Page 37 of Redeeming Violet

I thought about his question. Did I want to? Yes. I wanted to run into the bedroom and hide away from my life, from the entire world. But I couldn’t. I had to own up to what I’d done. It was time I faced my brother and apologized.

“No. I need to do this now.”

“How was that for a reaction?” I heard Eric laugh. I had no idea what he was talking about and right now I didn’t care.

“If little Miss Annie Oakley is ready, can we all please sit down?” Zane bit out.

There wasn’t much to smile about but I couldn’t help to grin.

“He gets grouchy when people point guns at him,” Jaxon said with a conspiratorial whisper.

“I’m going to do more than point my gun at someone if we don’t all sit the fuck down,” Zane growled.

I pinched my lips to try and hold back the giggle that was threatening to explode. I was doing a good job until I heard Jasmin laugh and Eric joined in and chuckled. I gave up and let loose. It felt good to laugh. All the built-up tension had finally broken free and it spewed out. I held my stomach and bent double in amusement. The harder I tried to stop, the more I laughed.

My life had been turned upside down and was complete shit and I could do nothing but laugh about it. Jaxon’s grip tightened on my hand and I wondered when he’d grabbed it. Once he had my full attention, I realized he wasn’t laughing, he was staring at me. His blue eyes were darker than normal, the color they’d morphed into when he’d undressed me, and I squirmed under his gaze. A smile pulled at his sexy mouth; the bastard knew what he was doing to me. He gave my arm a swift tug and my hand shot to his chest to catch myself as I collided with him. He slowly lowered his mouth to my ear and whispered, “Do you know how fucking sexy you are when you laugh?” I shook my head in the negative and he continued. “Tonight, you’re mine.”

His elicit promise sent chills racing through my body. Someone cleared their throat, reminding me we were not alone, and I couldn’t beg him to take me into the bedroom now and make good on his words.

When Jaxon and I turned around, everyone was already seated around the table, but my eyes landed on Declan. He looked tired. His hair was longer than it was when I conducted his interview, and he looked like he aged five years in past year. I studied him now the way I’d really wanted to the last time he’d sat across from me. We had the same eyes and the color of our hair was the same, too. There was definitely a family resemblance.

“Did you know I was your sister when I interviewed you?” I asked, even though Abe had told me about the tattoo on his chest.

“I did.” His voice made me smile. I wished I’d grown up hearing his voice every day.

“When did you find out?”

“I think I always knew I had a sister. When I was young, still in foster care, I had a doll I used to sleep with, a Raggedy Ann. Let me tell you, it was hell on a boy when he carried around a doll. But I remembered one of my foster mom’s saying it was my sister’s. In one of my moves I lost it and by the time Bryan and Elizabeth adopted me it was long gone. I wasn’t sure if I’d made up I had a sister to help me cope or what. When I was eighteen and was enlisting in the Marines, my recruiter needed my original birth certificate and adoption records. Since it wasn’t a closed adoption, they were easy to acquire. I was planning on looking up records on my, or our, birth parents to find out if I really had a sister, but I didn’t need to. Our original birth record states that the birth was a multiple. You were pretty easy to find after that.”

“What do you mean found me? My name?” I questioned.

“I found your parent’s name and address. Before I left for basic training, I flew to Denver where you lived and saw you.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

Blood whooshed in my ears and my head was pounding. All these years I could’ve known him. He’d found me. I didn’t understand why he didn’t want to know me.

“Because you looked happy. I watched you for a few days. There was a big party at the house. I sat outside in my car and watched guests come and go. I thought I’d gained the courage to knock on the door when you came out front with your parents. You were standing on the lawn taking pictures. Your mom and dad were on either side of you, they had their arms around you and the three of you were smiling so big it fucking killed me to watch. I couldn’t do it. I was too afraid I would break up the perfect life you seemed to have. All because selfishly I wanted to know you. I left and never thought I’d see you again unless you came looking for me. But you never did.”

His last words weren’t spoken as an accusation, more in resignation. It hurt my heart that he thought I wouldn’t want to know him or he’d ruin any part of my life.

“My graduation party. I wish you would’ve come over. I didn’t know about you, not until you were ready to go in for deep cover,” I told him.

“I figured you did the way you kept staring at me. But you didn’t say anything.”

“You were leaving. I didn’t think it was time for a family reunion. I wanted your head in the right place going into the field.”

“Now what?” Eric asked. “What made you come back to the states and find Zane?”

“I was contacted by a man named Tex. He said Violet was in danger and I needed to find Zane.”

“So, you thought you’d blow your cover and come here instead of say, a phone call?” Zane asked.

“I dug around the best I could while I was in Peru, but with all due respect, she’s my sister.” Declan punctuated his words by pointing at himself. “Fuck my cover. I needed to see for myself she was taken care of. Where are you on tracking Ortega?”

My brother was here; he came to make sure I was okay. I reached under the table and grabbed Jaxon’s hand. I needed something to ground me. Hearing my brother say he’d chosen me over his assignment had me floating on a cloud of joy.

Chapter Twenty