HIS Return (Hamilton Investigation & Security: HIS Series Book 3)

by Sheila Kell

  Why was he here? What did he want from her? Oh no, did he know about Amber and want to take her away? Over my dead body!

  Taking a deep breath, she willed her voice to sound normal, so he didn’t hear the strain his return had imparted upon her.

  Before she could speak, AJ halted her, no doubt saving her from replying and saying something she’d more than likely regret. “Let’s go.”

  Two BMWs awaited them on the curb, parked illegally, but who cared since they were leaving. Climbing into the first car, she remembered something important to Amber, something she’d want with her.

  “I need to grab Nemo. I’ll only be a minute.” She moved toward her home, only to be stopped by Jake. Looking up into his eyes, she melted, kicking herself for allowing her body to respond to him.

  “I’ll grab it. What is it?”

  She froze. If he went into her home, he’d see the photos of Amber. She wasn’t ready. She had to see her daughter first.

  Matt walked by and took the keys from her. “I’ve got it.”

  Settled in the car with AJ driving, she rubbed her temples in an effort to ward away the pain not only in her head but also in her heart. “I need to see my daughter.”

  “Hang on.”

  She grabbed the handle over the window and closed her eyes. No wonder many referred to it as the “Oh-shit handle.” If anyone could get them there quickly, it was her brother. However, with his driving, getting there alive rushed foremost on her mind.

  “MOMMY! MOMMY!”

  To Emily, that word had never sounded so sweet, so heart-warming, making her world perfect again. She’d never complain when Amber repeated it over and over in an attempt to gain her attention.

  Entering the private jet, she knelt as her daughter raced on her short legs across the cabin, throwing herself into her mother’s embrace. Euphoria rushed through Emily’s body, relief coursing along with it.

  The HIS team members on the stairs behind her, waiting to enter the aircraft, didn’t say a word about their progress being halted with the reunion of mother and daughter. They were Amber’s unofficial uncles.

  Wrapping her arms around the little girl, tears rolled down Emily’s face knowing she’d almost lost this moment, almost lost the most precious thing in her life. She closed her eyes, attempting to control her trembling, relieved as the crushing weight lifted from her shoulders.

  “Too hard, Mommy.” Amber wiggled, pushing back in an attempt to escape the embrace.

  Before releasing her, Emily sighed and placed a kiss on the little girl’s soft cheek. “I love you.” She hadn’t wanted to let her daughter out of her arms, but apparently, she needed that hold on her more than Amber needed it. It hadn’t seemed so long ago that her daughter wouldn’t let her go, always wanting to be carried close to her mother.

  Small hands held the sides of Emily’s face, keeping her turned toward the toddler. “Luh you, Mommy.” A quick kiss on the lips and she pulled back, tugging her mother’s hand. “Come tee.” She pointed at Jesse. “Unca Jethe let me dribe plane.”

  “Ah, little bit, that was our secret.”

  Amber giggled at her uncle’s fake distress of tattling on him. “No ecret wid Mommy.”

  Jesse shook his head dramatically. “Now you tell me you don’t keep secrets.”

  Regaining her feet, Emily smiled and allowed herself to be dragged off by the toddler who seemed to have no lingering issues with what had happened to her. For that, Emily sent a prayer to her mother, thanking her for watching over her grandchild. Her mom had passed from cancer when Emily had been two years old, so she didn’t remember her, but she knew that she’d be there when her daughter needed her most.

  She followed along behind the exuberant child, becoming acquainted with every little spot or thing on board the jet, and now Emily knew why Jesse brought her daughter here first instead of to an emotional reunion with her mother. The child’s interest had become diverted for the moment.

  Amber demanded center stage and soon the men were participants of her audience, whether they chose to be or not. When she had no idea what something was on the airplane, she made up a name and what it did, keeping smiles throughout the group even though Emily knew they couldn’t understand half of what her daughter said. This was a much welcome change from the grim expressions they’d worn at her home.

  Once she’d situated Amber on a small sofa, the item her little girl had deemed the coolest thing on the plane, Emily threw her arms around her oldest brother. “Thank you, Jesse.” She fought the tears of relief that wanted to continue to flow.

  Holding her head against his chest, her brother bent down and kissed the top of her head. All of her brothers stood over her by about a foot. She wasn’t by any means tall, but compared to her brothers, she felt significantly shorter than her five foot four inches.

  “How are you?” Jesse rubbed her back in a soothing gesture, something he’d done whenever she’d hurt herself or been scared as a child. It wasn’t that she couldn’t go to her father. Although he traveled a great deal, whenever he was home, she preferred the safety of her big brother’s arms.

  Pulling back, she sniffed, looked around the cabin and smiled. “Thanks to all of you, I’m fine.” She swallowed with difficultly, her throat drier than the Sahara Desert. “I don’t know what I would’ve done….”

  “Shh.” He pulled her back against him tightly and then separated from her, leading her to two seats facing each other. He looked at Amber and then back to her. “He doesn’t know, does he?”

  There was nothing like a stab to the heart to bring reality crashing back into her life. Her gaze left Jesse and rested on her daughter. “There wasn’t time.” Snapping her head back to her brother, she narrowed her eyes, venom seeping into them. “How long have you known he was alive? How long have you kept this from me? And not to warn me? To let me be caught unprepared?”

  He at least had the smarts to look apologetic. “It’s a long story. Needless to say, we felt it best he face you first.”

  He’d said fighting words. “That is the problem! You all feel you know what’s best for my daughter and me. Well, this time you were wrong.” She slumped back into the leather seat, her anger abating. She knew what he would say, and he was right. She just refused to give him the satisfaction of admitting it.

  “Em, if he hadn’t been there, who knows what would’ve happened? Enough of this. What are you planning to do? He’ll be here momentarily.”

  Panic jumped through her; she snapped up in the seat. “Here? He’s flying with us?” Why had she thought differently? Hell, he was in the second car with Matt and Brad. She just wasn’t ready.

  Jesse stood. “They’re here. Go rescue Trent from Amber crawling all over him.”

  The smile was automatic. Every one of the men allowed Amber to do as she wished. Shaking her head, Emily walked to her daughter and sat down to join in the fun, hoping she looked engaged instead of keeping an eye on the cabin door with her heart lodged in her throat.

  Trent leaned over Amber’s head. “Do you want me to take her to the back of the plane and keep her occupied?”

  Oh, how she’d love for them to be on another flight, but waiting at a commercial terminal when they had access to this plane wasn’t on her list of things to do in hopes of avoiding Jake. It had to happen sooner or later. Heck, maybe he wouldn’t realize it. Men were typically clueless about a child’s age. She covered her inner turmoil with a slight shake of her head.

  Before she could respond, Amber bounced out of Trent’s lap, pointing at the doorway. “Who that?”

  Six

  FUCK ME! AM I to be punished the entire flight watching her and Trent be all cozy?

  “Keep moving,” Brad growled.

  Jake continued inside the cabin before his brother shoved him through it. The air crackled with tension. Had something happened since they’d parted
at Em’s house? He furrowed his brows at what appeared to be all of the attention focused on him. Were they worried he’d rip into Trent? Fuck them! They’d known she and Trent were an item, yet they’d failed to tell him. They’d let him make a fool of himself by coming here, hoping to be a part of her life, a permanent part.

  Em jumped up, fear in her eyes. What the fuck had happened? He felt a tug on his pant leg and gazed down.

  “Who are you?”

  His heart skipped a beat at the sight of the little cherub-faced child with blonde pigtails looking up at him. She looked to be about three years old and had his unmistakable ice-blue eyes. AJ’s words that she’d never married came back to him. Now Jake knew why the tension existed. They all fucking knew this, and no one thought to tell him. He’d never have done such a thing to any of them.

  How was he to answer the child? He looked at Em, and the truth was embossed on her face.

  He knelt down, eye level with the little girl, taking in every detail while he considered how to respond. “I’m….” He cleared his throat nervously. This was completely unexpected. Why had no one warned him? An, “Oh, by the way, Jake, you have a daughter,” would’ve been nice. Fucking assholes.

  Amber scrunched up her face and tilted her head to the side. “Aw, you my unca? I have alotsa uncas.” She pointed a little finger at her chest, proudly. “I’m Amber, and I’m free.” She held up one hand with three fingers showing. Her other hand held the other two digits down. Presumably satisfied with his seeing her holding the pose, she dropped both hands. “Unca Jethe let me dribe plane.”

  What the hell had she just said? He’d only figured out uncle and plane. Based on the chuckling from the men in the cabin, they understood her words.

  Jesse, whether sensing his distress or not, saved him from attempting some sort of reply. “Come on, little bit. Let’s buckle in so we can take off. Are you ready?”

  Bouncing on her heels, she pointed to the couch. “Sit there?”

  Avoiding Jake’s gaze, Em picked Amber up and toted her to a seat. “After we’re in the air.”

  Frozen to the spot, he watched the woman who held his heart lead her daughter, no, their daughter, away. The possibility of a baby from his night with her had never crossed his mind. Hell, it had only been the one time, and he’d thought it had been a dream. Okay, the thinking it had been a dream was a copout excuse. All he knew for certain was that he’d left Em to raise their child alone and because of that, she’d moved here and had almost lost her daughter. His daughter.

  A slap on the shoulder brought him out of his reverie. “Come on. Let’s get you a stiff drink before we take off. I bet you could use it.”

  He wasn’t sure how he felt about AJ for keeping this secret, but he couldn’t argue about needing that drink.

  Sitting as far from Em and Amber as possible, but where he had a clear line of sight to them, which wasn’t easy in a small plane, he kept a low voice so no one would overhear his conversation with AJ.

  “Why didn’t anyone tell me about her? I’ve been back for over a week. Do you really think I would’ve waited if I’d known?”

  His brother shifted in the seat. Good, he should feel uncomfortable. Why the hell had AJ, of all people, kept something of this magnitude from him?

  “We felt it best for Em to tell you.”

  He could fucking understand, but he couldn’t completely forgive his friend for withholding that information.

  “And Trent? Were you planning to tell me about him as well?” He couldn’t believe his family would allow another man to become a father to Jake’s daughter. Shit. They hadn’t known I was alive. But still.

  AJ’s lip quirked. “Nope. That’s for her to say.”

  Fucking great. Now the mountain he needed to climb to earn her forgiveness and bring the two of them together was higher than he’d expected. He needed something lighter for his current thoughts. “Tell me all about my daughter.”

  While AJ entertained him with Amber’s antics while growing up, he thought through the situation, his mind swirling around the fact he’d abandoned his child. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t known she’d existed, but if he hadn’t left Em, things would be different. He wouldn’t have been like his father.

  No one could’ve punched him in the stomach harder than the pain he felt. He’d thought abandoning the family one thing, but this… this was exactly what he’d not wanted to turn into. He gulped down a healthy dose of the bourbon AJ had kept refilling, the burn down his throat unnoticeable.

  It wasn’t too late. He may have missed the first few years of his daughter’s life, but he was here now. He’d make it up to her, do anything it took to be there, be the father he’d never had so the little girl never ached like he had growing up thinking she’d done something wrong to have her father not want her.

  Em had finally allowed Amber to move to the sofa where the little girl had curled up in her mother’s lap, thumb in mouth, and was sound asleep with a seat belt wound around her small body. Em pulled her hair free from the hair clips and rubbed her hand lightly down the little girl’s head, love emanating in the soft tune she hummed.

  The sight choked him up, his heart swelling with happiness. She was his daughter, his flesh and blood. It didn’t sound as scary as it had the first time he’d thought it. Em looked up, right at him with a mixture of grief and fear in her gaze. Neither spoke, gestured or moved. Something passed between them. Something he wasn’t sure he understood.

  She may have changed, but he knew his feelings for her were right, solid. Love. Suddenly, he knew what he had to do.

  After the jet landed at the private airport in Baltimore, Maryland, he stopped Em before she reached the cabin door. He’d never felt more confident about a decision that he’d made. This was right. This would make everything right. “We’re getting married.”

  DUMBFOUNDED, Emily stood in front of Jake. That pushy, demanding son of a bitch! How dare he dictate to me? Especially something like that? Had it been a few years ago, she’d have jumped at the chance to finally wed the man she’d loved all of her life. The father of her child. But not now. Not only had he left her, he’d done it without looking back. What a fool she’d been waiting for him to return to her.

  Red-hot anger surged through her, attempting to wash away the happiness she felt at being with her daughter. Their daughter. So that was why he wanted to marry her. It had nothing to do with love. It was all about Amber. She had wanted her daughter to have Jake in her life, but she was no longer sure.

  She was so damn confused. One moment her heart leaped at the chance to finally be his wife, for them to live happily ever after. The next, her heart remembered the crushing blow from him. How could she ever trust him not to leave her again? Where had he been? Why hadn’t he contacted her?

  No matter what her heart said, the defiance her brothers warned her would get her into trouble one day kicked in. “No, we aren’t.” She spun around and exited the airplane as quickly as she could, almost tripping down the stairs. Under her breath, she cursed Jake and all mankind for their thinking women should bow to their whims.

  Her litany of unladylike curses was broken by her daughter racing back to her, the little arms raised for her mother to pick her up, tripping on her sandals and falling on the tarmac. It only took a moment for Emily to rush forward and pick up Amber, who now wailed loudly.

  Without hesitation, she lifted the best thing in her life, remembering the smell of the little girl, baby lotion, and sunshine. Okay, sunshine didn’t necessarily have a smell, but it was what Emily imagined it would smell like.

  “Is she hurt?”

  She jumped. Jake had scared the crap out of her. He’d still been on the airplane as far as she’d known. Focusing back on the hiccupping and sniffing bundle, the cries stilled at the sound of a man. She picked up a small hand and looked over the marks from where they’d met the pavement. “
Does it hurt?”

  Amber, clinging to her mother, gave a dramatic nod and poked out her lower lip, playing to her small audience. “It hut bad.”

  Softly holding the hand, Emily brought it to her lips and placed a light kiss on it. “How’s that? Is your booboo better?”

  Another dramatic nod. The little angel looked at Jake with wide eyes. “You ride wid me?”

  A heart palpitation hit Emily. A heavy weight pushed on her ribs, making it hard to take a breath. There would be no running anytime soon. She’d have to face it, face Jake, and face her daughter with the truth. She just wasn’t doing it now. Especially not after his directive. Damn man!

  “Ready?” Jesse walked up to them, looked between the three and reached for Amber. “Come here, little bit.”

  Handing her over, Emily had a thought. “Jesse, we don’t have a car seat.”

  “Sure we do. Let’s get out of here.” He turned, leading them to a row of SUVs and the waiting men.

  Looking over Jesse’s shoulder, Amber sought out Jake. “You ride wid me?”

  “Um.” He looked at Emily who quickly diverted her gaze.

  Dammit. Of course, she’d like the man, not even knowing he was her father. “Sure he will.” Her daughter had been through a lot today. If having Jake ride with her meant so much, Emily would swallow her hurt and embarrassment, and allow it. She’d move heaven and earth if that had been the girl’s desire. She didn’t want Amber to revisit what had happened earlier today. She hoped the little girl would forget.

  Settling in the backseat with her daughter, Emily stared at the back of Jake’s head. Was now the time? No. She had to speak with him first before she told Amber who he was. She needed to know his motives for showing up now.

  Oh, right. He expected her to marry him. She still had a lot to say to him about that. But wouldn’t it be great if we were a family? No. She wanted a happy, loving family, not one based on only responsibility.

  She tried to picture them together, but his thin frame, and the dark circles under his eyes, called out to her. He looked like he’d been through hell. Yet, she still craved him like when she was a teenager. He still turned her body into a raging inferno without a word.