by Lora Leigh
“Don’t say it,” Raeg growled, his voice low. “Don’t give him that title or I won’t be able to control myself.”
Their father.
No, Roberto Falcone hadn’t been much of a father. A monster. A murdering bastard, but not much of a father.
“It’s been a lot of years, Raeg,” Falcon reminded him, just as he often reminded himself. “And the circumstances are far different. Summer is not an agent assigned to gain information from the young man she’d coerced into falling in love with her. She’s no danger or threat to us personally. You keep forgetting that.”
“And if he decides to see it different?” his brother asked. “Could you live with Summer’s death on your conscience, Falcon?”
No, he couldn’t. Not like that. Never like that.
“Let us deal with one problem at a time,” Falcon suggested. “We take care of Dragovich, then we’ll tackle the other. For now though, she’s in no danger from our past as long as Dragovich stalks her.”
Silence settled around them then. Falcon was beginning to believe his brother had nothing more to say when he watched Raeg slowly shake his head wearily.
“And when this is over?” Raeg asked. “When it’s time for us to walk away from her, will you be able to do that?”
It would kill him. It would rip his soul from his body and leave a ragged, gaping wound in its place.
“If that’s what I have to do,” Falcon assured him. “If it comes to that choice, Raeg, I’ll make it. I won’t do it unless we’re certain though. And I don’t think you can either.”
He’d walk away from her before he’d see her harmed by the man who had sired them. That didn’t mean he’d survive it. He’d let her go five months before, believing she’d be back, that she’d return to their lives as she’d always had before. When she hadn’t, he’d known they were losing her. He was losing her.
Finishing his drink, Raeg continued to stare into the night, his expression brooding. Falcon knew that the conflicts still raged inside, tormenting him. Both of them possessed that broodiness, a quiet, dark intensity that gripped them whenever they were forced to deal with emotions they couldn’t or wouldn’t accept.
Summer had always brought the broodiness out in them, Falcon had always thought with a grain of amusement. The woman was like a whirlwind of emotion, and she never failed to affect them with it.
“Eight years is a long time to ache for a woman,” Falcon told him softly. “I’m tired of longing for her, of trying to imagine she’s the woman we’re taking whenever we take a lover. I’m tired of wondering, of being tormented by the unknown where she’s concerned. And I’m tired of living in the past. Once this is over, I’ll go hunting him in earnest, Raeg. If I find him, he dies.”
The flash of regret Raeg couldn’t quite control flickered over his expression before it was pulled back. Falcon had always known that dealing with this issue had the potential to destroy both of them. Because of that, he’d let the situation go. Even after he’d acknowledged what Summer meant to him, still, he’d held back. Raeg hadn’t been ready to accept the fact that Summer belonged to them, that this woman that made him crazy belonged to them.
His brother knew it now though.
“He wouldn’t kill one of us,” Raeg sighed heavily. “But we’ll never get close enough to kill him either. Summer’s our weakness, Falcon, and he’ll know that.” There was no way they could hide it, and no way to stay with her. “He won’t allow that weakness to exist if we fuck up and reveal it to him. You know that as well as I do. Once Dragovich is taken care of here, I won’t risk her that way. I’ll leave.”
“And I’ll find him,” Falcon assured him, knowing he would have no other choice. “I won’t live my life beneath that threat any longer. It will be my life or his. And I will have nothing left to lose once I lose her. Neither of us will.”
Turning, Falcon made his way through the dimly lit house and back up the stairs to the warm bed and the even warmer woman awaiting him.
He’d waited too long for her. He knew that once this was over he would never be able to stay away from her again. That left only one other option. He’d have to find Roberto, and once he did, one of them would die, because there would be no peace, and no assurance of Summer’s safety otherwise. And that he simply could not tolerate.
* * *
Raeg remained silent as Falcon left the room, that parting shot echoing in the silence around him.
I knew this was coming.
He’d known for years that once he and Falcon had a taste of the woman who haunted them, there’d be no turning back. It would change them.
The fact that he was right didn’t comfort him in the least. The suspicion that the man who sired them was far closer than they believed couldn’t be shaken away either.
It was a feeling, a gut reaction that he knew better than to ignore.
Roberto Falcone was a ghost, a highly elite, specialized soldier trained by the CIA, then turned loose on a world that couldn’t have suspected the killer that would move among them. Certainly his and Falcon’s mothers hadn’t known when they became involved with him, then conceived his two sons. Yet they’d stayed. Even after their sons had refused to have any contact with them because of Roberto and their continued connection to him, they’d stayed. Falcon’s mother had even had another child. A daughter.
Their mothers hadn’t given up though. Letters, emails, messages to phone numbers they should never be able to access, even attempts to meet with them when they knew they’d be at a certain party or event. And Raeg and Falcon didn’t dare allow that connection once again. Roberto shouldn’t have been threatened enough by the agent Raeg was sleeping with all those years ago to kill her. But he had. They wouldn’t risk their mothers as well, and they couldn’t risk Summer once Dragovich was taken care of either.
Raeg couldn’t allow it.
The past.
He shook his head wearily, wishing he could understand it, that he could make sense of it. He’d learned years ago that there was no doing either. And now, all that mattered was protecting Summer from it.
Because if there was one thing Roberto hated more than he hated the CIA, it was CIA agents. Especially female agents he believed were a risk to his sons. And Raeg knew well how Roberto dealt with those female agents.
That knowledge lived in his nightmares, and he didn’t think he could survive if Summer became a casualty to it.
Actually, he knew he wouldn’t survive it.
Chapter
FIVE
What had make her think that anything would change with Raeg? Summer wondered the next morning after she woke to both him and Falcon already up, showered, and dressed.
Falcon had been watchful, but as charming as ever. Raeg was in a mood though. A very odd mood. One that left her feeling uncertain and off-balance. So much so that she insisted on leaving for her parents’ the moment she joined them downstairs.
Not that either of them argued with her.
If they wanted to pretend that last night hadn’t happened, then she’d just help them right along with that, she decided after leaving her house and walking the distance to her parents’. She’d gotten real good at ignoring Raeg, anyway. She’d perfected the art over the years. At least, that was what she told herself as she stepped onto the back porch where her father was sitting comfortably in his rocking chair. “There’s my baby girl.” Daddy, or Caleb “Cal” Calhoun Sr., opened his arms for a hug that enfolded Summer in a secure and loving gentleness she’d felt only with her parents.
Raeg and Falcon stepped onto the porch behind her, waiting patiently as father and daughter hugged.
“And there’s those friends of yours. Caleb was certain they wouldn’t make it this morning.” There was a watchful tension in her father’s gaze that almost caused her to cringe with worry.
Daddy could be a problem when he got that look. It meant he was curious, and his curiosity could become a problem if her momma didn’t keep it reined in.
&n
bsp; At sixty, Cal was still a force to be reckoned with despite his claim of bum knees and a busted shoulder and she knew it. And it worried her.
His face was lined from his years in the military, but his dark blue eyes still held a twinkle of amusement and, sometimes, downright fun that never failed to draw others in.
His black hair was heavily layered with silver, his brows were still a raven’s black, his farmer’s tan giving his face a dark, leathery look of a lifetime spent in the weather. He was still fit though, shoulders broad, his frame perhaps not as muscular as in his youth, but her momma seemed right proud of how well built he appeared.
Her daddy had always been strong in her eyes though, even at a time when he seemed lost within himself. He was still the man who had taught her how to protect herself from the time she could walk until the time came that training would require harder lessons than he was comfortable teaching her. Because of him, she’d saved herself more than once instead of needing someone else to save her.
He and his “bride,” as he still called her momma, were still crazy in love and had managed to raise three boys and two girls that were, as he put it, “wild as the wind but damned good kids.”
“Good morning, sir.” Falcon shook hands with her father first. “It’s nice to see you again.”
“Mr. Calhoun.” Raeg nodded, shaking Cal’s hand as well, though the fact that he was remaining as aloof and distant as possible was easy to see.
She hoped Raeg knew how to mind his manners with her daddy, otherwise, she might have to find the black iron skillet in the kitchen and teach him better.
“Raeg.” Her daddy nodded. “Davis Allen speaks highly of both ya’ll, but he seems especially fond of you.”
“Thank you, sir.” Raeg nodded back. “I’ve gotten kind of used to him as well.”
Now, didn’t he just sound about as enthusiastic as a hound over a rock bone? Damn him. He was scooting close to being offensive to her daddy.
“Why, Davis Allen just loves Raeg,” Summer stated with wide-eyed sweetness as she shot him a warning look. “He’s saying all the time how his chief of staff is just a political natural.”
And it wasn’t a compliment. Though only Raeg and Falcon likely knew it. Because didn’t her god-daddy just think a political natural was an asshole to the core and too damned hateful to even discuss the weather with?
She smiled at Raeg, an innocent smile as she clasped her hands behind her back and tilted her head to bat her lashes at him ingenuously.
He didn’t appear overly impressed with her though, now did he?
“If she comes up missing, it’s because I’ve fed her to the alligators,” Raeg grunted, though his expression was anything but teasing.
“Her brothers threaten that daily.” Her daddy chuckled before turning back to her and centering his attention on her.
Uh oh, there was that look in his eyes again. That was definitely her cue.
“I’ll just go help Momma…” she said, trying to escape.
“You just wait a minute.” Cal caught her shoulder gently as she was about to pass him, leveling a firm look down at her. “You have something to show me, little girl?” her daddy asked her then, frowning down at her from his six-foot height, his expression stern.
“Something to show you?” She shook her head, confused. “I don’t think so.”
And she wasn’t a forgetful sort of person either.
His dark blue eyes narrowed on her. “Turn around, little girl. Your brother told me about that bullet you took in the shoulder. I wondered why you stopped wearing those dresses with those tiny straps last year.”
He pushed her around, gently but firmly, as she restrained a groan of defeat.
She was killing Caleb, she decided.
Killing him. Her momma was going to lose a son right fast.
It was with gentle fingers that her daddy lowered the wide strap of her dress just enough to find the scar that marred her shoulder, his calloused thumb brushing over it.
“I have an appointment in a few months with a plastic surgeon,” she mumbled. “He’ll just make it all go away, Daddy. I promise. We won’t even know it was there.”
He wasn’t happy. She could feel it.
“Only animals shoot little girls in the back.” He pushed the strap back in place. “Get in the house, girl. Your momma’s waitin’ for you.”
She went. Too quickly. She knew that tone of voice, and it was not one she ever argued with.
The minute she saw Caleb, she was going to kick him. A killing was just too good for him. He damned certain wouldn’t suffer enough.
* * *
Raeg watched her go, a little bemused by the fact that she did everything but ask her father how high when he told her to jump. She didn’t even obey Davis Allen like that, and from what he’d seen, the senator was like a close and favored uncle to her.
She called him “god-daddy.” And though she respected him, she damned sure didn’t obey him.
“Surprises you, does it?” Cal asked him gruffly, lowering himself into the rocking chair on the back porch Summer had led them around to from the front of the house.
“Excuse me?” Raeg turned to the other man, watching from the corner of his eye as Falcon took a seat on the thickly padded porch swing, eyeing it like a damned kid who’d never seen one before as Summer’s father returned to his rocker.
“That she gets, when I tell her to get.” The older man frowned up at him. “And sit down, dammit, don’t make me squint up at ya.”
Looking around and ignoring Falcon’s amusement, he chose a chair across from Cal, so he wouldn’t have to squint or turn his head.
God forbid he put the old man out. “I stopped questioning Summer’s actions a long time ago,” he answered as he sat down, ignoring Falcon’s frown. “It’s nice to see she listens to someone though.” And that was a damned lie. It actually irked the hell out of him that she obeyed anyone without question as she’d just obeyed her father.
He hated it that she would bow and scrape to a man who had allowed himself to slip so deep into a drunken stupor that his child had been beaten so severely she’d thought she was going to die, and he wouldn’t wake up. Beaten because she’d fought back when a nameless, faceless monster had tried to rape her.
And Raeg had caught the warning in her gaze. Disrespecting him would come with a price he might not want to pay. But it would hurt her. Pissing her off was okay, it always had been, but hurting her was another story.
Cal rocked silently for a moment as Falcon put a little swing in the seat he was sitting in. What the hell was up with that? The two of them were just rocking and enjoying the motion like there was nothing better in the world. He glanced at his brother, seeing the warning in his eyes and the disapproval on his expression.
What had he done to upset his far-too-playful brother this time?
“She’d listen to ya more if ya actually put some sweet in your voice,” the father grunted, surprising Raeg at the advice. “Though to be honest”—the other man glanced between him and Falcon—“maybe it’s a good thing ya don’t.”
Summer’s was no man’s fool, Raeg thought with sudden insight. The fact that her father was seeing something none of them wanted him to see wasn’t lost on Raeg.
“I’m actually very sweet to Summer, sir,” Falcon assured Summer’s father, his expression holding its typical grin as he obviously tried to distract Cal. “You may ask her. I worship at her very tiny feet every chance she gives me.”
Raeg closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. His brother … One of these days that penchant for drama would get both of them in trouble.
“I can tell you let her think you’re wrapped right around her delicate little pinky,” Summer’s father grunted, giving Falcon a doubtful look. “Boy, I have a feeling you’re a menace.”
Raeg actually had to hold back an amused snort. No truer words had ever been spoken.
Falcon looked up at the chains that attached his seat to the ceiling. �
��This is secure, is it not?” he asked, obviously determined to ignore the observation.
Cal narrowed his eyes on Falcon, rubbed the side of his nose with his thumb, and shook his head, almost hiding the tug of a grin at his lips. He continued to watch Falcon until pale blue eyes met darker blue a bit warily.
“You’re the one, the reason that girl was in Moscow, I understand?” Cal stated. The expression on his face was anything but approving. “Tell me what happened, boy. Caleb swears he doesn’t know, but that boy lies for his sisters every chance he gets. Let’s see if you can be honest with me.”
Raeg almost laughed at the thought. “He lies for her as well, Mr. Calhoun,” he informed Summer’s father. “Probably more often than Caleb does.”
Falcon lied to his brother all the time where Summer was concerned, Raeg mused. They fought over that often.
“I do not lie for her,” Falcon assured both of them, enjoying that swing a little too much as far as Raeg was concerned. “I simply refuse to tell you what is none of your business.” He turned to Summer’s father. “But you are her father, sir, and so I am at your disposal. Ask what you will.”
“What the hell happened would be a good place to start,” the older man demanded. “How the hell did my little girl end up with a bullet in her shoulder and some damned Russian psychopath hunting her?”
Amazingly enough, Falcon answered him. Thankfully, he did so briefly without his usual flare for the dramatic when it came to a story. Dragovich had bought stolen American secrets and he and his team, Gia and Summer, had been hired to recover them. As Summer was slipping from the office, Dragovich burst in, obviously warned at the last minute of the recovery. He shot, Summer jumped into the SUV, and Falcon raced to a safe house outside of town where the bullet had been removed by a surgeon Raeg and Davis Allen knew in the area.
The bullet hadn’t gone straight through.
Yes, there was quite a bit of bleeding.
And yes, she had developed an infection but at no time had Falcon thought she would die—a bald-faced lie, Raeg knew.
Raeg and Davis Allen had been leaving the airport to fly to Russia and get them back to the States before Summer’s fever killed her. It had broken and begun lowering just as they’d been packing the vehicle with needed weapons and supplies for the ride to a nearby military base.