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Once again, Kylee’s gaze was yanked to her protector’s handsome face. “Me too,” she admitted, making his eyes light up. Protector. She had to think of him as that. He was an impressive, kind, and amazing man, but soon the time in this picturesque valley with this model-perfect, brilliant, but somehow ultra-accepting family would be done. She’d be back working at the schools. With her grandfather betraying her, she’d be truly alone. That is, if King Frederick didn’t succeed and bomb America with nuclear weapons. Why did nuclear winter sound less scary than being alone? Maybe because she’d be in heaven with her parents and that sounded pretty amazing, actually.
She released Keith and turned to Chandler’s brother while Chandler still hugged his mom.
The handsome man gave her a quick hug and said, “It’s good to see you, Kylee.”
“You too … Thor?”
Everyone but the brother laughed. He gave her an injured look and said, “Please … you can’t think I’m the ugly twin. I’m Aiden.”
“Sorry.” She laughed too, seeing the teasing in his eyes. She’d almost forgotten how the twins razzed each other and Chandler and Hudson nonstop. They all treated their older sister Esther with the utmost respect and nobody messed with the brother Greer too much, the quiet, tall cowboy. Though she’d seen Greer get in a wrestling match with them from time to time. “I can definitely see the difference now. You’re the handsome one. The Navy SEAL. Aiden.”
“Thank you very much.” He winked. “And this is my gorgeous fiancée … the only woman pretty enough to be my equal in looks, and benevolent enough to put up with me,” he lowered his voice for the last line, “Melene Collier.”
Everybody laughed at that. Melene shoved Aiden playfully and then turned to Kylee with a radiant smile. Gorgeous was right. Kylee felt inferior, but that was on her own lack of self-confidence. There was no way to resist Melene’s warmth, especially as she enfolded Kylee in a hug and said, “I’m so glad you’re safe and Chandler rescued you. Sometime, I’ll have to share the story of how Aquaman saved me.” She winked at her fiancé.
Aiden brushed his hand over his hair and grinned. “I’m Aquaman.” He gave Chandler a challenging look. “What’s your nickname?”
Chandler rolled his eyes at the jab.
“Lacrosse superstar who can take out evil men with fire pokers,” Kylee rushed to say. “Sorry it’s not concise. I’m working on a better one. Maybeel campéon. That’s champion in Spanish.”
She was rewarded with a grateful smile from Chandler. There was something in his eyes that hit her deep in the gut. Was the superstar not as confident in some areas of his life? Maybe his “Aquaman” brother with the sweet, gorgeous fiancée made him feel a little inferior as well. She’d have to ponder on that because it didn’t make sense. She’d seen Chandler cuddled up in pictures with women every bit as gorgeous as his future sister-in-law. Maybe everybody in the world felt inferior in some way. They were just better at hiding it than she was.
“Well, let’s get you two home,” Myrna said brightly. She took Kylee’s arm and directed her toward a black Chevy Suburban. “Do you have a bag, sweetheart?”
Kylee shook her head. “If I had a bag, I can promise you I wouldn’t be wearing these skintight clothes paired with heels.” She smiled and hoped that hadn’t come across too bratty.
Myrna laughed and Melene’s tinkling laughter joined her future mother-in-law’s. Kylee was sandwiched between the two women as they walked. The men had fallen back a few steps and were discussing something intensely. Probably the future of their nation. Kylee was so relieved to push the heaviness of the secret she’d carried for less than twenty-four hours onto the Delta family’s capable shoulders.
“If I had a body like yours, I’d wear too-tight clothes every day,” Myrna said.
Melene nodded her agreement. “You look incredible,” the picture-perfect model added. “Little wonder Chandler can’t stop staring.” She winked.
Kylee could only blink at them. Were they both insane, did they enjoy lying, were they blind, or were they simply the kindest women on the planet? “Um … thank you?”
Myrna studied her deeply as only a mother could do as they reached the Suburban and waited for the men who were plodding toward them, Chandler speaking rapidly as if conveying a mountain of information in mere seconds. “Do you know how gorgeous you are?”
Pathetic lying.
Sei ruhig!
Kylee shifted uncomfortably under Myrna’s gaze. Thankfully, the men reached them before Myrna could demand an answer, though Kylee had the feeling this wasn’t the end of the conversation.
They all loaded into the Suburban. Keith and Myrna were up front, Chandler and Kylee in the middle bucket seats, and Melene and Aiden cuddled in the smaller backseat. Kylee offered to climb in the back as her legs were much shorter than Aiden’s, but he smilingly told her he wouldn’t pass up the chance to cuddle his future wife. Even if he got leg cramps.
She was jealous of more than Melene’s beauty as the two of them looked to be head over heels in love. Would she ever find that? Not when she compared every man to her teenage crush. The teenage crush who’d ghosted her, but was currently sitting close by, looking far too appealing.
Keith and Aiden immediately started drilling Chandler with questions. They also questioned Kylee, albeit a little less intensely. They both shared everything they could about what she’d overheard, what had happened to them, and then she tried to share everything she could think of about her grandparents and their numerous business and social associations. She didn’t have as much info as they’d like as she avoided going home as much as possible, but they all agreed it was curious how much money Mimi flaunted when they knew exactly what the Admiral’s salary was. It was a great salary, but it probably wouldn’t allow them to live in a five-million dollar house and travel the continent in private jets staying at luxury resorts.
The conversation finally shifted focus away from Kylee as she was able to draw out Melene and Aiden’s story. They told an insane tale of King Frederick’s right-hand man, General Carl Phillip, putting a million-dollar bounty on Melene’s head after Aiden rescued her like a real-life Aquaman, their escape from mercenaries in Jamaica, Phillip faking his death, and then pursuing her to the Deltas’ valley to get the Delta secret. It all made complete sense, no matter how crazy it was, because it played right into King Frederick’s goals. She’d heard General Phillip had died in friendly fire. Aiden was happy to tell her they were certain he would stay dead now.
Aiden and Melene had just flown in as well, from Costa Rica where Melene was a coordinator for Avalyn Shaman-Hawk’s charitable organization Health for All. Sheesh. Could the woman be any more perfect?
Apparently Aiden and Melene had come home to help protect the secret, though he was trying to lobby for Papa to use his connections and allow Aiden and his fellow SEAL Team 8 to go on a covert op and take out King Frederick. Myrna did not like that idea at all, and Melene agreed. Kylee would hate for Aiden and his friends to be in danger, but it would prevent so much death if they could take King Frederick down. Even if he didn’t use nuclear weapons, he was killing many innocent people.
They explained Papa had a special assignment for their cousin Maddie so she wouldn’t be home for a few more weeks and unfortunately they couldn’t get ahold of Hudson right now as he was filming somewhere in the mountains of Peru and his producers kept promising to get the message to him to call home, but either he was ignoring it or they weren’t giving it to him. Kylee got the sense that Hudson was even more of a carefree, crazy man than he’d been as a young teen. Myrna seemed sad he wasn’t home yet, but the rest of them didn’t seem surprised by it. He had come home for Thor’s wedding, but hadn’t stayed long.
The rest of the Delta family was in the valley and diligently working to keep any of King Frederick’s cohorts from finding the secret. If necessary, they would not only call in Aiden’s SEAL teammates but some other special ops forces too. The problem was they wanted to keep the secret… well, secret. So the fewer people who knew about it, the better.
