I laugh as Jake goes to fetch his son and take Charlotte’s hand, throwing an arm around Cami’s shoulder. “So now you get to meet my little girl, Charlotte. Her name’s Alex. And she has something to show you down by the lake.”
Her eyes light up. “What?”
“You’ll see.” I push the door of the cabin open and stand aside, letting the ladies through before looking back to check for Jake. I nearly split my side when I see the big dude creeping across the lawn with a baby seat suspended from his outstretched arms, keeping him at arm’s length. “Shhh,” I say, earning myself the death stare. I let Jake in and he settles the baby seat on the couch, padding it out with cushions. Obviously he thinks the seat might come to life and jump off the sofa.
“Guys,” I say, finding my girls by the sink. “This is Hannah and my daughter, Alex. Hannah, Alex, this is Jake, Cami, Charlotte, and that over there is—”
“Lucifer,” Jake interrupts, getting smacked on the arm by Cami. His joke breaks the ice somewhat, and I see Hannah relax as she laughs.
“Hi,” Hannah says, her hand coming up and then down, as if she’s not sure whether this is a hug or a handshake kind of situation. I smile when Cami moves in and embraces her. Of course it’s a hug situation.
“Lovely to finally meet the woman who’s tamed him,” Cami says, throwing me the eye. I ignore her. I didn’t need taming.
“How do you look this good after giving birth?” Hannah asks, motioning up and down Cami’s svelte frame.
“She’s a model,” Alex pipes in. “Dad told me. A super-famous one.”
“Oh,” Hannah more or less breathes, her smile faltering. I cock my head, wondering what’s wrong.
“Was a model,” Cami corrects Alex. “Now I’m more of a designer. Well, part-time.”
“She doesn’t have to get naked to design,” Jake says, moving in on Hannah. “And that suits her husband just fine.” He holds out his hand to her. “Jake.”
“Hannah. Lovely to meet you,” she says as she accepts, her smile still a bit awkward.
“Come on, Charlotte.” Alex takes her hand and leads her to the door. “Let’s leave the grown-ups to be grown-ups.”
“Are you okay with her going with Alex?” I ask Jake.
“Sure.” Jake pulls his keys from his pocket. “Charlotte, listen to Alex, okay?”
“Okay!”
They disappear and Jake heads back out. “I’ll just get the bags,” he calls quietly over his shoulder, flicking his wary eyes to Caleb on the couch.
“No problem, mate.” I turn and move in on Hannah. “Are you okay?” I ask, and she nods, the movement quick and jerky. She’s nervous. “Hey, they’re lovely people.”
“I know,” she says, brushing me off and moving across to the fridge. “Would you like a drink, Cami?” she calls.
“Just water, thanks, Hannah. I’m still breastfeeding.”
Hannah pours herself a wine and downs half. Wow. She’s really nervous. I open the fridge and pull out two beers as I watch her fill a glass with water, and she looks across to me, giving me a strained smile. I try to return it, but I’m back to wondering who the hell she is.
“What’s on the menu, then, Ryan?” Cami asks, eyeing all the food on the counter.
I collect the tray of homemade patties. “My famous burgers, of course.” Then I take the dish of king prawns on skewers and shove them under Hannah’s nose. “And a bit of shrimp.”
She retreats like I could have just thrust a bowl of dog shit at her, her hand flying up to her mouth as she retches. “Sorry.” She moves away, obviously offended by the food, giving the giant prawns a filthy look. “I really hate seafood.”
“That’s some hate,” I quip, withdrawing the bowl before she throws up in it. I’m not imagining it. She’s green. “You all right?”
“Yeah.” She gives me another strained smile and busies herself refilling her wineglass. “So how did you and Jake meet?” she asks Cami, and I leave them to have their girl talk, taking the shrimp far away from Hannah, frowning as I go.
* * *
A few hours later, we’re all sitting around the table on the lawn after stuffing our faces with barbecue food and a few tubs of ice cream. The girls came back to the cabin for just enough time to demolish a burger before retreating to the lake where all the magic happens. Caleb has woken up and is currently being rocked in one of Jake’s big arms while he sips a beer with his other, and Cami and Hannah are chatting, both of them sitting forward in their chairs to get closer to each other as they natter. I swear, they haven’t shut the hell up all night. It’s nice to see that Hannah has relaxed a bit now, too.
“You two going to ignore us forever?” Jake says, settling his beer on the table and swapping Caleb to his other arm, but not before he lifts him for a quick kiss to his forehead. I smile. The tiny bundle isn’t much bigger than Jake’s hand.
Cami rests back in her chair, and Hannah follows suit. “Sorry, boys. Girl talk.”
I turn an interested look onto Hannah, who just shrugs, looking a little too coy for my liking. “Cami was telling me all about how she met Jake.”
“It’s a long story,” Cami adds.
Jake snorts, though his expression is soft on his wife. “Ever wondered what it’s like to be in heaven and hell at the same time?”
“Is that even possible?” I ask as Jake claims his beer.
“Trust me.” He raises his bottle to his wife, and she grins. “It’s possible.”
“I think it’s very romantic,” Hannah says wistfully. “The whole bodyguard-and-client thing.”
I take a nervous peek at Jake. Romantic isn’t a word I’d use. I know the story all too well. It sent the agency into meltdown, Lucinda was nearly carted off to the nuthouse, and the world was a media frenzy.
“It had its moments,” Jake says quietly, looking down at his baby boy. He seems to fall into thought for a few moments before bringing himself back into the conversation. “What about you, Hannah?” he asks. “Where do you come from?”
I know what he’s doing, and I discreetly cast my attention across to my girlfriend as I tip my beer to my lips. Eyes low, she plays with the stem of her glass. “Not much to tell.” She smiles. It’s forced. “I moved here a few weeks ago, and I don’t plan on leaving.”
She doesn’t? Is she just giving lip service? I don’t know, but my heavy heart softens a little. “Good,” I jump in, wanting her to know how happy that makes me.
“Family?” Jake pushes, his face perfectly friendly, his tone purposely soft.
“My mother died five years ago. My dad eight years ago.”
I’m quickly more alert to the conversation. Her mother died five years ago? Lucinda could only go back five years.
“I’m sorry,” Jake says sincerely. “Siblings?”
Hannah shifts in her chair, her lips tight as she smiles through them. “No.”
Jake’s head cocks, interested. I don’t like it. “No family at all?”
Okay, enough. I give him a sharp kick under the table as I slam my beer down to disguise the sound of my boot meeting his shin, and his jaw tenses, a choked cough escaping. That hurt? Good. “Another beer?” I ask, my head tilting, my eyes telling him to get his arse in the kitchen. I need another drink. I’ve been so busy cooking, eating, and trying not to let my mind wander all evening, I’ve only had one beer.
“Sure.” Jake rids his hand of his bottle and maneuvers Caleb into both hands, standing. “You can show me that scratch on your truck.” Rounding the table, he hands the baby over to Cami before dropping a kiss in her hair.
“Scratch?” Hannah asks. “I thought you had it repaired in Grange.”
“I did,” I confirm. “Then some idiot in a Mitsubishi driving on the wrong side of the road clipped the side of my truck.”
“I’m beginning to question your driving ability.” Hannah gives me an ironic look as I get up and go to her, hearing Jake chuckle.
“My driving ability is sound. People just keep g
etting in my way.” I give her shoulder a little squeeze and instantly feel the goose bumps. “You cold?”
“A little.”
“I’ll get you a sweater.” I jog back to the cabin and find Alex and Charlotte on their bellies in front of the TV with a bowl of popcorn. “Hey, when did you two get back?” I ask as I go to the bedroom.
“Well, Chunk is about to do the truffle shuffle,” Alex calls. “So about twenty minutes ago.”
I snatch a gray sweater down and head back out. “The Goonies?” I ask, grinning at the TV as I pass.
“Can you believe Charlotte’s never watched it?” Alex is horrified. And so she should be. Charlotte breaks out in fits of giggles, laughing and pointing at the television. “See,” Alex says, stuffing a handful of popcorn in her gob. “Told ya it was funny.”
I have a little chuckle myself and meet Jake at the door. He gives me a frown, and I point back to the girls. “The Goonies. Kills me every time.”
“Shit, I haven’t seen it in years.”
I leave Jake to reminisce and take the sweater to Hannah, though I hardly get a second glance from her as she accepts, lost in girl talk with Cami again. I’m feeling a bit neglected, to be honest. I’m not used to sharing her, except with Alex, of course, but my daughter and I come as a package. I bend and put my face right in front of Hannah’s, blocking Cami out. She retreats in her chair, frowning at me. “What are you doing?”
“Hi, I’m Ryan.”
Cami starts laughing from behind me, and Hannah performs a pretty spectacular eye roll. “Hi,” she replies drily. “Is that all?”
I curl my lip playfully and steal a quick kiss before going to find Jake. I’m going to kick his arse for interrogating her. Grabbing two beers, I nudge him as I walk past, knocking him from his enthrallment with the TV. I jerk my head to the door. I have things to say, and I have questions to ask, neither of which the girls should hear.
When we get to my truck, Jake takes a beer and kicks the tire. “What was with all the questions?” I ask on a scowl.
“Just getting to know her.”
“That was the Spanish Inquisition, Jake, for fuck’s sake. How obvious do you wanna be?” He shrugs, showing no remorse, so I push on. “What do you think?” I ask, keen for his thoughts.
“About the damage to your truck?”
“No, for Christ’s sake.”
“Oh, about Hannah?”
“Yes.”
“Definitely hiding something.”
I shouldn’t be relieved, but at least he’s confirmed I’m not losing my mind. Damn it.
Jake runs a palm down the side of my truck. “This will definitely require an expert’s work.” He stands back, looking up and down the paintwork. “Handle with care and it’ll be like there was no damage in the first place.”
“I actually have no fucking clue whether you’re talking about the truck or my girlfriend.”
“I’m talking about the truck, you dick.” He points his bottle to Cami and Hannah before swigging back a good few inches. “As for your girlfriend, I’d call Luce.”
“Already have.”
“And what did she say?”
“Can’t trace her before 2014. The trail ends there.”
Jake rests back against the truck, humming, and then he’s quiet for a little while, obviously lost in thought. “Yo, Jake,” I say after a few long moments of silence. He blinks and looks at me. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking how nice it is to be thinking about something other than diapers, milk, and colic.”
“Good for you, buddy. Now tell me what you’d do.”
“Nothing.”
“What?”
“What can you do?” he asks, starting to wander around the truck, trying to look interested in the apparent subject at hand. “You’ve got nothing to go on. If Luce can’t find anything, then no one can.”
My shoulders sag. “I can’t just do nothing.”
“Unless you think she’s in danger, I’d chill the fuck out. Don’t let your imagination run away with you.”
Chill the fuck out? Let Cami aim a gun at his head and see how he feels about that. “She’s frightened of something,” I say, looking across to Hannah. She doesn’t look frightened now. She looks happy. Content. Distracted? “She had a gun, Jake. Nearly took my fucking head off with it.”
“Whoa. That’s an entirely different set of circumstances.”
“Yeah.”
“Loaded?”
“Fully.”
Jake’s lips straighten, his nod mild. He’s beginning to grasp the gravity of this situation. “And why did she nearly shoot you?” he asks.
“Because I broke into her store.”
“Sounds like a perfectly reasonable reason to blow your head off to me.”
I stop myself from growling in frustration, resting my beer on the hood of my truck as Jake crouches by the side, inspecting the damage close up. “I broke into her store because moments before I found her on the street looking like a zombie. Completely vacant. Like she’d had a terrible shock or something. She ran, and I went after her. She wouldn’t answer the door, and I saw broken glass on the floor. So I slipped the lock and let myself in. I was worried.”
Jake looks up at me. “What shocked her?”
“I don’t fucking know,” I grate. “But whatever it was, it sucker-punched her in the gut.”
“Where exactly was she?” he asks, rising to full height.
“Outside the store.”
“What’s outside the store?”
I think hard as my eyes dart at my feet, pacing through every second of that few minutes. “The fruit and veg stands, the bread cart, the…” I fade off, looking at Jake. “The newspaper stand.”
His head cocks, interested. “And did you see the newspaper?”
Fuck. “No. It didn’t even occur to me.”
“What day was this?” he asks, pulling out his phone.
“Sunday.” I join him, looking over his shoulder. “Try the Sun first. The Independent sells out by lunchtime.”
Jake taps and scrolls, and a second later, we’re both staring at the front page of the Sun, Sunday’s edition. And it means absolutely nothing. “Jarrad Knight,” Jake muses, and just his tone tells me it means something to him.
“You know him?”
“I know of him.” He scrolls down, scanning the article. “Multimillionaire business tycoon. Owns a large tech firm. That’s all I know.”
I frown, feeling my frustration growing, and look back down to the picture when Jake scrolls to the top again. He’s with a woman. A beautiful woman who is considerably younger than him. “Anything?”
“Nothing much. They married last year and are expecting their first baby.”
“And that’s front-page news?” I ask, flummoxed.
Jake shrugs, tucking his phone back in his pocket, looking as lost as I am. “He’s a big hitter and a bit of an it guy. I don’t know much about him.”
I slump back against the side of the truck, walking myself back through the moment I found Hannah outside the store. There’s absolutely nothing for me to go on, no clues as to why she had that epic meltdown. Was it something that was said to her? A flashback of some sort? A panic attack?
“We’d better get back to the girls,” I say, feeling beaten. “I’ve asked Lucinda to dig a bit deeper. I’ll see what she turns up.” I trudge across the gravel, sinking the last of my beer.
“And what if she turns up nothing?” Jake calls, pulling me to a stop.
I look back at him. “I’ll carry on looking,” I admit. Because I will.
“Ryan.” Jake takes the few steps needed to join me, dropping his voice. “What if there’s nothing to be found?”
“You said yourself something isn’t right,” I remind him. “I have a hunch. You of all people should understand that.” I don’t mean to dredge it up; I know that time in his life is off limits, but I’m desperate. I feel like I’m losing my mind, and I need someone or
something to reassure me that I’m not.
Jake swallows hard, but he doesn’t swing at me, which is what I half expected. He’s not all too fond of being reminded of the time he was assigned to protect Cami and quickly unassigned when her father found out about their relationship. He knew something was off. He knew Cami wasn’t safe. And he didn’t back down until he’d gotten to the bottom of it.
Throwing his arm around my shoulder, Jake starts to walk us back to the women. “I understand,” he finally admits. “Keep me in the loop, yeah?”
I hit my empty bottle against his in agreement. “Of course.”
“So, are you still planning on building some cabins?” he asks. “Or are you too busy investigating your girlfriend?”
“Very funny,” I retort. “And yes, I am.”
“Too busy?” Jake asks, and I throw him a tired look, making him chuckle. “Lucinda will be thrilled. So you’re really not coming back.”
“Nope. I’m done with protection.” Done with danger. It’s ironic, really. I’m done with security, yet I feel like I need to protect Hannah from something. Problem is, I don’t know what.
“Here,” Cami whispers when we reach them, negotiating Caleb in her arms and standing. “Pass me his stroller.”
I wheel it over and pull back the blankets so she can lay him down, smiling when his little fists rub at his sleepy face. I never got to lay Alex down like this when she was a tiny baby. I didn’t even see her until she’d turned one. “You okay?” Hannah asks, moving into my side.
“Yeah.” I nod down to Caleb. “Cute, isn’t he?”
“Adorable,” Hannah agrees wistfully, almost sadly. It gets my brain whirling again. Does she want kids? Is it appropriate for me to ask?
“Would you have any more?” she says, giving me the perfect opportunity to return her question. But it also puts me on the spot. I’ve never asked myself that question, therefore never answered it. I’ve never found myself in a situation when I’ve had to.
“I don’t know,” I say truthfully, buying myself some time. “I’ve not really thought about it. You?”
“Yes, I want them,” she answers without hesitation. She clearly has thought about it. I feel like I’ve just been thrown an ultimatum, because, with that one-word answer, Hannah’s laid her cards on the table. Do I want more kids? “I’d better be heading off,” she says, breaking away from me and approaching Cami and Jake, giving them each a hug.
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