He never played college or professional football?
The question bounces around in my mind, creating more questions. Why didn’t he follow through with his dream? Wasn’t that the whole reason he and I didn’t work out all those years ago?
And why would he have tried to look for me? Was it that his football glory days were done and he finally realized what a mistake he’d made? Well, if he’d had his way, it would have been too late. And that thought just sends a heated fire running through me. It almost seemed like Jeremy thought he had a reason to be angry with me.
None of what happened back then was my fault. It was all his and his horrible grandparents.
“We have a few new clients. I’d like you to add all of their information to the spreadsheet I showed you earlier. And I need flights and travel itinerary for the two men I’m sending to South America next week on a mission. Can you handle that?”
When Jacob Owen talks, I listen. I’ve noticed that’s the case with anyone he’s speaking to. Today’s my second day of work, and I’ve already learned that he’s the ultimate alpha of Night Eagle, and that he’s a little gruff and scary when he talks. Giving him a pleasant smile, I nod my head.
“Yes, Mr. Owen. That’s no problem at all.” The word mission sparks my attention, though I try not to let Mr. Owen know it.
I know that the men working at Night Eagle are ex-military, but from some of the snippets of conversation I’ve heard and some of the documents I’ve handled that I’m not “cleared” to read, I can attest to the fact that their black ops careers are definitely not behind them.
And Jeremy, the man who used to be the boy I loved, fits right into all of it. I can’t help but follow him with my eyes when he walks by. There’s a predatory confidence to the way he moves that draws my attention. Hell, it’d draw any woman’s attention. It’s hot. In a raw, primal, animalistic way that makes me want to undo one more button on my top. Which pisses me off. I refuse to feel anything for that man.
As soon as I returned to my desk after my talk with Jeremy, I slid Decker’s framed photo off my desk and hid it in my drawer. I’m going to have to deal with it eventually, but now isn’t the time for Jeremy to find out that I have a son.
Above all else, I’ve always protected Decker from anyone who might hurt him, who might not love him.
The blocked call on my phone earlier hasn’t left my mind. I’ve pushed it far away into the depths, but now that the day is winding down and my work is about done, it’s creeping back into my thoughts.
I have another brand-new cell phone number. There’s no way Wagner Horton could have my new number.
The little voice inside my head laughs, mocking me. If Wagner Horton wants your number, he’ll find a way to get your number.
And if he does have my number that means he thinks he can find me. Suddenly, I’m so very happy I kept the area code a Phoenix one, and that I withdrew cash to pay for Decker and my plane tickets to Wilmington. I can’t hide from Wagner forever, but maybe if I can figure out exactly what he did, I can tip off the proper authorities to his crime.
My phone is in my hands, and I’m turning it over and over again as I ponder. I don’t even notice Jeremy standing beside my desk, and when he clears his throat, I jump like I’ve been poked with a stick.
His eyebrows lift as he glances from my phone to me and back again. “Everything okay?”
Nodding, I place my phone in my purse and shut down the computer. “Fine. I’m just getting ready to head home.”
Jeremy leans against my desk, and when he folds his arms the muscles on his biceps flex. I can’t help it when my eyes stray there, tracing the inky lines of the tattoos swirling around his muscles.
“When did you get those?” I ask.
Dammit. My voice betrays me every time I speak to Jeremy. It’s still surreal that he’s standing here in front of me like this.
Glancing down at his arms, his deep voice caresses me when he answers. “After I made Ranger battalion. Maybe someday I’ll tell you what they mean.”
Oh. It’s unexpected, how much I want to know that story. I used to know all his stories.
As I stand, I give him an awkward wave. “Well, bye. Guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
A struggle happens right before me on his face. The warring emotions chase one another until finally, he holds a hand out toward the door.
“I’m going to walk you to your car.” His tone is grudging.
I’m so taken aback by this that I just take him in for a second. His rigid stance, his irritated expression…everything about him says he doesn’t want to walk me to my car, but he feels he has to.
I can’t even help it when my eyes roll skyward. “Oh, really, Jeremy? How the hell have I made it from my place of employment to my car for the past nine years? Are you really going to walk me?”
I stare at him, arms folded, my stance identical to his.
“I’m walking you to your car, Rayne. Maybe I haven’t been there for the past nine years to do it, and maybe someone else has been doing it instead. I don’t give a shit. All I know is that I’m here now, and I’m walking you to your damn car. Understood?”
A tingle of pleasure that I’ll never admit to ripples through me, heating me up from the inside out.
I think of Wagner, and the relief I feel at having this big, muscly man walk me to my car is immediate.
“Understood.”
A few minutes later, we’re heading toward my sister’s car. Jeremy nods toward it as I pull out my keys.
“This is you?”
“It’s Olive’s. Mine is still in Phoenix.” Along with most of the things I own. But I keep that thought to myself.
Jeremy quirks a brow. “Yeah? Are you planning on staying in Wilmington?”
I shrug. “For now.”
Jeremy clears his throat. “So, Olive…she works with Berkeley now, huh? We’ve seen each other a few times a barbecues, and I went on a trip to Georgia with her not too long ago. I recognized her pretty quickly, even though she looks a hell of a lot different now than she did in high school.”
Smirking, I nod. “Yeah, like she’s a redhead now. And she’s lost a lot of weight, too. She’s been through a lot.”
We both have.
“She was pretty tight-lipped when I asked her about you. Said she hadn’t been in touch. I’m guessing that’s not actually the case, is it?” He only needs to take one look at my face for his answer.
Curiosity gets the better of me, pushing me to ask questions I know I shouldn’t. “What would you have said to her if she’d been willing to talk to you?”
A tendril of resentment, a feeling that I’ve buried way down deep in reference to Jeremy, unfurls inside of me. If he’d chosen differently all those years ago, if all the promises he made to me had been true, he wouldn’t have had to ask my sister about me.
He’d know firsthand.
We stop walking beside Olive’s little luxury coupe, a car that I’ve been having an interesting time trying to cram myself, Decker, and all our stuff into anytime we need to go somewhere.
“Hell, I don’t know.” Jeremy takes a deep breath. “Back then, I was young and stupid enough to think we were it. Forever. And then you left…took me a long time to bounce back from that, Rayne. A long damn time.”
Something inside me, a piece of me I thought had been healed a long time ago, fissures open. My voice breaks on my next question. “How are your grandparents, Jeremy?”
His expression darkens, his green eyes going all stormy and cool. When Jeremy and I were together, he had a strained relationship with his grandparents. But since he lost his parents at such a young age, they were all he had.
They’re the reason I knew, all those years ago, I had to leave Wilmington without a backward glance.
But, looking at his expression now, the first-ever tingle of doubt shoots through me about that decision.
“I haven’t spoken to them in years, Rayne. I cut them out of my life right before I enlisted.”
He’s searching my gaze, looking for any reason I could have for asking that question.
“I…I didn’t know.”
Jeremy opens my car door and waits for me to climb inside. Just before he shuts it, he leans in the slightest bit and looks me in the eye. “Yeah. There’s a lot you don’t know about my life after you left, Rayne. And I have a feeling it’s the same way for me with you.”