Page 56 of Recovering Ivy

“You know why so many people are afraid of you?” Linc sighed and leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “You are both barbaric and smart, making you the scariest kind of man. Tough and brutal, yet highly intelligent. You have the greatest instincts of any man I know, all of which are your greatest and worst assets. Your brain never turns off, you never stop analyzing, you overthink everything.”

“I have to, Lincoln. I can’t turn it off.”

“You can. You are more than the trained killer you think you are.”

“I don’t know how,” I admitted.

Fuck, that was a kick to the stomach having to admit weakness to my brother.

“If Ivy is who you think she is to you, you don’t have to know how to do it. She’ll pull it from you. You’ll know she’s the one when you have her in your arms and the outside world ceases to exist. Everything falls away and the ache in your soul is soothed. Don’t fight it; there’s so much more than all of this,” he said as he motioned around the room. “You’ve proven yourself, Zane. You did it. You took the poor kid from the trailer park, dusted the dirt off, and made a name for yourself; one that men admire and enemies fear. But none of what you’ve accomplished means jack shit if you’re not happy. Let the past go.” He didn’t wait for me to answer. He stood and started for the door before he turned back and finished. “Jasmin has four more weeks of working. I’d appreciate you having my six on that.”

“Roger that,” I answered.

“And I want nieces and nephews and cousins for my kids. I want to give my children what we didn’t have. That includes an uncle that is present in their lives. You’re all I have outside of Jasmin and it’s been fucking killing me watching you abuse yourself. I love you, big brother, but it’s time you get your head out of your ass.”

Fuck. I had no idea Linc had been worried about me. I honestly thought he’d been so wrapped up in Jasmin he hadn’t noticed. The last two years since Russia had been a shit show. Jasmin healing had been my concern. She’d held up like a fucking champ while Russian prison guards had tortured her. She refused to give them the intel they were after. There was a point I thought the two of us were going to die in that room, and as my life passed by I didn’t have any regrets. At least I hadn’t thought I had, but that was before I knew the feel of Ivy’s presence. If we had died that day, I would have gone to my grave never knowing the love of a good woman.

“She’s the one,” I blurted out before Linc could close the door. “She makes me want to be a better man, one that my family can be proud of.”

“We already are.” He looked back at me with a gleam in his green eyes and I knew the heart-to-heart was over. “I do expect to be the best man. And I want my sister-in-law’s ass planted at my table for dinner one of these nights.”

Fucker.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Linc left and I remembered Colin wanted to talk to me before Declan and I left to check Forester’s warehouse.

When I entered my office, he was sitting on the couch with his jaw clenched tight, thumbing through an open file on the table in front of him. When he saw me enter, he quickly shut the file with more force than was necessary.

“What’s that?” I asked, gesturing toward the file while I took a seat in the chair next to him.

“We’ve got a problem,” he answered.

Of course, we fucking did. Was it too early in the day to start drinking?

“What kind of problem?” I reached my hand out and waited for him to hand me the file.

He reluctantly placed the file in my hand but didn’t let go. “These go no further than us. No one, not even the team, sees these.”

“Alright.”

He let go and I opened the file and immediately closed it after a brief glance at the image inside.

“Where the fuck did you get these?” I growled.

A problem? This wasn’t a problem; it was a goddamn cluster fuck.

“The camera of the man I caught following Erin.”

He was referring to Erin Anderson, the first daughter. The daughter of Tom Anderson, the President of the United States. He’d uttered her name as if the photographs I held in my hand wouldn’t cause a firestorm even I wouldn’t be able to stop. Tom Anderson was a man you didn’t cross. He was a firm but fair man, except when it came to his family. Photographs of his daughter naked was sure to make him see red.

“Motherfucking son of a bitch. When?”

“Two days ago.”

“How bad is it?”

Colin had been playing babysitter to Erin at the President’s request for months. So far, the reports were coming back that Tom was being an overprotective father and Erin just wanted a little freedom. Something the President should understand, considering he ditched his secret service detail more than any modern president.