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“No sign of him,” Brodie said.
Caine wasn’t the most imposing threat. “Sikorski will want to know where his device is.”
“He can want all he likes,” Brodie said. “You were right about the suitcase. It was empty… We think Sikorski pulled out of the deal, leaving Kahlil high and dry. He was the banker, wasn’t he? Don’t know what happened to Leatt, probably scurried away when Sikorski pulled the money.”
“Man, you’re thorough,” she said. “How long was I out?” That they had time to return to the scene, check everything out, and clean up suggested they hadn’t been pacing by her bedside.
“A day. Thad kept you under because we knew you’d be a terrible patient.”
A terrible patient, but she was a better one than he would be. She sighed, instead of picking a fight. “This isn’t over?”
“It is for you,” he said.
She didn’t expect him to say that and certainly not in such a decisive tone. He pulled the blankets from her body, kicked off his shoes, and slid in beside her. “You’re taking me off the board? I proved myself, didn’t I? I can be a valuable member—”
“Our most valuable members are alive ones,” he said, taking her hips to slide her downward. He coiled an arm around her head, giving her cheek something to rest on as he gazed down at her. “You’re gonna get better, and when you’re up to it, I’m taking you away. Out of the country, just like I promised.”
She didn’t know what had brought this on now, but she didn’t like it. “You can’t. There are too many variables. We have to find out what Sikorski is up to. Caine is still out there. Leatt too. There are people who want to take us down and—”
“Enough,” he said, stern and impatient. “Let it fucking go, Zar. You almost died. Do you get that? If we hadn’t found you or that bullet had been an inch any other way…”
“I risked my life because it’s right. I risk my life to do what has to be done. I risk my life to make you proud.”
His expression changed. Anger morphed to intrigue, but he was still frowning. “You think that’s what you have to do to make me proud? I’m proud when you come home without extra holes in your body. I’m proud when you’re smart, level-headed, and have plenty of backup.”
“I couldn’t let her go,” Zara said. It would’ve been too much of a risk to just walk away or wait while Cuckoo’s cohorts got closer with every passing second. “Someone needed to take responsibility and… you loved her once, in your own way. I wouldn’t put you in the position of having to take her down.”
“You didn’t think I’d do it.”
When he left the bed, she lost his support so flopped down. Her vision was lost in the mound of pillows she fell into and the hair that fell over her face. Brushing them aside, she turned her head to see him standing near the end of the bed with his back to her.
“You would do whatever needed to be done, I know that,” she said, sorry that he thought she’d doubted him when that wasn’t the case. “But I love you, and it’s my responsibility to protect you from pain, and not just physical pain. Killing her yourself, after all you’d been through with her, the guilt could’ve eaten you alive.”
Spinning around, he wasn’t consoled by what she’d said if his expression was anything to go by. “Do you know how many people I’ve killed? How many men, full of potential, with their lives in front of them that I’ve taken away from their families and kids? You think I couldn’t put a bullet in one dumb bitch who—”
“Your dumb bitch,” Zara said. “She wasn’t a stranger. She belonged to you once. She loved you.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” he said, moving in her direction. “To protect you, I wouldn’t blink. I’d put a bullet between my own damn eyes if it made you happy and kept you safe.”
“A man will do almost anything if you threaten the thing he loves,” she muttered his words to herself, and the possibility that she could be used to hurt Brodie terrified her. “I want you to live forever, that will make me happy.”
“I’ll get our team working on that,” he said, sinking onto the bed again. “I would’ve done it.” He took a section of her hair and let it float through his fingers. “I’d have killed her and I’d have been proud of doing it if it kept you safe.”
He wasn’t the only one who felt that way. “That same drive that you have in you, it burns in me. As much as you want to protect me, I want to protect you. It’s not a weakness, it’s a byproduct of real love.”
“Real love,” he said.
She smiled. “That’s what we have, baby,” she said. He left the bed and went into the walk-in, so she guessed that part of the conversation was over, and he wasn’t in the mood for mushy. “There’s still one thing you haven’t told me.” Since he was out of the room, she raised her voice, but she had to get an answer to her burning question. Something she had to know before her next near-death experience. But Brodie didn’t respond, so she just called out, hoping he’d find it harder to avoid answering while he wasn’t distracted by physical contact. “What did you and my dad talk about when you went inside with him?”
Brodie didn’t reply. She guessed he was ignoring her and probably hoping she’d pass out again. Except when he came out of the walk-in and started toward the bed, she recognized his determination, he was intent on something.
“I haven’t looked at this for twenty years,” he said, focused on his closed fist that had something inside.
She felt like an idiot for not checking how he was doing after learning what had caused his parents accident. “Oh, God, beau, I’m sorry.”
She tried to sit up again but couldn’t. He didn’t help her up when he came to kneel at the side of the bed. Leaning against the bed, he rested his upper arms on the mattress. With both hands clasped around something, he put his closed fists on her abdomen.
“What is it, baby?” she asked, running her hand over the top of his head. “Is it about your parents?”
