Page 8 of Redemption

“Blackjack, you were too old five years ago.” We both knew that wasn’t true, even if I was forty-four.

“What’s Nate going to think?” I asked.

I’d been protecting his family for almost a year now. I felt like part of the family at times, even though I did my best to maintain a professional distance. They had always been welcoming, especially his twelve-year-old daughter, Brooklyn.

“Nate wants you to take this client. He specifically requested you.”

“He did?” I asked, furrowing my brow. “Who is it?”

“One of his cousins.”

Nate had a lot of cousins, though he was closest to the ones on his mom’s side. They were more like siblings. Surely Vaughn wasn’t referring to Graham, Jasper, or…I swallowed hard. Sloan. Right?

My heart rate ratcheted up at the thought of Sloan. Technically, she was Nate’s cousin, but he’d always referred to her as his sister. Sloan did love sailing. But… No. Surely not.

“Nate trusts you,” Vaughn continued. “That speaks volumes.”

Vaughn was right. Nate’s trust wasn’t easily given. So, for him to request that I be reassigned to his cousin—a cousin who hopefully wasn’t Sloan—meant he was entrusting them to my care. And that soothed some of the sting from the fact that I would no longer lead his residential team.

I’d be crazy to turn down an opportunity like this. The sailing trip alone… I was still trying to wrap my head around it. All of it.

I was a little rusty—at least for a trip of that duration. But I knew it would come back to me quickly. It always did.

“Here’s the file.” Vaughn passed it to me.

I opened the folder, and oh fuck. I went completely still. There she was, staring back at me as if my thoughts had conjured her.

“Sloan?” I choked on her name. “Sloan Mackenzie is the client?” My eyes flashed to his, seeking confirmation. I supposed this shouldn’t have been a huge surprise, but fuck.

Vaughn furrowed his brow. “Why? You know her? Apart from her connection to Nate.”

Images flashed through my mind. Her coy smile as she straddled me. Her head tilted back in ecstasy as I thrust into her. Lazy days spent in bed talking about everything and nothing.

“We…” I blew out a breath. “Yeah. She’s my little sister’s best friend.”

Yes, I knew Sloan. But once upon a time, she’d known me—better than anyone ever had.

Which was why I found myself saying, “Maybe you should send someone else. Cujo or any of the other former SEALs.”

Connor James, or “Cujo,” was a former Navy SEAL like me, but I doubted he wanted to leave his wife for two months when she was nearing the end of her pregnancy.

Vaughn shook his head. “Nate specifically requested you.”

I scratched at my jaw. “That’s great, but what about Sloan?”

“What about her?” he asked, being deliberately obtuse.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk, narrowing his eyes at me. I knew he was waiting for me to elaborate.

I considered how best to phrase it. How to explain who Sloan was to me. I wasn’t sure I could.

“Look, it’s clear from your reaction that you guys have some…history. But how long has it been since you’ve seen her?” he asked.

If you didn’t count Abu Dhabi… “Fourteen years.” Though the moment I’d seen her in Abu Dhabi, the past hadn’t felt that long ago.

Vaughn waved a hand through the air. “Water under the bridge.”

I swallowed hard at the thought of seeing her, spending so much time alone with her. Maybe Vaughn was right. Fourteen years was a long time. She’d probably moved on.

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