Page 41 of Guarded from Corruption

“Why don’t we make eggs?” Jade suggests. “Something quick, since I know you have work to do.”

I take the cooling pan off the stove and dump the crepes in the trash. “Are you sure you don’t want pancakes? I don’t mind making them.”

“It’s fine.” She goes to the fridge and pulls out the carton of eggs. “You like eggs better, anyway. And you must be sick of pancakes by now.”

“No—” At the skeptical raise of her eyebrows, I amend, “They’re growing on me.”

Not really. But Jade’s still not eating as much as I’d like, so I’m trying to prepare all the things she likes best. Grilled cheese, pancakes, pasta with butter and freshly grated parmesan cheese, and cottage cheese topped with fruit. Plus pickles wrapped with ham, which I think tastes revolting, but apparently it was a snack she used to share with her favorite nanny and still brings back good memories for her.

“Niall.” Jade’s tone is lightly scolding. “You can cook the things you like, you know.” As she talks, she pulls out a bowl from the cabinet and starts cracking eggs into it. “You don’t have to just make things I like.”

For a moment, the scene in front of me steals my breath. It reminds me so closely of mornings when I was a kid, coming into the kitchen to see my parents cooking breakfast together. Even after years of marriage, their love was still a visible thing—hugs and kisses and laughing banter and there was this way they looked at each other.

I never thought about finding that kind of love for myself. There was always something else to focus on—trainings and missions, and then later, Shea and starting a new chapter of my life after the Army. I didn’t allow myself to consider Jade as a possibility.

Now? Watching her crack eggs while examining them with the intensity of a brain surgeon, looking both sexy and cute in her workout shorts and my oversized Army T-shirt? Seeing her smile at me, her face all lit up with happiness, and knowing I’m partly responsible for helping her feel that way?

Emotion thickens my throat. Moving to Jade’s side, I cup her jaw and capture her mouth with mine. As she opens for me, letting the kiss go deeper, I’m amazed all over again by how delicate her features are, how soft her skin is, and how her curves feel against me.

Even if we do nothing but kiss for months, I’d still be happy. How could I not be when it feels like this?

When we finally pull apart, I trail my fingers down the line of her neck, feeling the rapid flutter of her pulse. Her cheeks and lips are flushed, and her blue eyes are sparkling. Like I have dozens of times over the past couple of weeks, I wonder to myself, how could I have waited so long?

“I like making your favorites. It makes me happy.” What I don’t say is it’s such a small thing to do considering everything she’s facing. Living in limbo, unable to go back to the job she loves, still hiding out at Blade and Arrow. Her cold and unpleasant parents. Dealing with nightmares and flashbacks from her days of captivity, knowing the people behind it are still out there, despite our best efforts to find them.

We have to find them. We will. Failure isn’t an option; not normally, and definitely not when it comes to Jade.

Jade gives me a soft look, filled with affection. “How can I argue when you say something like that?”

Grinning, I reply, “You can’t.”

Just like the other day when Jade’s father called, the phone brought unfortunate news as we were finishing breakfast.

But this time, it was my phone chiming with our signature Blade and Arrow ringtone, and it was Dante calling with some unwelcome news.

“Another woman is missing,” he said grimly. “And this time there’s a connection to Jade.”

My first instinct was to shield Jade from it. To refuse to get her involved when Dante said he wanted to talk to her. I wanted to keep that relaxed smile on her face a little longer.

I didn’t want to watch her shrink back into herself; shoulders hunching, foot jittering, her hands twisting nervously in her lap.

I wanted to protect her from this.

But then Dante told me the part I knew we couldn’t ignore. “The woman worked with Jade. I think she’d want to know. And Jade might have information that can tie her abduction and this missing woman together.”

So I had to tell her.

And now we’re waiting for Dante and Matt to arrive, and Jade’s reacting just as I thought she would, although she’s trying desperately to hide it.

We’re on the couch, our legs flush against each other—no separate cushions, not since the night of our first kiss. Her chilled hand trembles in mine, and her entire body is tense with worry and anxiety. With my free hand, I massage her shoulders, working at the knots that keep stubbornly reappearing no matter how much I try to rub them away.

“It’s going to be fine.” Giving her hand a little squeeze, I draw her attention to me. “Hopefully, this will give us some more clues. And we’re making progress already. It’s only a matter of time before we find the people responsible for this.”

“But what about the women? The ones being sold. What if we’re too late to save them?”

“We won’t be. There have to be records. Once we get a hold of them, we’ll track down every woman who was taken, and we’ll rescue them.”

Jade stares at me as emotion tightens her features. “Thank you.”

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