* * *

No one spoke as we headed to the plane that would take us back to the island, and by the time we got there she was half asleep on my shoulder.

She was sitting almost in my lap, scrunched up beside me and I got the sense that she was afraid of all the bodies in the hummer.

She brought out every protective instinct I have. There was just something so…innocent about her. The guys kept giving her questioning looks, but at the moment I wasn’t interested in anything other than getting her as far away from there as possible.

No one said anything but it didn’t take much to figure out what they were thinking. Who the hell is she? And why did her father keep her so well hidden?

While my brothers played around on their handhelds trying to find information on her, I was busy taking in all the nuances of having her near.

She had a weird calming affect on me, almost like baby Zak does when she’s not harassing me about something.

I drew her scent into me and just for now, let myself enjoy having her near. It would be so easy to open that locked off part of me and let this one in.

I gritted my teeth and pulled back when my mind went there. Instead I took her hand in mine as I looked out at the dark.

No Devon, don’t do it. She’s too delicate, too everything that you shouldn’t have. But for one small moment I allowed myself to think what if.

I satisfied myself with a soft kiss on her forehead and closed my eyes as she sighed and burrowed into me.

I caught Logan’s look over her head and pulled back again. Fucker stared at me until I looked away and ignored his ass.

I tried rousing her when we reached the airstrip but she didn’t budge. Quinn opened my door and waited for me to pass her off to him and I knew I was fucked when I didn’t want him to touch her.

He grinned and took her from me and I was out of the car in two seconds flat, taking her out of his arms and holding her close to my chest again.

She felt right there, her hair ticking my nose, her amazing scent intoxicating. There were whispers and murmurings but hopefully they were discussing the case and not what was going on with me.

I had to carry her from the car to the plane and belt her in. How the hell was she sleeping? I sat next to her and laid my head back suddenly tired as fuck. Once again she shifted until her head was on my shoulder.

The whole way, from the time we left her home until we landed on that island I was tense. Because of all the secrecy surrounding her there was a new fear in my gut. A fear that hasn’t been there since I was a child.

For the first time in years I let myself think of who I used to be before my life changed so drastically. That boy would’ve deserved someone like her.

I don’t know how I knew it, but I knew that she was all that was good. I could see my sisters corrupting her, tarnishing some of that sweetness, turning her into one of them.

It was a nice thought and again I let myself imagine having something as perfect as her. What would that be like? Just the thought had a sweet warmth rushing through me and I took her hand in mine again.

I honest to fuck had no idea what was happening to me. I tried recalling all the shit my brothers had griped about in the beginning of their relationships, but nothing would come.

I was on my own with this one and it scared the shit out of me. I focused instead on the here and now. On keeping her safe. I’ll deal with whatever else comes next when my mind wasn’t pulling me in a hundred directions at once.

* * *

When the plane landed I waited for the others to file off leaving just Quinn in the cabin with us.

“I’ll carry her don’t wake her up.” He smirked and held his hands up in surrender as he backed away. Ass!

I carried her from the plane to the waiting car and she still didn’t wake up. I caught myself before I buried my nose in her hair as I held her close to my chest.

My brothers kept giving me questioning looks which I ignored, I had some of my own. But they’ll have to wait. Right now I was more interested in her story and why she didn’t seem to exist anywhere.

Once we got back to the grounds I didn’t know what to do. The right thing would be to take her to the mansion to one of the many rooms there, but I didn’t want to let her out of my sight, I wasn’t ready.

Not until I knew what the hell was going on here. At least that’s the excuse I gave myself when I realized I actively couldn’t let her go.

“I’m taking her with me.” I dared them to say anything with a glare. No one said shit to me as I turned and headed to my little cottage, but I could feel their eyes on me as I walked away.

There was only one bedroom in the cottage so I decided to give her the bed and take the couch in the living room.

Quinn who’d followed us dropped her stuff off at the door while I carried her inside. “You need any help?”

“Get the fuck outta here Quinn.” The ass grinned and left.

In the bedroom I laid her on the bed and stood back just looking down at her. I was finally able to breathe a little easier now that she was safe.

She was a tiny little thing. It would be so easy to…No Devon. In all these years I’ve never given any thought to hurting a woman.

It just wasn’t something I had to think about because I’d never come close to finding anyone I wanted for more than a couple hours of bed play.

So why, why did she make me question myself? Why were all these feelings awakening in me now? I was afraid I knew the answer, but it was too dangerous.

Each time I told myself that maybe I could make it work, that sickening fear rose up inside me. I could break her in half with just a snap of my hands.

And even though the very thought of it was repulsive to me, I couldn’t risk it. My heart felt like it was bleeding in my chest when I accepted that I couldn’t have her, no matter what I was feeling.

I wanted so badly to reach out and touch her in the moonlight that shone through the window, but knew that I shouldn’t and the battle raged on inside me.

A part of me wanted to protect her from someone like myself and the other wanted to dive right into her and never look back. “What are you doing to me?”

It was her enticing beauty. It was almost unreal. Her caramel colored skin so beautifully blemish free. The contours of her face, high cheeks bones, lush lips and those pits in her cheeks.

It was almost as if she’d been sculpted from a mold of perfection. I can honestly say I have never seen anything as beautiful as her in my life.

And still there was something so familiar about her. An almost knowing, like maybe we’d met in a past life.

And then it hit me like a punch to the gut, why I’m having such a strong reaction to her. She reminded me of my mom.

She had that quietness about her, an innocence that I remember from my youth. That beauty of spirit and face. Oh shit!

I stepped back away from her and choked up as the sensations hit me from all angles. Mom! For the second time that night I felt tears cloud my eyes.

I fought valiantly to hold on to the here and now, not to confuse the two realities, but it wasn’t easy. Why her, why now? Had I dreamed her into existence with my want?

Had my secret yearning for what the others had made her out to be something more than she is? Somehow I don’t think so. It was too real.

There’s no way I could make myself feel these things. I had no control over the emotions that hit me one after the other and I know I’d never felt anything like this before in my life.

I have to get out of here, I can’t breathe. I pulled the sheet up over her after pulling her shoes off, removing the temptation.

I looked back at her once before leaving to go back outside where I knew the others would be waiting. I took a minute to compose myself, but she was still there, inside me, almost as if it was too late.

They were standing on the front lawn when I arrived. I half expected them to rag my ass but they were still in work mode. “Well what the fuck?” Logan was the first to speak.

“I can’t figure it out either. I’ve used every resource and she doesn’t show up on any database as his daughter. I mean it’s freaky. She’s there and that’s it. There’s no history not even school. No birth certificate, nothing.”

“How is this possible? Everybody leaves a carbon print in some way. There’s no way she was kept under the radar for this long. She must be what, twenty-one, twenty-two?” Mancini seemed affronted that he couldn’t find her with this high tech gadget.

“You’d have to have known the CO and his team Hank to understand it. If anyone could pull this off it was he. The question is why would they go to these lengths to keep her hidden?” Logan answered Hank.

“Shit, I knew it!” Cord who’d been quiet all night caught everyone’s attention.

“What is it Cord?”

“Something he said, about the CO leaving something for us that would explain things.”

“Well the only thing we found was the book and there was nothing in there that sheds any light on this. Not about her part in it anyway.”

“No, the picture I took off the wall. There was something about it.” He started heading back to his cottage at a jog as the rest of us were still trying to fit the pieces together.

“Anyone have any idea what’s going on here? If no one knew she existed, how the hell does Khalil know she exists?” Justice asked.

“I don’t think we’re gonna know the answer to that until we get some more information. Hopefully the CO did leave us something because it’s fucking nuts.” Connor who likes to have all the answers seemed perturbed.

“Okay well what do we have so far? There’s always an answer for everything. And when we figure this shit out I wanna know how it’s done.”

“I think it’s too late for you to go off the grid Lyon. I’m pretty sure you’re all over somebody’s radar by now. Or a lot of somebodies.”

“Fuck you Hank I might need that shit for Mengele, sure as fuck she’s gonna end up in jail.”

“Oh come on Lyon your little one is something special, she’s going to take the world by storm one day.”

“Oh yeah, what makes her so special?”

“I saw her reading A Book of Five Rings earlier, what is she like five?”

“What the fuck? Miyamoto Musashi? Where the fuck did she get that?”

“I may have had one lying around the library.”

“Your kid is a fucking tadpole.” Logan piped in. I guess they’d decided to lighten the mood until Cord returned, since we were all stuck.

“The fuck that mean?”

“It means she’s one of them. That’s what the navy calls newbies.” Mancini laughed and Lyon looked like he was ready to kill.

“Whatever! Somebody gonna tell me what the fuck we have so far? I’d like to get some sleep before my brood wakes up in a few hours and need shit.”

“Not to mention I’ve never been away from my wife as much as I have in the last few days and she’s probably counting sheep and waiting to fuck with my ass about some shit.”

“So far we know that the daughters of the men who served with the commander have been nabbed or attempts have been made. We didn’t know Terrence had a daughter, we only found a son. A son who tricked his way into the DOD.” Connor laughed at Lyon as he answered.

“Yeah there is that, we still don’t know why he wanted in.” I watched Cord return with the life portrait in hand.

We headed back to the mansion and I looked back only once at the cottage, not sure if I should leave her alone. Damn, is this how it starts? What’s next, am I going to lose my mind like the rest of these fucks?

We were all tried, it was plain to see by the time we made it back to Mancini’s private room with all his unregistered gadgets.

“Okay Cord let’s see what you got.” Logan took up a spot on the wall with the others but I was literally on top of Cord.

He ran his fingers along the edges of the frame and tapped on the back but there was nothing. “What was it that made you think there was something here?”

He held the portrait away from him and looked at it intently. “The eyes, there was something…” He ran his finger over the eyes and smiled.

“There it is!” He turned the painting over and ripped away the paper at the back. There was a chip in the back of one of the eyes. “Oh shit!” I really hadn’t expected him to find anything.

“Give it here.” Mancini held out his hand and Cord passed it to him. It was a shock when he put it in the computer and the old man’s face came on the wall screen.

I looked around at my brothers and saw the same emotion that was beating in my chest, shining out of their eyes.