Mine

“Do you think she’s his type?” Rick winced as if the words tasted bad in his mouth. “Linda was quiet and sweet.”

Talk about revisionist history. Andy had to bite back the smartass comment on his tongue. “And cheated on him.”

“Natalie is kind of . . .”

“No.” He shut this down. Had to, because if Gabe came back and heard Rick bad-mouthing Natalie, that battle they’d been promising each other would happen. Life would break out into a holy war with no survivors. “You might want to choose your words carefully.”

“Now you’re her defender, too?”

“I like her.” Andy thought about the words as he said them. They were true. Natalie had been dealt a shitty hand all around. She could have hid and played the victim but never did. He could see where Gabe might find that interesting.

“Why?”

“She’s tough and smart. She won’t take Gabe’s shit and can handle his moods and work demands.” Simple words but they worked here. “She’s not my type, of course, but I can appreciate a hot woman when I see one.”

“He needs someone who isn’t so damn difficult.”

That sounded exactly wrong to Andy. “See, it’s that type of comment that makes me think you don’t know Gabe all that well anymore.”

“Oh, really?” Rick stood up, full battle stance and sharp tone back in place.

Whatever had weighed him down when he walked into the office seemed to be gone. Andy hoped Rick hadn’t released the guilt, because he deserved to wallow in it a bit longer. He also owed Gabe an apology and Brandon a life that didn’t include doubts and huge changes.

But Andy went with the most obvious point, the one he thought he could sell. “What our brother needs is a challenge, someone who equals him. Pushes him.”

“Sounds exhausting to me.”

“And I bet he likes that, too.” Not that Andy wanted to spend one second thinking about what Gabe and Natalie did together in that department.

“What happened to the whole loner act?”

“Maybe he was just waiting for the right woman to wander along.” Worked as good as any explanation, but the truth probably had more to do with the work and the energy needed to raise Brandon alone and in safety.

Rick actually sneered. “Oh, come on.”

The men in this family needed some work on the romance front. Gabe was wounded and pretending not to be. Rick was . . . who the hell knew. And Andy had to admit that he still had a thing for a guy who had moved on. Fucking Eli.

“I guess we’ll know soon enough,” Andy said, because that was easier than launching into a statement about how they all sucked at this.

“Which brings me back to my point.” With each short sentence Rick banged his fist against the corner of the desk. “The men I work for do not like being threatened. Your fake plane crash worked to the extent that it convinced some she wasn’t looking to be out in the open, causing trouble. Others remain skeptical. Those two factions are fighting it out right now.”

“I’m pretty proud of that operation.” He’d never staged something so elaborate in so little time. The number of moving pieces was staggering, but the photographs and press coverage impressed him.

“Just knowing Natalie is out there and has damaging information on them is making those last few doubting holdouts twitchy. They should back off but there are contingency plans in place for another course of action.”

The men she once worked for continued to underestimate her. Andy had no idea how that was possible. “Do they want her to release the intel?”

“I think they’re trying to figure out how to find it before she can. They view this as a race.”

No way. But that meant it was up to Rick to convince them otherwise before someone did something really stupid. “You said you were doing this for Gabe.”

Rick shrugged. “Yeah, so?”

“Handle it.” When Rick just sat there, Andy doled out a bit of truth. “Redemption is a bitch.”

•   •   •

Gabe couldn’t put his finger on what he enjoyed more, watching Brandon settle in at home and eat everything in sight or the look of horror on Natalie’s face as she watched it happen. Either way a feeling of calmness settled over him. This, them together, struck him as right. Not really a guy to seek out or depend on comfort, he appreciated it all the more when it blanketed him without warning.

Natalie inched closer to the opposite side of the counter from Brandon with every mouthful he swallowed. He stood over the sink, not even bothering with a plate as he feasted on a piece of chicken. He held a napkin and ate with a bit less than his usual gusto, so Gabe let it go. He picked his battles, and a chicken leg wasn’t one of them.

She put her palms on the edge of the counter and rested a foot on the bottom bar of the stool next to her. The move pulled her slim jeans tight across her ass. Gabe tried not to notice but his gaze kept bouncing. He had eyes and a functioning dick. No way could he ignore the way she looked, all casual and cozy, in his house. Made him extra happy he’d asked for her sizes before hunting down clothes for her for the Montana trip.

“You eat enough for three grown men,” she said with more than a little awe in her voice.

Brandon took the time to wipe his face and finish chewing before answering. “You sound like Dad.”

“He drinks a gallon of milk every three days.” Gabe’s grocery budget expanded and groaned every time the kid came home.

Natalie kept frowning. “Maybe we should check him for a tapeworm.”

“Wait, what?” Brandon froze as he stood locked in a staring contest with her. “How would you do that?”

“You don’t want to know.” But Gabe was pretty tempted to explain how it all worked just to see Brandon’s face.

Brandon dropped the chicken leg. “Sounds gross. I’ll pass.”

Damn, he missed his kid. The semester had only started a few months ago, but that didn’t matter to Gabe. Not having Brandon around after having him underfoot for so long tugged at him.

He’d thought he’d be the tough dad who appreciated his son’s maturity and let that satisfaction be enough. Instead, he’d spent every night of the first week sitting on Brandon’s bed glancing around the room. Pathetic stuff but Gabe didn’t fight it. Brandon meant everything.

“You sure you don’t want me to drive you back to school?” Gabe didn’t mind, and Natalie might like the diversion of mindless sightseeing through the countryside and being on the move might be safer for her than being still.

“Nah, my friends are coming through.” Brandon didn’t even look up as he dropped his backpack on the counter and started loading it with boxes of crackers and protein bars.

Natalie glanced over her shoulder at Gabe. “They come here?”

“No.” Not until he checked them out and knew they were safe. None of these kids rose to that level yet.

Brandon headed for the pantry. “Not even close.”

“So, we just drop him off on the side of the road somewhere?” That judgment moved back into her voice.

Gabe decided to ignore it. “Tempting, but there’s a cabin.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course there is.”

Gabe knew she thought about the one in Montana with the homemade water heater, but this was not that. The structure functioned as a guardhouse of sorts but didn’t look like one. Two floors and two bedrooms. Where he and Brandon lived while the main house was being built. The same place Andy tried to claim before Gabe set it up as a security feature.

“It sits on a plot of land and looks like that’s it. Just the house and some yard.” A place with sentimental value. Watching Brandon move around the kitchen, acting as if it were a grocery store, the memories hit Gabe. “We take him there and wait. If everything looks fine, he goes, but he carries a tracker and some other things on him at all times.”

Natalie smiled. “How very covert of you.”

“You’re not the only one with training.”