Proof of Life: A Christian Romance (BlackThorpe Security Book 4)

by Kimberly Rae Jordan

  “Your son?” The man’s dark brows drew together over a set of light blue eyes. His gaze went from Alex to Jordan and then to Rebecca.

  “Jordan. Rebecca. This is Marcus Black.” So this was the Black part of BlackThorpe, Rebecca realized. Business partners.

  Marcus rounded his desk and held out his hand to her first then to Jordan. “Pleasure to meet you.” He turned back to Alex. “You’ve been holding out on me, my friend.”

  “I’ll give you a call a bit later to bring you up to speed.”

  Marcus gave a quick nod of his head. “I’m meeting Bryson Davis this afternoon for an update.”

  From comments made since they had arrived at the office and the tension in the air, Rebecca wondered what was going on. Would Alex tell her if she asked or would he just say it wasn’t any of her business?

  “We can head back to the house,” Alex said as they left Marcus’s office. “Unless you need to stop somewhere, Rebecca.”

  “No, I don’t need anything.”

  He turned to Adrianne. “See you at home later.”

  “You cooking supper?” Adrianne asked with a grin.

  “Something like that. I assume Melanie and Tyler will be there too.”

  “Yep. And you’re going to have to plan something with Mom and Dad soon. You know they won’t be happy if you keep this from them for too long.”

  Rebecca’s hands clenched. She hadn’t really thought much about Alex’s parents. Jordan’s grandparents. Years ago they had been friendly if a bit distant the couple times she’d met them as part of the group of friends who’d gone to the Thorpe home. No doubt they wouldn’t be happy to discover that they had a grandchild that they hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know. She really hoped that—once they got over whatever their reaction was—that they would be good grandparents to Jordan.

  Goodness knows he wasn’t really getting that from her parents. His major failing was that he hadn’t been born to her younger sister, Cecilia. She knew that her parents’ disappointment in her getting pregnant out of wedlock—or so they thought—and then refusing to name Jordan’s father officially had damaged an already faltering relationship.

  Her younger sister had been everything she wasn’t. Even though Rebecca had gone on to have a successful career of her own, it didn’t match up to Cecelia’s life where she had the perfect businessman husband and three kids. Which was why she was facing another Christmas with just her and Jordan. And maybe Connor if he decided to show up.

  Alex’s gaze met hers. “We’ll discuss that tonight and figure out how best to let them know.”

  It was made as a statement, but Rebecca nodded her agreement without argument. It was going to be the first of many things they would need to discuss. Even though everything in her just wanted to grab Jordan and catch the next flight back to Chicago, there was no going back to how things had once been. Back to when Alex was oblivious to Jordan’s presence in the world. And Jordan had thought his father was dead.

  Rebecca continued to hold her tongue as they made their way back to Alex’s truck. Jordan more than filled the silence so she didn’t have to say anything and that was just fine with her. She felt a bit like she was on a recon mission trying to gather all the information she could about the enemy. Enemy might be a strong word, but it was how she felt right then. Could they ever work together to raise their son? Even with their history between them?

  As much as she knew in her head that the right thing to do was work things out so Alex could get to know his son, Rebecca would have liked to settle for limited contact. Jordan coming to the Twin Cities for a weekend every couple of months and spending a week or two with Alex during the summer. Unfortunately, she was fairly certain neither Alex nor Jordan would go for that.

  So she played with scenarios in her head, testing out possibilities, weighing the pros and cons of each. It was like when she was writing and delving into the plot of a new story. Only now it was her life she was trying to plot out.

  “Mom?”

  “Hmm?” Rebecca turned in her seat so she could see Jordan.

  “Um…” Jordan’s brows drew together as he looked at Alex then dropped his gaze. “He asked you a question.”

  Rebecca looked at Alex. “Sorry. What did you say?”

  He glanced over at her then focused back on the road. “I asked how Connor was doing.”

  “Last I talked to him, he was doing fine.” Rebecca knew she needed to let her brother know what had transpired with Jordan. If her son hadn’t already beaten her to the punch.

  “What’s he up to these days?”

  “He’s working as a civilian contractor with the DoD in the Middle East. He was in Iraq the last time I heard from him, but he was only on a temporary job. I think he was headed back to Afghanistan after that.”

  Alex shot her a surprised look. “Did Connor go into the military?”

  “Yeah.” Rebecca stared out the front window. “He did one semester of college and decided it wasn’t for him so he went into the army, but after two terms, he decided not to re-enlist.”

  “Is he married?”

  “Nope. He always said he was too involved with his job to do what was needed to sustain a serious relationship.” And that hadn’t made her parents any happier with him than they were with her.

  “I’d love to reconnect with him,” Alex said.

  “I’ll let him know.” When silence followed her statement, she asked a question that had come to her while they’d been in Eric’s office. “Was the situation with Alana the reason you couldn’t come to Chicago?”

  “Yes. Alana is the fiancée of one of our employees and she was kidnapped a few weeks ago.”

  “Kidnapped? Do they know who took her?”

  “We have a pretty good idea.” Alex’s profile seemed to harden as she watched him. “We’re just having trouble tracking him down. It’s like they’ve vanished off the face of the earth.”

  “That’s awful.” Rebecca sat for a moment, staring at the traffic in front of them as she played back the different conversations that had gone on while they’d been at BlackThorpe. “Do you think that what happened with Jordan is somehow connected?”

  “Not in the sense that it’s connected to Alana’s kidnapping. It’s more that we’ve had someone targeting BlackThorpe for a while now. They tried to kidnap one of our employees while he was overseas, then we had a hacking attempt on our computer systems. The worst was when they infiltrated a training exercise and shot several of our team.” He rubbed a hand against his thigh. “No one was killed, but it certainly took things to the next level. With the Alana situation—and with Jordan—whoever it is has started digging into the pasts of employees and their families. It’s like he’s trying to stir things up. We don’t know why exactly except to maybe keep us distracted. They’ve definitely accomplished that with Alana’s kidnapping. The whole company has been impacted by it.”

  “And now your life has been even more distracted by the revelation that Jordan is your son.”

  Alex glanced at her then looked back at the road. His Adam’s apple moved as he swallowed. “To be honest, it’s been the best sort of distraction. It’s been a bright light in the midst of some really dark and difficult things. Whatever harm the person hoped to cause with this revelation never came.” One more look at her. “At least for me.”

  Well, at least he was acknowledging that while this might be a great change of circumstances for him, it wasn’t for her. “Are you worried about something worse happening?”

  “Certainly that’s in the back of all of our minds. This person has made it fairly clear the no one is off limits. And while we’ve always focused on the security of our buildings and our employees, we’ve increased all of that even more. That’s why we have so many security features at the house. We’ve upgraded the fence and gate as well as installing perimeter alarms and several additional cameras. You and Jordan will be safe there, just don’t go off without letting someone know where you’re going.”<
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  Rebecca wanted to protest having to account for her movements but held her tongue.

  “Oh, and just so you know up front, all the vehicles at the house have a GPS on them so we can track them if necessary.”

  As if to reinforce his comments about the security at the house, they pulled up to the gate and waited for it to open once he pressed a device attached to the visor in front of him.

  “If you don’t mind, I need to do a little work,” Rebecca said when the truck came to a stop in front of the garage.

  Alex nodded. “Jordan can come hang with me while we get supper ready.”

  Rebecca slid out of the truck into the crisp December air. Large flakes of snow were finally falling from the dark gray sky. She lifted her head to watch for a moment, loving the softness of it.

  “See you in a bit,” she said to Jordan before heading for the steps that led to where she would be staying.

  CHAPTER SIX

  WHAT ARE WE having for supper?” Jordan asked as they walked into the house.

  Alex glanced at the boy as he took his coat off and hung it in the closet. “What do you think? Chicken? Steak?”

  Jordan grinned. “Both?”

  Remembering what it was like to be a teenage boy with a hollow leg, Alex smiled and nodded. “I think we can probably even barbecue.”

  “It’s snowing,” Jordan said with a wave of his hand to a nearby window.

  “Hardly a skiff. It takes more than that to stop us from barbecuing,” he said with a grin. “But first, I’m going to get out of this suit. I’ll be right back.”

  Up in his room, Alex took his time changing out of his work clothes into worn jeans and a long sleeve T-shirt. He sat down on the end of his bed and stared out the large window across the room from him. As he let out a long breath, Alex wondered if he was actually in a dream.

  He had a son? He was back in contact with Rebecca? How, in the space of less than forty-eight hours, had his life changed completely?

  Unfortunately, with Jordan’s arrival in his life, the guilt he’d carried for so long had an even stronger grip on him than ever. Every time he looked at Jordan he felt the guilt of having asked Rebecca to abort him. Every time he looked at Rebecca he felt guilt for not having been the husband he should have been to her.

  Alex had never realized the full weight of that guilt until he stared into the bright blue eyes of his son. Even though he’d felt relief that Rebecca hadn’t followed through on his demand, all he could think was that he’d brushed aside his son’s life like it meant nothing. Over the years, he’d prayed and asked for forgiveness for his words and the intention behind them that he thought had led Rebecca to abort the baby. But still the guilt was there…for fifteen years it had always been there in his heart and mind, lingering, but now it was at the forefront of everything, crushing him.

  He bent his head, closing his eyes, thankful in spite of the guilt. “Thank you, God. Thank you for preventing Rebecca from doing what I asked of her. Thank you for bringing Jordan into my life. I don’t deserve to have a relationship with him, but I want one so much. Thank you.”

  Alex knew that there was still more required of him. He needed to ask Rebecca’s forgiveness for what he’d asked her to do. And then there was the situation with their marriage. There was no way to ignore that, even if he kind of wanted to.

  Alex got to his feet. For now, he’d focus on spending time with Jordan and trying to work out some sort of arrangement with Rebecca that would allow him to build a relationship with him.

  Back in the kitchen, he found Jordan sitting at the counter on a stool, his head bent over his phone. He looked up when Alex walked in.

  “Keeping in touch with your friends?” Alex asked as he crossed the kitchen to the fridge. He pulled out the chicken breasts and steaks that he’d asked Melanie to pick up the previous day.

  “Just my best friend.” Jordan shifted on the stool, a guilty look on his face.

  Alex pulled out the ingredients for a marinade for the meat. “What’s his name?”

  “Robby.” Jordan paused then said, “He’s grounded right now. I kinda got him into trouble.”

  “How’s that?”

  Jordan flipped the phone over and over in his hands. “He helped me when I came here.”

  “He covered for you?” Alex put the meat in the marinade and slid it back in the fridge.

  “Yeah. I feel bad about it. He can’t use any of his gaming stuff this week.”

  Alex wondered if Rebecca wanted to punish Jordan for what had transpired in order for him to show up at the BlackThorpe office. At the very least, there had been some lying going on. While he was grateful for the end result, he supposed the process had to be addressed. He didn’t want to step on Rebecca’s toes in that area, but he would support her if she felt a punishment was in order.

  “What do you two usually do together?” He pulled out a bag of potatoes and began to cut them up.

  “We like to play basketball with some other guys from our church. The church has a gym so our moms reserve it once a week so we can play ball since we’re homeschooled. We also like to play on our game consoles.”

  Jordan fell quiet, and when Alex glanced over, the boy’s gaze was distant as he stared toward the window over the sink.

  “What’s on your mind?” Alex asked as he added olive oil and spices to the potatoes before moving on to cutting up some veggies.

  Jordan didn’t reply right away, causing Alex to look at him again. His gaze met Jordan’s as he waited for the teenager to say something.

  “What happened with you and Mom?” Jordan asked, his words coming in a rush. “Why didn’t you get married or at least stay together?”

  Wow. Alex had known he’d have to answer the difficult questions sooner or later, but he’d been kinda hoping it would, at least, be after he and Rebecca had a chance to talk. He had no idea what she would want him to know. Did she want him to be aware of the fact that they were actually still married?

  “I understand why you’re curious about that, but I think it would be best to wait until the three of us can sit down and talk about it together. You, me and your mom.” Alex rinsed his hands in the sink and reached for a towel to dry them off. “You know that status on Facebook that says it’s complicated? Well, that definitely applies to this situation.” He leaned against the counter across from Jordan. “I promise I’m not trying to shut you down. You have questions and you deserve answers, but I think it needs to be all of us together when we talk about it. What happened back then isn’t just my story to tell, it’s your mom’s as well.”

  Jordan nodded though he didn’t appear happy to not have the answers he wanted. “I don’t think Mom is going to want to talk about it, though. I mean, she went all these years telling me my dad was dead. Why would she lie like that?”

  Alex realized then why Rebecca might not be dishing out a punishment for Jordan. Inasmuch as he’d lied in order to come see Alex, Rebecca had been lying to him his whole life. But no matter how bad a picture it would paint of him, Jordan deserved to know the whole truth. Alex hoped that the revelations the boy so badly wanted wouldn’t end up destroying their relationship before it had even started.

  ~*~*~

  Rebecca stared at the email on the screen. Why was she hesitating? The only reason she hadn’t pursued this sooner was because she hadn’t wanted Alex to have a way to find out about Jordan. Since that was no longer a concern, there was no reason to put off filing for divorce. Hopefully, Alex would see the sense in it. She didn’t want anything from him—including child support. All she wanted was a divorce from a man she no longer knew.

  Pushing aside the lingering doubts, she pressed the send button and hoped that it wouldn’t take too long for her lawyer to get back to her. She wasn’t sure if he’d be the one to help her with this, but he’d helped her when she’d set up her publishing company so even if he couldn’t handle the divorce, no doubt he knew someone who could.

  Not wanting to dwe
ll on it, she pushed away from her laptop and grabbed her phone. She might as well go see what was happening with Jordan. She took a few minutes to change out of her traveling clothes into a pair of jeans and a sweater that were more comfortable.

  Though there was a crispness to the day, the light jacket Rebecca had pulled on was enough to keep her warm as she walked from the apartment to the house. She paused before punching in the four digit code Alex had given her earlier. The door opened without incident even though she’d been half expecting to set off blaring alarms and flashing lights.

  She heard male voices coming from her left so followed the sound and found Jordan and Alex on opposite sides of the counter. The air was thick with tension, and Jordan sat with his shoulders hunched. As she got closer, Alex’s gaze came up and met hers.

  Rebecca laid a hand on Jordan’s shoulder, not missing the way he tensed further. “What’s up?”

  Alex looked at her then back at Jordan. “He asked why we didn’t get married or at least stay together. Why I didn’t know about him.”

  Rebecca’s stomach clenched. She’d known they would have to have this discussion, but she had hoped to talk with Alex first. “What did you tell him?”

  Before Alex could answer, Jordan’s head came up, and he twisted his shoulder out from under her hand. “He said that it was something the three of us needed to discuss together.” He turned to look at her, his eyes blazing with hurt. “Are you guys planning to talk first so you can get your stories straight? Or are you actually going to tell me the truth for a change?”

  “Jordan.” Alex’s tone was low but firm. “I know this is all very confusing for you, but you need to still speak to your mom with respect.”

  Jordan’s head bent forward as he traced patterns on the counter with his fingers. “So, we’re all here now. Can we talk about it?”