder’s voice suddenly sounded through the plane, and everyone froze. Even Ariella looked up from her iPad.

“How wrong?” Steel demanded.

“Wrong enough that we’re not going to stay in the air much longer.”

March 17th

8:28 A.M.

They were going to crash.

One second, she was kissing Leo, allowing him to soothe her fears that she was responsible for this mess, and the next, she was facing her impending death.

Not just hers, but her daughter’s, too, and the man she loved.

Because Kate loved Leo today just as much as she had when she was eight, and when she was eighteen and he finally saw her as a woman. Losing him all over again would devastate her, but then again, it wasn't like she was going to be alive to suffer the loss.