by Jean Oram
Evander hurried to his truck, catching up with Daphne a short way down the road, disliking the fact that she was so in love with a park that had so few escape routes.
It was still early enough that mist was hanging low over the cool, damp grass in the park and wisps of it drifted and disappeared on the river as the sun came over the trees.
Evander stretched, on the lookout for changes in the park since yesterday. After walking the circumference of the playground, he sat on a bench, not caring that the dew was seeping through his clothes. It was going to be a long day and any chance to sit and take a breather was a smart idea.
He watched, a twinge of envy weaving through him, as Daphne pushed her daughter on the swing, smiling and chatting. Only yesterday he’d been in her place and feeling more real and alive than he had in ages.
The two Summers were happy, free, and innocent. And it should stay that way at all costs. Crossing his arms tightly across his chest, Evander glanced around the park again, hating the way the tall wooden forts and play structures made it hard to spot anyone sneaking up on the oblivious duo. They were too exposed. He resisted the urge to pace the perimeter like a caged panther.
Earlier, the break-in had given him greater focus, but now his protective instincts had reared up, and the way they were raging against what Daphne wanted for her life made it difficult to sit there and respect her wishes to engage in normal daily activities.
Evander dragged a hand over his mouth. In his haste, he’d forgotten to shave this morning and the stubble bothered him.
He checked his phone for the time. His brother should be in the air by now. Tyrone should be working on finding a suitable replacement for Chuck. The neighbor should be checking on Florence.
Things were taken care of, but Evander still felt ill at ease.
The park was filling up with the occasional mother and child, the kids buoyant, the moms clutching their coffee cups with a need that rivaled addicts.
Daphne was laughing with her daughter, living a life where everything was seen through rose-tinted glass. There was always a bright side. The glass was half-full, even if it contained poison.
He admired that about Daphne, even though it suggested she had her head stuck in the sand.
A child in one of the forts screamed and Daphne jolted, her face paling.
Good.
She was on edge. That probably meant she wouldn’t try to slip away from him today.
He stood, checking the perimeter of the park once again. A cloud passed in front of the sun, giving the air an extra chill.
Someone tugged on his pant leg and he frowned down at the little person. “What?”
It was one of the kids from the other day.
“Are you in the army?”
He’d grown out his buzz cut to a length he could finger comb. He wasn’t wearing fatigues.
“No. But I was,” he admitted. “The navy. And JTF 2.”
The boy gave him an impressive salute.
“At ease, soldier,” Evander said, shaking his head. Where was this kid’s mom? He was a distraction.
“What’s J-something-something-2?”
“Special soldiers who do secret stuff so you and your parents can sleep safe at night.”
Unlike Daphne. He needed to get her out of that house. She was too far away. Too unsecured. Too unpredictable.
“Did you kill Osama Bin Laden?”
“Go play.”
“Are you Tigger’s dad?”
Evander’s gaze flicked to the little girl who was smiling on the swing. His mind went blank for a moment, refusing to kick into motion.
He didn’t believe he was cut out for real life, but he was starting to wonder how many people actually were. In fact, he kind of wondered if he might do a better job of providing a stable father figure in Tigger’s life than Mistral. Namely because Evander would actually try his best.
“No. Go play.”
“Do you have a gun?”
“Yes. Now go play before I shoot you.”
“Awesome.” The kid vanished into the fort, and about twenty seconds later Evander was surrounded by a crowd of boys all about nine years old.
Weren’t kids supposed to sleep in and play video games during the summer holidays?
“Can we see your gun?” asked the first boy.
“No. Go play.” He kept his hands behind his back, eyes sweeping the periphery.
“Please?” One kid clasped his hands under his chin and batted his eyelashes.
“That only works on mothers. Go.” Evander tried to shoo the boys away, but they squealed and moved like marbles on ice. This way, that way, too slippery to catch.
Realizing they were distracting him, egging him on to play, he shook his head, trying not to smile. “You kids are little punks, you know that?”
They laughed and scattered, heading back to their fort, knowing the gig was up.
“The surprise of the week—you’re good with kids,” Daphne said, coming up beside him.
He hadn’t even seen her leave the swings with Tigger. He took a deep breath to keep from imagining all the things that could have happened in his moment of distraction.
“We need to discuss a schedule, as well as what’s safe and what’s not.” He glanced around at the playground. “Let’s go.” He almost added, “It’s not safe here.” But he knew that was likely a lie. He just wanted to get her somewhere that offered better protection.
“Piggyback?” Tigger asked him hopefully as she joined them. She smiled up expectantly, and the longer he paused, the sadder her face got. Jeez, the kid was a killer. She could teach those boys a thing or two. Grumbling, he lowered himself into a squat. “Fine. Climb on.” He caught sight of her fluffy party dress ruffling in the breeze and stood, causing her hands to slip off his shoulders.
“I wasn’t on yet!”
“You can’t get piggyback rides wearing a dress.”
She glowered at him in a way that made him chuckle. So serious. This girl would laugh at the concept of a glass ceiling, then go ahead and smash it.
He glanced at Daphne for help, but all she did was give him an infuriatingly serene look. He was on his own. He jerked the cardigan that was slipping off Tigger’s shoulders into place, zipping it up. “You’re going to catch cold.”
Humanity. Right there. He’d just proved he had some, hadn’t he? And here Daphne had the gall to think he didn’t have any just because he’d served their country, protecting her and others from all sorts of evils she couldn’t even begin to comprehend.
“I’m wearing shorts underneath again,” Tigger said, revealing a flash of pink as she pulled up the hem of her dress. She didn’t thank him for zipping up her sweater.
He sighed and squatted once more, pressing his fingers into the sandy ground for balance. The girl climbed on, clinging so hard he figured he could scale the Himalayas and not lose her.
“Ready?”
“Yep!”
“Then let’s go.” He began walking up the slight hill to where Daphne had parked her van.
“You’re helping my mom save the whales. Can you help me, too?” Tigger whispered in his ear, and he frowned.
“The whales?”
Daphne shrugged, giving him a small smile.
“Right. The whales,” he said. If the girl knew how hard the navy could be on whales in the middle of a war, despite precautions, she’d hate him forever.
“Can you teach me kung fu?” she whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” he asked softly.
“Mom thinks I should solve everything with light and love and forgiveness and understanding,” she said loudly.
Oh, boy. Where to start on that one?
Daphne called back, “Violence is not the answer.” She gave Evander a preemptive dark look and he refrained from letting out a weary sigh.
“Can you?” Tigger urged.
“Dunno. We’ll see.” He took a few steps, thinking. “Is someone picking on you?” He pointed at a wood
pecker sporting a crown of red feathers to distract Daphne. She slowed to watch the bird, chatting to herself about how free and pretty it was.
“A boy at the babysitter’s pushes me down when the adults aren’t looking. I asked him to stop and he won’t. He just pushes me harder.”
“Right. I can help with that.” Evander caught himself. “Maybe.” It wasn’t his place to teach someone else’s child self-defense, but the idea of someone bothering the girl made him want to send heads rolling. He could probably come up with a compromise. He could teach Tigger some moves that would protect her and help her stand her ground, while being relatively nonviolent. With Daphne still hot and cold about allowing him into her space, even despite the threats, he didn’t want to push things too far.
“Horsey sounds,” Tigger said, bucking against his back.
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
Daphne smiled and he figured she knew something he didn’t.
His phone began ringing in his back pocket and he had it out in a flash. “Hello?”
“Evander, it’s Mom.”
“Are you okay?”
“I can’t find Rudolph for his eardrops.” She sounded worried. More worried than she should about the cat.
“I gave him his drops before I left.”
“Who is Rudolph?” Tigger whispered in his other ear.
“Quit eavesdropping,” he grumbled.
“Rudolph from Santa’s Village? Can we go? Please, Mom, please?”
Evander lowered Tigger to the ground, having to give her a shake so she’d let go. He gave Daphne a grateful nod as she pulled the girl farther away.
“What’s wrong?” he asked his mother. It had to be more than just the cat.
“Nothing. I just thought that you’d forgotten to give him his drops.”
He watched Daphne and Tigger hop from foot to foot as they made their way to the van. Daphne had let her guard down, her shoulders relaxing into their usual fluid, graceful moves.
In fact, she was more at ease with him than he’d seen yet. She was letting him in, one small step at a time.
That was promising.
But would she let him in far enough, fast enough to match the speed with which Mistral and his men were escalating things?
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked his mother. “Kyle should be there in three hours. Maybe less. Has the neighbor checked in?”
“Yes, she has, and I’m fine. I was just worried about Rudolph.”
As he hung up he wondered if the cancer suddenly felt more real to his mother now that her kids knew. It had likely released all the worries and fears she’d been keeping hidden from herself.
“Is Florence okay?” Daphne asked as she closed Tigger’s van door.
“She probably wouldn’t tell me if she wasn’t.”
“My mom’s like that, too.”
“Did you tell her about the break-in?”
“Why? So she can worry about something she can’t help with?”
So his instincts about Daphne had been correct. Strongly independent, often to her own detriment. She kept things close to her chest when life went wrong instead of reaching out and causing drama like so many women did.
“You can lean on me,” he said, not quite understanding why he felt the need to tell her that.
She watched him quietly for a moment, her slender hand resting on the driver’s side door handle. “Yeah. Okay,” she said softly.
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Baby steps. They would just need a lot of them in rapid procession for him to keep her safe.
CHAPTER 8
The whole Evander business was getting ridiculous. She’d been letting the man into her life little by little and it wasn’t healthy. It shouldn’t feel normal to have a bodyguard at one’s side. But there was something about him that made him feel more like a friend today. Which was silly. He was still worried about safety all the time and definitely still bossy.
Daphne crossed her arms and glared at Evander, who was trying to convince her that him coming to her workplace with Tigger was a good idea.
“Tigger and I will hang out in the back room while you’re at work. We’ll stay out of the way. It’ll save you on babysitting costs and I’ll be right there if you need me. We’ll play.”
His idea of play was probably teaching her how to clean a gun and throw knives. No, thank you.
Daphne shook her head. That wasn’t fair. He’d proved he was awesome with Tigger and could be a silly, fun playmate. He was also gentle and caring with her, but a mother had to draw a line somewhere, and he wasn’t going to become the girl’s babysitter.
Evander finished filling her van’s gas tank and pushed the button for a receipt.
All she wanted was to go to work as though everything was normal, and all he wanted was to act as though she was going to be kidnapped if he wasn’t within arm’s reach to prevent it.
They’d just been to the police station to fill out some paperwork, and the officers had assured her that the man had broken in only to look at her plans against Rubicore, and would remain in custody until his hearing in four days. She was safe.
Life went on.
Tigger, who had been drawing happy faces into the dust on her van doors with a wet squeegee, came up to Evander.
“Done?” he asked, before tossing the girl into the van as though she weighed nothing. Tigger giggled and tried to crawl out so he’d have to do it again.
He gave a shake of his head and closed the door.
“You need to go home and take care of your mother,” Daphne said. “That’s what you need to do. I have this covered. Everyday life is back in progress. The police said that the man will remain in custody, and that Mistral’s assistant, Aaron Bloomwood hired him. Not Mistral.”
“Aaron works for Mistral.”
“Mistral doesn’t give him every little order, you know. Aaron is trying to become a partner in the business and he’s his own man. The sooner we act as though everything is normal, the sooner it will be. Go to your mom.”
“My mother is fine.” Evander’s jaw clenched, causing a muscle to flicker below his ear.
“She needs you.” Daphne stared him straight in the eye, but his gaze kept sliding away. She was right and he knew it. She pressed her palm against his forearm. “She needs you more than we do.”
“You’re forgetting that your home was broken into last night.”
“I wasn’t hurt. They wanted plans. They saw them. They’re in jail. End of story. This isn’t a big deal, but the bigger deal we make of it, the bigger deal they will make of it. Do you like it when things escalate in war? Because that’s what you are doing in my life right now.”
She wrenched open her door, but Evander gripped it, not allowing her to climb inside and make her escape.
“You’re being a fool,” he growled.
“And you’re being a warmonger. I don’t know what reality your head is stuck in, but this is real life. In real life…” She paused, looking him over, wanting him to hear what she had to say, but knowing there were scars below the surface that would deflect her words to protect his internal beliefs. “…we don’t act this way.”
His grip on the door loosened and she took advantage of it, slipping into the seat. Evander wouldn’t let her close the door, however, and the next driver in line for the pump honked his horn.
Evander glanced back, but didn’t move.
“I’m going to tell Mistral’s partners I’ll cooperate. We can work together. Compromise.”
“You’re selling out?”
When he said it like that, his brows pinching over his dark eyes, it felt as if she was doing more than just reprioritizing her life.
“It’s just one more development. I don’t have to fight them all. It’s over.” She ignored the tightening in her chest over all the environmental wrongs that Rubicore would be getting away with.
“It’s not over.”
He gently shut the door. “Come on, you’ll be late for work.”
Daphne hit the power locks and spun away, leaving him behind on the large square of asphalt, looking stunned. Okay, so she was heading for work and he knew where that was, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t have five minutes to herself without him breathing down her neck.
As she turned the corner to head to the highway, she saw him hightailing it to his parked truck. Instead of taking the main highway, she spun onto a side road, hoping to extend her Evander-free time a tad longer.
Talking to Mistral and his partners would not be selling out. She was settling the disagreement, taking things down a notch. She could take her own voice out of the battle without undermining her sisters, and everyone could get what they wanted if they listened to her plan.
“Mom,” asked Tigger from the backseat, “what about Evander?”
“He’s taking his truck, honey.”
Pulling onto the country road outside of town where the babysitter lived, she dropped off Tigger, surprised not to find Evander on her tail. Had something happened to him?
Before climbing back into her van, she circled it, wondering where he’d placed the locator. She’d seen him put it along the back somewhere, but still hadn’t discovered where the snoopy device was hiding. Checking the road for his truck, she wondered if he’d decided to shadow her from afar.
Back on the highway, she headed for work, happy to have her life feeling closer to normal. Cranking up some old Van Halen, she sang along, unwinding.
Today was going to be a good day.
As she drove through the striated rock cut that towered over her van, she began planning out how she was going to present her plan of cooperation to Mistral. She hadn’t dared call him that morning for fear of Evander, who had been working outside her home, interrupting and giving her a hard time. Now he knew her plans and could get over it.
In fact, now would be a good time to try Mistral at his office. They’d discuss ways to work together and create a compromise, then she’d present the plan to her sisters, informing them that she was the new go-between. Melanie would probably be upset, but then again, she likely didn’t realize just how much she was messing with Daphne and Tigger’s life by taking Rubicore on the way she was.