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“No, O we can’t do that. We can’t take a chance of a leak. The slightest rumor will put Dean in danger. Maybe get him killed. Let me get in touch with General Harkness. He will talk to your commander.”
“Fine”
Dean could tell Ophelia didn’t like it, but she agreed. “It’s getting late, and we’re all beat. We need sleep and you need rest.”
Gage chuckled. “I think you have your marching orders.”
Dean stared at her for a moment. But it was clear she wasn’t going to budge.
“I can’t agree with you more,” Jessica said. She rose and opened the conference room door. “We’ll be better served in the morning with clear heads and a full night’s sleep. That hotel I’m staying at has a sauna. I need it after today. Good night all.”
The door closed behind her. Dean accepted that O’s suggestion…her order… was sound. He rose and said, “I have a three-bedroom furnished loft you can use, Logan. It has enough room for you and your family.” He turned to Gage. “I have a single for you as well. The keys are in the office. Let’s get you settled.”
* * *
After getting Gage and Logan settled, they made a quick trip to Ophelia’s house for her to pick up a few things before returning to Dean’s loft. She sat on the bed, rubbing cream into her body, part of her nightly ritual.
She was wearing a big gray T-shirt and before she’d dressed, she noticed the bruise was fading around the edges, her skin returning to its normal pink. But it was still a reminder of how close she’d come to death.
Her phone rang and she saw it was her sister and that she’d missed five calls from her. Alarmed, she answered, “What is it, Katie. Are you all right?”
“No. I’ve been trying to reach you. Mom is really mad about something and she’s being unreasonable. She’s restricted my free time and refused to let me go to a party this weekend. She said I had to focus on my dancing and school. I don’t know how much longer I can stand this. I’ve done everything she wants me to and it’s not enough.”
Ophelia sighed. “It’s not you, Katie. It me and Mom. I went over there and had it out about you and the past rose like an ugly ghost. I said some things and now she’s taking it out on you. I will handle this. I was the one who started it.”
“Why can’t you just get along with her?”
“Because I could never be what she wants. I think you understand that because you’re her shining example. This will blow over. You just need to have patience for both of us.”
“I love you, Ophelia. So much. I love them too, but this feud between you is tearing me apart.”
“I know and I’m sorry. I can only promise you that I will try to make things better, but I can’t guarantee that will happen. I would stay away, but I can’t give up seeing my baby sister.”
“I don’t want that,” Katie wailed. “I’ll be patient. I love you.”
“I love you, too. Bye.”
There it was again. The battle that never ended. It had taken her a lot of years to get over her past—the pliant girl she’d been was gone. She was a strong, independent woman, had made her own way without her parents’ selfish guidance or their money. That weakness had cost her too much in the past and would cost her in the future if she let it. Tears blurred her eyes as she rose and grabbed the matching robe, the scent of roses strong. She breathed deep of her favorite scent, the normalcy from her nightly ritual that it represented grounded her after such a horrible day. She went to the sliding glass doors and shrugged into the wrap. Stepping out onto the balcony, she went to the rail.
She had been naïve, trusted her parents at their word, but they’d flipped their switch when Dean was in the picture. The truth of the matter was they never trusted her choices, not in the boy she loved or the career she wanted. She shouldn’t have been forced to make the choice her parents thrust upon her at only seventeen. Her mother’s rage when she found out about Dean had topped any that O had experienced up to that point. She’d insisted O wasn’t old enough to know what she was doing, and that getting tangled up with him would ruin her life. It was nothing more than a silly, girlhood infatuation that she would come to regret.
And she’d shamelessly taken what they offered, knowing they believed they were going to be able to reel her in. But they had been in for a rude awakening. Her parents thought her going to France was capitulation, but she’d learned a hard lesson by their betrayal. She wasn’t going under their thumb under their terms, she was going to France on her own terms. Because what she’d felt for Dean hadn’t been a silly schoolgirl crush. She might have been young, but what she felt for him was real. What they had done to her was unforgivable and it fueled her own rage.
Everything backfired for them because she was aware of the manipulation even as she played into it, so she still gave them the proverbial finger after she graduated and went on to live her life and go into the academy.
But maybe she had to be the one to forgive them to be able to move on. Her fears that her parents would never accept him, would hurt him, shun him again gnawed at her. She struggled with her own desire for him and her need to keep him safe from their terrible words. She would not let them destroy their second chance.
From the wide balcony, she stared out into the city, the hot wind pulling at her hair. She reached for the tie to let it down, still damp from the shower, to feel the coolness on her neck to counteract the heat of the night. In the distance, the black trail of smoke told her Logan’s former home smoldered.
Strong hands covered hers and pulled at the tie releasing her hair. It fell to her shoulders.He shouldn’t have had to pay so dearly, she thought as Dean slid his fingers into her hair and massaged her scalp.
She closed her eyes and sighed.
“Any more orders?” he asked.
“Yes, be quiet and don’t stop what you’re doing.”
“It’s a turn on, this bossy side of you,” he murmured in her ear, sending shivers down her body, her nipples pebbling hard against the lace.
