Gray

The petty part of him felt vindicated by the look on her face.

There was no denying he felt some satisfaction in dropping the information about the bio-father. Gray wasn’t a perfect human being, and he knew it. But more of him felt sad that she’d just come to terms with the fact that he might be alive, and now she was finding out that when Gray apprehended him, he was going to go away again.

“It makes sense though. I wasn’t sure why he was being held where he was, but now that I know he was an Institute shifter, it makes more sense.”

It made a lot more sense. Intelligence would have him, and would have been grilling him about any information he could give him, on the Institute and any of its high-level employees who may have escaped the shifter-led destruction of its operations. Nobody had ever harbored any ideas that they’d gotten everyone involved with the organization’s creation. It had just been too large for that to happen.

But not only was he a former Institute operative, but he was the father of her child. That knowledge hit Gray in the gut like no punch ever could. He quite literally couldn’t deny Jacen’s involvement in Kelly’s life, if she so chose to have him be a part of it. It hurt worse, because he’d begun to consider the possibility of himself as their father figure. Perhaps even as their dad, whatever sex they were. Gray wasn’t overly concerned with the fact that it wasn’t his, biologically speaking. That meant some, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. Not even close.

Now though, now he might not even get that opportunity, even if he did end up sending Jacen away. And on top of it all, Kelly was right. He did feel like a tremendous idiot. Gray had been so positive about his read of the situation, that he hadn’t even given her the chance to explain the other night. Instead, he’d just said something unkind to her and walked off.

“I am such an idiot.”

A smile appeared on her face. “Yes, you are. But you’re a good person too, Gray. Maybe a bit presumptuous at times, but generally still a good person. So I’m not going to hold it against you.”

He laughed once. “Well, that’s a relief. Thank you.” Then he gave her a curious look. “Why didn’t you tell me though, when he first showed up? I would really have preferred to hear about it that way.”

Kelly winced. “That one’s on me, no doubt about it. I should have spoken to you about it after it became clear things were getting serious between us.”

He perked up. “You thought things were getting serious?”

“Yes…didn’t you?”

“Absolutely!” he agreed heartily. “I just wasn’t sure that you did, that’s all. But I’m glad to hear it.”

Kelly nodded. “But you need to tell me about Jacen first. Why is he a fugitive? What’s going on there?”

Gray steeled himself to deliver her the bad news. “It’s complicated, and I’ll be honest, I don’t know everything. Our intelligence organization had him. I assume they were trying to get information about the Institute from him or something. But he escaped. Nobody wants to take the blame for that, or to admit to the general public that something like the intelligence group even exists. So, they play dumb.”

Kelly frowned. “I don’t get it.”

“Politics,” he explained. “By not admitting that he escaped from them, nobody will ever be able to blame the folks in Intelligence for the error. Instead, they just sort of sent verbal, easily deniable word of mouth about him, and expected us to do the rest.”

“And will you?”

He shrugged helplessly. “It’s my job, Kelly. On top of that, he is an Institute operative. He worked for them of his own free will, in exchange for money. We killed most of them. At least he’s alive,” he replied, knowing how lame it sounded.

“What a life,” she muttered. “Living in a cell, being interrogated every day.”

“It’s not my fault he chose that lifestyle,” Gray said defensively. “I’m just trying to do my job here. I don’t want to start a panic.”

“A panic? Who is going to panic?”

“There are plenty of civilians back in Cadia who aren’t ready for conflict,” he told her. “Who would view an Institute operative loose amongst their midst as something to be scared of.”

Kelly rolled her eyes. “Seriously? I think they’ll be okay.”

“Why are you being so defensive?”

“Because he’s the father of my child, Gray. Whether I want it or not, that makes him a little more important than the average shifter.” There was a long pause. “I think.”

“You think?” He was confused.

“I don’t know, okay? I’m still trying to figure this all out myself, to make sense of everything that’s going on. I just don’t know. This is a lot for me to take in over the past little bit. You waltzing into my life, and how things are going there, then Jacen showing up, back from the dead. Lots of changes, and I wasn’t ready for any of them. I was just fine cruising along, prepared to do this thing all by my lonesome. Now I have not one, but possibly two men who are willing to help me out, and it’s just got me a little confused, that’s all.”

Gray nodded. “I understand. Lots of different variables introduced into what you thought was a stable equation.”

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“Do you know where Jacen is?” he asked.

“No. I haven’t heard from him since the night you two duked it out on the front lawn,” she said crossly.

“Nice and reliable there,” he said, unable to resist the snide comment.

Kelly lifted her eyebrows, looking in his direction. “Get off your high horse there, mister. Don’t forget, I didn’t hear from you, either.”

Gray looked away, muttering something about thinking that she was cheating on him, wanting nothing to do with her anymore.

“Speaking of not hearing from people, Harden is upset that nobody ever told him or his friends that more of their people survived.”

“They didn’t tell anybody that he survived. I don’t think it was a slight against Harden,” he replied.

“But what if there are more of them, Gray? What if he and his little circle aren’t alone?”

Gray shrugged. “I don’t have access to that sort of thing, Kel. Heck, Andrew had to call in a lot of favors just so we could learn about Jacen, and even then all we got was an old photograph. You've told me more about him than we knew, without even trying to. If they have more of them, they’re off somewhere at a secret location that nobody knows about.”

He sighed in frustration. “And they are our enemy. You mustn’t forget that. They engineered a war that killed thousands. They killed even more simply for the money. Jacen did that. A mercenary. Who knows how many Cadians he’s killed. I have to take him in.”

There was a long pause, and he thought she was going to resist him.

“I’m not sure how comfortable I am with helping you to find him, just so you can send him back to his cage somewhere.”

Gray gave her a long look. “Dammit,” he swore at the end. “Okay, we’ll take him in, but we’ll take him to Andrew instead. Maybe…I don’t know, maybe something can be arranged? I make no promises. But either way, he needs to be found and taken off the streets, so he stops scaring other people.”

He wasn’t willing to back down on that point, and he stood there, waiting for her to respond, to acknowledge that that was going to happen, whether she liked it or not.

“You promise not to hurt him?”

“I promise to try,” he said, meaning each word. “If he comes along peacefully, then there won’t be a need for violence. But I’m not going to risk myself getting hurt, and I’m certainly not going to risk anyone else getting hurt.”

Kelly looked away, her features torn. But eventually she agreed. “Okay. We’ll find him, somehow.”

“Thank you,” he said softly, stepping forward and closing the gap between them. “I know this can’t be easy for you.”

“Probably easier than childbirth,” she said with a little hiccup laugh.

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” he said with a smile, enveloping her into his arms.

Kelly didn’t resist. She leaned up against him, her head resting comfortably against his chest, her wavy brown hair straightening gently under each stroke of his hand before resuming its natural form.