by Maddie Wade
~~~
Nate had been bowled over when he’d picked Skye up tonight. He’d been trying so hard to keep his distance and take his time with her. She was so strong and perfect and he was so scared of scaring her off that he’d held back, which had nearly killed him.
They’d talked for hours, but hadn’t even kissed properly. He was scared that if he did he wouldn’t be able to hold back. He enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know Noah. He was an amazing boy and so resilient and upbeat, he’d come to love the boy so much and couldn’t wait to donate the bone marrow, so that he could be a normal little boy again.
The call that they had received to say he was a match was one of the best of his life. The procedure was scheduled for next week. He’d paid to go private for them all as the NHS wanted to hold off on things after Nate’s recent shooting and trauma, but Nate hadn’t wanted to and had insisted they go private to get things moving.
He’d wanted to hold back from making things serious between him and Skye until after the procedure, as he didn’t want her to feel like she had to sleep with him to get the bone marrow, he wanted no confusion about what this was. She was his in his mind; they’d become his the moment he walked in that hospital room.
He just had to do things properly and convince Skye of that. He’d been surprised when she asked him to stay over tonight, but pleased. She looked stunning tonight, her face gave off the most radiant glow and that dress, wow, he’d nearly swallowed his tongue when she opened the door.
He was torn between wanting to rip the dress off with his teeth or cover her up so nobody else could see all of that creamy flesh. It was some sort of halter neck, which cinched at her tiny waist and then flared out to her knee, which seemed fine until she turned around and it was backless. He had never considered himself a back man but hers made him a believer.
He kept touching his hand to her all night in some sort of silent possessiveness and every time he did, he could feel a tiny shiver run through her, which pleased him greatly.
Maybe he was going to have to re-think his no sleeping together policy, he wasn’t sure he had that much willpower. He also wanted to talk to her about the test results he’d received earlier in the summer. It wasn’t fair to make things serious between them until she knew everything. But that could wait until after the bone marrow transplant though.
~~~
Nursing a large snifter of the finest brandy, the man lifted the phone and dialled the number from memory. Seconds later, it was answered.
“Yes,” came the hard voice.
“We have a problem! Fortis are still digging and they have far too many contacts for us to control.” The, line went silent for a minute.
“Fine we’ll give them something to divert their attention. Have Kanan take the boy tonight and I will have some of my contacts in the Middle East sort out a diversion there.”
“Um ah.” The man blustered.
“What, what is the problem now?” The voice barked out.
“Kanan is getting increasingly harder to control, I don’t think he’ll do it!”
“He will do it, he is utilising his position in SIS to track down the woman and he wouldn’t want to lose that, but if that’s not enough use the sister.”
“Okay, I’ll arrange that now. What about Preedy?”
“Don’t worry about him, I’ll deal with him.” The line disconnected and as was usual with these encounters the man was left feeling unnerved.
He’d risen to the highest echelons with his job and commanded respect from everyone he dealt with, but that Woman scared him, it was like she was dead inside, he had only met her once and to look at-she was beautiful and glamorous but if you truly looked you could see in her eyes she was dead. He took a swig of the Brandy to calm his nerves and called Kanan.
~~~
Kanan Philips threw the phone across the room. How did this happen how did he get into this position? He’d done some pretty heinous things in his time working for the government, but taking kids from their homes and sick kids at that was not his thing.
He couldn’t really blame the government though, this was all on him, he just couldn’t give up on her and this was the best way for him to track her. He wished he could just forget about her and move on it had only been one week they had spent together before she had betrayed him. Then she’d disappeared, but what a week it had been and try as he might he couldn’t forget about her.
She had gone off the radar for 3 years but he had caught bits of information that suggested that she might be back in the US now. As if that wasn’t enough, they’d now threatened his baby sister, the baby sister who knew nothing about him.
He’d only discovered her by accident when he had been home on leave, and run into one of his useless father’s old girlfriends. She had been very smug and introduced him to his sister who had only been 3yrs old at the time.
He sent money home for her and kept a track of her too. So when her druggie mother had overdosed he’d quickly stepped in and had her fostered by a retired army medic and his wife that he had served under. The man had been a good friend to him, more of a father really and had never told Celeste about him.
He hadn’t wanted to put her in danger and by then he had been working for SIS. Somehow they’d found her and he wasn’t sure what to do now. He couldn’t just walk away. When he joined the army at 16 years old, he had been so idealistic.
Two tours of Iraq had sorted that out
He’d decided to quit and then he had been approached by SIS. He had naively thought that being a spook would give him more powers to correct the wrongs. He had been both right and wrong.
He had done a lot of good, some of the terror plots he and his fellow spooks had foiled had saved thousands of lives, but it was usually at the cost of someone’s life or soul. He shook his head to clear the depressing thoughts. What would he do if he left anyway, he didn’t know anything else. Resigned that he was going to hell for this he put the wheels in motion for the job he had to do. First, he was calling in a favour.
~~~
Zack stood at the back of the room by the bar studying the group of people assembled. He was pleased with the way the people that worked for him got on. They were a tight knit group of loyal, skilled and now gifted individuals but as a team, they were something special.
Now with Sly and Drew not to mention Lauren, coming on board, the team was expanding. He looked over to Daniel, he seemed to be coping, but he knew appearances could be deceptive and that Daniel faced a long road before he came to terms with losing Claire.
When they’d talked and he’d agreed to stay on with Fortis he had made Zack promise not to send him into the field and take him away from Paige. He hoped the new training facility would give him the challenge he needed to help him with his grief.
The timing with Sly couldn’t be better and he had been pleased he’d decided to sign on with them. Zack looked at Drew who was horsing around with Lucy again. Those two were like kids, but Zack knew it was because Drew was finally relaxing with his new family. The boy had amazing skills on a computer and was already as good as Will, which was good because he had a feeling that he wasn’t coming back anytime soon, if ever.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he took it out. He stepped outside before answering, as he was unsure of who was calling.
“Cunningham,” he said curtly.
“Zack, I need a favour.”
“K is that you?” Zack couldn’t believe it, they hadn’t spoken in years.
“Yeah it’s me I’m calling in my favour.” Zack straightened, he’d known this day would come. He’d followed Ks career and was proud of how well he had done. He had wondered though when he heard that SIS was causing problems with GCHQ if it was him. K had always been slightly on the wild side, but he’d also been Zack’s best friend for the first 18 years of his life until that afternoon when they were 18, but Zack couldn’t think about that now.
“What do you need?”
“Well
if you could leave the Divine Watchers alone that would be good, but I guess that isn’t going to happen is it?”
“No,” Zack replied calmly, “it’s not they are dangerous and need stopping.”
“Yes well I happen to agree with you there, but not everyone has the luxury of doing what they want to.” K said angrily.
“We all have our choices to make K, you know that,” Zack replied.
“Yeah well I need you to protect my sister. She’s just lost her job at the tattoo parlour and some very bad people have threatened her, if I don’t do certain things. Please don’t start about choices again either, because I don’t have any. I just need to know she is safe first, and despite our differences you’re the most honourable man I know.” Zack thought for a minute.
“Fine I’ll do it I’ll protect her, but make no mistake if you hurt any of my people with this, I will come after you history or not.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Oh and Zack she knows nothing about my existence, so please keep that little nugget to yourself.”
Zack was about to reply when the phone went dead. Lucky he knew how to get in touch with Celeste. He would call her and offer her the receptionist job, that way he could keep an eye on her. He would tell her the extra security on her flat was a perk of the job.
Zack felt unsettled by the call, it had been so long since he and K had spoken. Something bad was in the wind, he just knew it and he had a very bad feeling things were about to get worse for his team.
Zack walked back inside to see Lauren and Dane and join the others. He was happy Dane had found his soul mate. He did believe in love and soul mates, just not for him. He had forfeit his right to those years ago. He wandered over and settled in at the back of the group his ear only half on the conversation.
~~~
Dane and Lauren walked over to his friends who had commandeered a large table.
“Ah here he is the man of the hour,” Lucy said with an evil grin.
“So who wants to hear a really funny story?” He knew what she was up to and gave her his best-don’t do this angry stare, but he’d never been able to intimidate her and she just laughed.
“So earlier today, I’m at home minding my own business getting myself beautified for tonight and I get a call from big brother here to go pick him up from the swanky private hospital on the old Hereford Road. Now my interest was piqued,” she said really getting into her story, and building it up. “So like a dutiful sister I went to pick them up and do you know what. Dane had been hurt!”
Lauren snickered then, as everyone looked at Dane for signs of injury. She felt him squirm and squeezed his hand.
“It will soon be over baby,” she whispered in his ear
“Well,” Lucy continued, “poor big bro here had gone and fainted at the news of his impeding double joy and on the way down had hit his thick head.” Dane knew it was coming and was not surprised when the whole table burst into loud laughter, oh there were a few ‘are you okay’s from Skye and Lizzie but his team mates and even Zack were nearly doubled over with mirth.
“Ha, laugh it up boys it might be you one day, and then we will see who has the last laugh.” They sobered a bit at that. “And you” he said pointing a finger at Lucy, “you will pay for this.” Lucy just laughed and poked out her tongue.
“Well now you have all laughed at my expense, we will say goodnight, Lauren’s tired.”
~~~
After they had said goodbye to all their guests and had finally made it home. Dane locked all the doors and checked all the windows, as was his routine now. Lauren had gone upstairs ahead of him as she usually did. He took a moment to walk around his home and tried to imagine what it would look like a year from now.
When the doctor had said they were having twins he had just gone into shock, he was embarrassed as hell that he had fainted. What sort of father would he be if he couldn’t even get through the ultra-sound?
Dane wasn’t one for doubts normally but this had him freaked out. She was his world and the thought of anything happening to her or his children killed him. He was trying not to show it because he didn’t want to spoil her joy or make her think he wasn’t happy because he was, he was so happy it scared him.
Maybe he would talk to Lizzie, although he had a feeling there was something going on with her. He walked upstairs and saw Lauren standing in the room next to theirs.
“Hey honey what you doing in here?”
“Just trying to imagine it with two cots. It’s funny I always wanted twins. Do you think it will be one of each or two the same?” Dane came behind her and wrapped his arms around her.
“I don’t know honey, but I do know they will be the luckiest kids in the world to have you as a mum.”
She turned in his arms then, “Do you think so?”
“I know so, now come on let’s go to bed and I will show you how wonderful I think you are.”
“I Love you Dane.”
“I love you too honey, so much.” Lauren followed him to their room where, some of her self-doubts were assuaged.
Read on for a sneak peek at Nate and Skye’s story.
Sneak Peek
Nate and Skye had left shortly after Dane and Lauren. He’d decided to hell with good intentions. She was his and he was going to show her tonight just how much he felt for her.
They walked hand in hand to the car he could feel the pulse in her wrist jumping around and knew his own heartbeat was going wild. He’d never felt like this about sex. Maybe that was the problem it had been just sex with those others, even his ex-fiancé hadn’t moved him like Skye did. He felt more for her than he had ever felt for anyone.
They stepped out into the cool clear night and he looked up at the thousands of stars. This was one of the things he loved about this part of the country-you could see the stars. They reached his car, she turned to him and the look in her eye was all wanton woman.
He held out his arms to her and they came together as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Their mouths met in an explosive kiss, it was as if all bets were off tonight, something had changed and neither one was holding back.
Nate stepped back trying to slow things down but she didn’t want to be slowed down.
“Do you know how beautiful you are?” he asked her. Skye blushed and looked away -he took her chin and made her look up.
“Don’t look like that, like you don’t believe me.”
She looked up then and the desire she saw in his eyes made Skye feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.
She had been so nervous about playing the femme fatal, as it was so out of character. She was just a mother and cake maker. That was her life and she loved it. But Nate, oh Nate, made her feel cherished and beautiful and sensual like a woman. No man had ever done that for her, certainly not Noah’s father. Nate seemed to bring out her inner vixen.
“let’s go home,” she said and reached for his hand.
The moment was broken by the loud ringing of her phone, she wanted to ignore it but couldn’t, it might be her son that needed her and she would always put him first. Nate stepped back and handed her, her bag, which she had dropped. The display said it was home and her heart sank, had Noah taken a turn for the worse?
“Hello.”
“Skye, oh thank God.”
“Joanne what’s wrong, is Noah alright?”
“He’s... he’s gone.”
Skye started to shake, “What do you mean gone?” she asked tremulously, she could feel herself start to shake now and her voice was cracking.
“Someone took him, he was in bed asleep when I gave him his meds at 10pm but when I went to check him now, he’s gone.”
“All there was was a little card by the bed with a number on it.” Skye felt the world start to go black and she heard Nate shouting at her and then nothing but darkness, sweet blessed darkness.
All copyright owned by Maddie Wade.
Don't miss out!
Click the button below and
you can sign up to receive emails whenever Maddie Wade publishes a new book. There's no charge and no obligation.
https://books2read.com/r/B-H-KPDE-ENYM
Connecting independent readers to independent writers.