The Cajun accent was diluted, but still there. Unlike Kell, Aaron had never been able to completely drown out the low, accented drawl he had been raised with.
Emily looked from Kell’s closed expression, then to the older couple once again.
“Kell. It’s been so long.” Patricia reached out to him then, her green eyes, not as dark as his, not as bright, shimmering with a damp sheen as her fragile hand shook.
She was so much tinier than she had been last time he had seen her. So much more frail.
“Has it been long enough?” he asked her then. “Would it be long enough for you?”
He hated this. For fifteen years he had avoided anything that would bring him in contact with them, that would allow for such a scene.
“A time comes in a man’s life when he must make hard decisions,” Aaron said then, his voice gruff. “When he must see the mistakes of his past. Just ’cause we are older, doesn’t mean we don’t make mistakes.”
Mistakes. That was how they saw it. How they had seen his marriage to Tansy. How they had seen the child he had created with her.
“And a time comes when a man has to admit that no amount of regret can ever change certain mistakes or their results.” He kept his voice cool, as unemotional as his expression. “This is neither the place nor the time, Mr. Beaulaine. We’ll have to speak later.”
Mamère whimpered. Before Kell could catch himself his hand reached for her, but he quickly jerked it back, an inner fury lashing inside him at the instinctive response.
“Kell, we’ll be gone soon.” Patricia kept her voice low, her awareness of those around them evident. “I beg of you, allow us to make amends.”
He shook his head. “Amends were never needed.” Some things couldn’t be fixed.
With that, he dropped Emily’s hand, gripped her upper arm, and moved her away from the couple, leading her back into the house and heading for the front door.
She wasn’t speaking. He had glimpsed her face though, seen the suspicion in her eyes and the anger.
Damn her, did she think he liked turning his back on them? They were old. So old that the knowledge of their limited time on this earth struck him with startling strength each time he thought of them.
And each time he thought of seeing them again, reaching out to them, he remembered the child that had died with its mother. The child he had never held, never known, and yet had loved with all his heart.
As they said their goodbyes to the Dunmores and Emily made some excuse about a headache and gave her effusive thanks to Wilma for hostessing the party, Kell watched as Ian moved to the limo that had pulled up to the bottom of the steps that led to the circular driveway.
His neck was still itching. He stared around the well-lit grounds, his eyes narrowed on the shadows that ringed the woods around them.
As he moved Emily down the steps, he saw it. The small red bead that began to dance over her chest from the sights of an assassin’s rifle.
He jerked her to the side as part of the cement column behind them shattered, and Ian jumped into action. He rushed up the steps from the open limo door, placed himself in front of Emily as Kell gripped her waist and they all but threw her into the limo. Kell jumped in beside her.
Within seconds, the vehicle was moving away from the house as Ian barked his report to Reno into the secured cell phone he carried.
Emily stared across the distance at Kell, her eyes wide, her face pale.
“I saw it,” she whispered, the horror in her voice clenching at his soul. “Fuentes has decided to kill me? I thought he wanted to kidnap me?”
“If his assassin wanted you dead he wouldn’t have used a fucking laser sight,” he snarled, his hands clenching as he fought to keep from jerking her to him, from devouring her just to be certain she was truly still there with him. “The son of a bitch is playing games again and laughing his ass off as we scramble around trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Once I figure it out, I’m going to watch that bastard bleed.”
Seventeen
EMILY ESCAPED TO HER BEDROOM the moment Kell announced that the house was clear and safe. Her father was downstairs with the rest of the SEAL team, planning, trying to figure out what the Fuentes cartel was doing and what their next move would be.
All Emily could see was the small pinpoint of light that had jumped from her chest to Kell’s. The knowledge that the laser sight was aiming for him, not for her, and the startling realization that life would never be the same without him.
She wouldn’t be the same without him.
She loved him.
He was secretive. Mysterious. Sexy and manipulative and she knew it. He had been manipulating her since the day he had come into her life. But the manipulation was designed to spur her to fight for what she wanted. Not to restrain those needs.