Reece grinned at Zack, clearly letting him know he would make this his victory, but luckily Zack had felt Skye’s intent and obviously understood he’d made the mistake earlier that evening of pushing his luck. He would have to rely on his gut instinct and trust her. He bent and softly kissed her lips, and Skye knew he would be enjoying seeing Reece’s knuckles go white as he tried to control his anger.
‘You sure?’ asked Zack, ignoring Reece. When Skye nodded, he whispered into her ear, ‘I’ll check on the children, then wait to hear from you. Phone me when he’s gone.’ He gave one last look of warning to Reece, before turning and letting himself out.
Chapter Forty-Two
Zack shut the door quietly behind him and strode back to his house. People were still milling around, and he was surprised to see them as he had completely forgotten about the ball. He nodded a greeting to one or two, but was glad to see that the evening was drawing to a close and taxis were lining the drive to collect the last few revellers. Zack shook hands and chatted with a handful of people as he passed and plastered a smile onto his face while he waited for them to leave. He was glad to have the distraction, to be honest, as it had been a tough night to say the least.
He had tried to stay calm for Skye, but admitted that he had felt betrayed when he learned that Skye had been lying to him all along. Not only was she some kind of secret government agent, retired or not, but the whole background to her life she had given him was probably a pack of lies. He grudgingly admitted that, from what he had heard tonight, she had been scared and protecting her son, but surely she should have started to trust him by now? Would she ever have opened up and told him the truth? He doubted it, hearing how well she had lied to everyone since she had arrived. No-one had suspected a thing and he should have had an inkling by the way she, so expertly, set up Skye-Safe. Seeing her fight off her attacker tonight had shocked him to the core. It had looked like two assassins fighting in a television programme and he had ploughed in without a thought for his own safety. He suddenly worried if Emmie would be safe with people like Skye, Reece and Thea around. What the hell was the world coming to, when a little country village like this had three combat agents amongst them? What if there were more? He rubbed his tired eyes and turned to walk to the house. His prevalent thought was to see his daughter’s face and be by her side. He wanted to check on Leo too, and make sure he was sleeping soundly.
After sitting for a while with Emmie and Leo, then checking Mike and Marlo were asleep in one of the spare rooms, Zack decided he wouldn’t be able to sleep that night and he might as well go and sober up with a strong coffee.
He felt exhausted and really hated the idea of leaving Skye with Reece. He sounded like a complete lothario and the fact that he was probably still legally Skye’s husband made his shoulders sag in defeat as he pushed open the kitchen door. He started in surprise when he saw Thea asleep with her head on her arms on the kitchen table. She must have waited for him but couldn’t stay awake. His gut wrenched and he didn’t know what he would say to her. He felt angry at what she’d put Skye through, and let down that she hadn’t confided in him about Skye’s background.
Zack had thought Thea would be too ashamed to stick around, but she must have not wanted to disturb Flo, or maybe she was scared of Reece and didn’t want to be alone? The thought struck him and he started to panic about leaving him with Skye. He walked around the big wooden table that stood in the middle of the huge state-of-the-art kitchen and, none too gently, roused Thea from her sleep. She jumped in alarm, her eyes foggy before they focused on him. She slumped back into her chair.
‘Is he dangerous?’ Zack asked, levelly.
‘Not to Skye,’ Thea said bitterly. ‘Like I said, he loves her.’
Zack went to the cupboard and got out two mugs. He then switched on the coffee machine and filled it with water, trying to give himself time to calm down. ‘What about you? Does he love you?’
Thea sighed and wrung her hands together. ‘I really don’t know. I’m not sure he let himself care about anyone after Skye. Back then I thought he used the accident as an excuse to get her out of his life. He kept saying how he never wanted kids and I wondered if the commitment of a child made him push her away. He changed his mind, though, and tried to find her. When she disappeared, he made me try everything, but she was gone. He’d left it too late to decide that he wanted his family and ruined his own life. In time, he came to accept it and seemed to have concluded that he was right and they were safer without him.’
‘That’s when he started the affair with you?’ Zack wanted to know. He placed a steaming mug of coffee in front of Thea and sat down opposite her, but she still couldn’t look him in the eye.
‘No, that came later.’
Thea rubbed her tired eyes. ‘Reece had flings with women, including my boss, but eventually he turned to me. I think it was because he could talk freely about his past with me. He led me to believe the other women were out of the picture by then, but it seems I was wrong. My boss had set her sights on him for years, apparently, and when she finally got her claws in him, she revelled at letting me know. It was the same day I found out I was pregnant. I wonder now if she had anything to do with Skye once hurting herself on a job. Skye told me the safety checks failed, but knowing Skye now, she wouldn’t let that happen.’ Tears slipped down Thea’s nose and she brushed them angrily away, although it looked like the coffee was seeping into her veins and gradually giving her a burst of energy as she appeared more awake. He thought she must be completely drained from the night’s events and possibly wished she had kept Reece away. Who cared if he hadn’t a clue about his daughter? Zack knew this was harsh coming from a father, but Reece had given up the rights to his child by abandoning him years ago. He’d let his wife and child run scared for years, not telling them they were safe. The thought of Skye being his wife, while Thea herself was only a mistress, probably made bile rise up in her throat. ‘My family are right about me; I’m a complete waste of space. I expect Reece hates me now, too, as I knew he had a daughter and didn’t say anything.’
Zack tried to feel sympathy for Thea as he saw a glimmer of the woman he had known for a while now trying to break free, but the creature in front of him had turned into something he didn’t understand, and the pain she’d brought to others was hard to fathom.
‘You also knew he had a wife,’ Zack ground out, making Thea glance up and meet his eye.
‘He doesn’t,’ she said simply. ‘My job was to wipe all record of them both. That’s how we met. I gave him a new surname and both of them ceased to exist. The marriage they had died with their old identities.’
Zack was dumbfounded that things like this actually went on, but couldn’t help a flicker of elation that Skye was no longer Reece’s wife.
Chapter Forty-Three
Skye’s bones were heavy and she wanted to crawl under her bedcovers and sleep for a week. She felt like she’d been hit by a bus. Every part of her ached and felt broken. Reece sat opposite her and implored her to give him another chance, but she still couldn’t get past the fact that he’d abandoned her and their son, scared and without a safe place to hide. He had left her to cope alone, believing him dead, because he felt bad about their team dying while he had survived. She understood that he believed he was still in danger, but what about her? Surely if he was in peril at that time, so would she have been? If anyone on the inside knew he was alive, they would have known about her too. He had left her to fend for herself, however he tried to justify it by saying he was protecting them. What planet did he live on, if he thought it was safer for her to believe he was dead and people were still chasing her? She had run for years, looking over her shoulder at every turn, because she didn’t know the threat from Marcus had been neutralised.
She hadn’t moved on in her life at all until recently, and wondered if Reece would ever have come back if he hadn’t seen her with Zack. She was bitter that she had put her own life on hold for so long, yearning for a man who
was living happily somewhere else. The man she had idolised for all those years had really died on the day of the explosion. The man in front of her felt like a complete stranger and it made her soul weary. Her heart was shattering with the loss of him all over again.
‘Skye, please,’ Reece begged, taking hold of her hand and turning it over to kiss her pulse. She closed her eyes at the intimate gesture, but then slipped her hand from his and put space between them.
‘I thought you would both be better off without me. I was useless at protecting our team. Seeing them all die was horrific. I managed to drag myself to safety, but should have been blown up, too. I felt I’d let them down and would ruin your life as well.’
‘You were right,’ Skye said bitterly, turning on him. ‘You did annihilate me by leaving us,’ she spat at him. ‘What about protecting the mother of your child and your own son? I had to be both parents to our child, while you were alive somewhere screwing God knows how many women to help appease your guilt and fill your mind! Now you have two children who don’t know you. Is that what you want?’
‘Of course not!’ Reece said furiously, visibly trying, but failing, to curb his temper. ‘I haven’t forgotten how good it felt to hold my wife and I don’t intend to let you go now I’ve found you again. I don’t want that other man bringing up my child or screwing my wife! For years I’ve blocked out all thoughts of you and Leo but, now you’re here, I’m going to get you both back. I need you in my life, Skye; our son too.’
Skye raised her head to the heavens and sighed in exasperation at the man before her. She was completely wrung out and didn’t want to look at him any more. She needed some breathing space and couldn’t have that with him here. ‘You need to go and see Thea and meet Flo. Not tonight. I don’t think that’s a good idea, but go back to wherever you’ve been staying and we can talk again tomorrow.’
‘Skye, please…’ Reece pleaded. ‘Let me stay here tonight and we can try and sort out this mess.’
‘You made this chaos, Reece,’ Skye felt a bit sick at using his name again as surely it would be different now? Maybe he had kept it, or maybe it was now a pet name between him and Thea. The thought made her run to the sink and be sick. Holding her stomach, she looked over to him and felt the pain of losing him all over again. It had hurt so much last time, but she had then had to contend with looking after Leo and moving around from country to country. She ran a glass under the tap and gulped down some water, before filling the glass with the whisky Zack had left on the kitchen counter and swallowing down a huge mouthful, gasping as the alcohol hit her empty stomach.
Skye turned to the man she had loved so deeply. ‘Thea wanted you to come here.’ She saw his face register the comment in surprise and he frowned in confusion. ‘She probably wanted you to meet Flo and find me with Zack.’ She saw him flinch and was glad he felt her pain. ‘She befriended me and then set out to destroy my life. She set me up to come here so she could get to know me, then drew you here to destroy the last traces of what we had.’
‘Why would she do that? You and I hadn’t seen each other in years.’
‘She wanted to see what the real competition was,’ said Skye mockingly. Reece grabbed her hands, pulled her to him and kissed her with such passion that she crumbled and melted into his familiar embrace. How she had missed this! He hugged her to him and inhaled the familiar scent of her hair. She sighed and let him hold her for a moment, her pulse racing and her heart almost beating out of her chest. This is what she had dreamed about. She had cried herself to sleep remembering how it felt to be held in his arms, knowing she would never see him again, but now she sighed and gently pushed him away. Too many things had happened in the last few hours for her to be able to think clearly. She was overjoyed that Reece was alive, but he wasn’t who she had built him up to be. He was just a regular man who made mistakes like the rest of them. His inadequacy had cost her years of her life to grief and fear, though. She didn’t know if it was something she could forgive him for.
‘I still love you…’ he said forlornly, ‘I know things have changed and I pray you can forgive my weakness. You’re such a strong woman and I desperately hope you’ll come to realise what I did seemed like the right decision at the time.’ Looking at the home she had made, with the occasional photo of her and Leo smiling into the camera, he faced his own loss. He evidently realised now that he had missed spending time with an amazing woman and sharing in his son growing up. She could see him steel his nerve and decide he wouldn’t miss any more of his son’s life. Skye was watching the thoughts flit across his face and waited for him to remember his other child. When the thought registered, he looked guiltily at her.
‘I didn’t know about the baby,’ he implored her to understand.
‘I know.’ Skye thought that Thea had been truthful about that, but she’d doubted it until she saw his face when he realised there was another child involved. ‘You have to take responsibility this time,’ said Skye. ‘Go and see Thea tomorrow and find out what the hell that deranged witch has been doing with our lives this whole time,’ she said tiredly.
Chapter Forty-Four
It was two weeks since the ball and Zack had barely seen Skye. He put his sunglasses on to cover his eyes, exhausted from lack of sleep, and tried to smile as Emmie chattered away on the journey to school.
Skye had arrived looking washed out and enervated the morning after the ball and had found him slumped by the phone asleep. She had been upset about Reece and had completely forgotten to call Zack. He had waited by the phone all night. She’d wearily sat down beside him and touched his arm to wake him, then started talking in a low voice about her past and the scars it had left behind.
Zack noticed Belle at the school gates and she gave him a jaunty wave now they were all ‘such good friends’, but he ignored her and bent down to hug his daughter, making her squirm in embarrassment.
The school had been awash with gossip about his and Skye’s blossoming relationship and he knew Belle wanted to get the inside track on what was happening, as he’d heard that she had been bragging that she knew them both terribly well.
Zack glanced up as Thea pushed the pram up to the school gates and Allie gave her a quick kiss and ran to meet her friends. She nodded to Zack, but his body language was telling her to back off. He wondered if she was happy at the way her life had turned out lately. She would know Leo was already at school in early morning club, but she wasn’t used to walking alone and was probably terrified she’d bump into Skye now. She had thought she was being clever by bringing Skye here, but she had been stupid. She had been a jealous harridan and now she had destroyed all of their lives. She should have told Reece where Skye was, but she wanted to find out what was so special about her for herself first. She had bitterly said to Zack that surely, no one could be that perfect, but she was asking the wrong man, as to him, she was.
Thea had mentioned that after meeting Skye, she could see it wasn’t really her looks that men fell for; it was something about her personality that drew them in. Thea herself had fallen for it, too. Much as she had passionately wanted to hate Skye, she didn’t. Thea had planned revenge on the woman whom Reece desired above all others, but she had made a terrible mistake. Skye could have been her loving and loyal friend and Thea missed her crazy moods and grumpy face. Zack hadn’t really wanted to listen to Thea’s self pity, but she seemed to be waiting for him by the school most mornings now, as if he would solve all her problems. He wouldn’t.
She’d explained that it had been tearing her apart, knowing Reece was alive, and she had been a nervous wreck seeing Skye fall for Zack, unaware of the truth about Reece. She’d had to act, even if it meant losing Reece and Skye forever and them being a family again. Skye deserved to know the truth. Seeing Zack walk around like he wanted to punch anyone who came within ten feet of him made her feel even worse. She had started this as a way to make them pay, but now they were all suffering, herself included. She apologised to Zack practically every day, but h
e wasn’t ready to listen.
Zack walked back up the road and headed towards home. As he got near the house, he changed direction and aimed for the cottage. He couldn’t keep away from Skye any longer and decided that he had to know one way or the other if Reece was back to stay. He couldn’t believe it when Thea had tearfully told them what they all did. Seeing Skye and Reece fight had nearly given him a heart attack. Thea had explained that she and Skye were no longer working for LUCAN and he had just had to face up to his own insecurities. Skye was an asset to the business and her other skills and knowledge would only benefit them, too. He remembered that he’d worried about Belle frightening Skye and laughed bitterly at his own naivety. He wondered if she was scared of anything. Then he remembered her coming to him when she had thought someone was in the field. She had let him comfort her. He realised it had probably been Reece in the field and he wondered if he would have tried to head him off, if he had known who he was. Zack was sure Reece was pretty resourceful when he wanted to be and he wouldn’t have stayed away any longer than he had to, once he’d found his wife and son again.
Knocking on the door and waiting for someone to answer it, Zack felt like grabbing his keys and letting himself into his own house. Skye had gently asked for a little space to decide what to do, but he couldn’t stand back any longer.
The door opened and Reece stood in front of him, half-naked and towelling himself dry with one of Zack’s towels. Skye reached out to pull Reece indoors and he stepped back with a big grin on his face as he realised who was there. ‘Oh, for God’s sake, Reece,’ said Skye in exasperation.
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