Page 48 of Ethan's Command

"Do you want to go?" he asked. Had he misread her? Did she not want to be there?

Relief blossomed on her face. "No—I mean, yes, I want to go. I just thought I was going to have to convince you, that’s all."

"Honey, he’s your nephew. As much as I’d like to keep you out of harm’s way, I’ve seen you with Liam, and I know how much you love him. I know you have to be there for him."

She set her cup aside before wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Why don’t you go with Cooper to get something to eat? There’s some food in the kitchen. I’m going to speak to the guys for a second and then I’ll check on you."

Cooper added, "I think there’s some Chinese food from earlier tonight, or some sandwich fixings, if you’d prefer."

After a brief hesitation, she followed Cooper to the kitchen.

Ethan turned back to Bellamy as Rusty came to stand beside them. "What do you think?" Ethan asked.

"I think I’m going to have to call in the big guns. I’m good, but this is above my pay grade. I’m not sure Hawk has anyone here at this level, but I’m guessing he knows someone who can handle it."

Rusty swore. "It would’ve been nice to know what all this is about."

"Yeah," Ethan agreed, "but that’s not the end goal. The end goal is to get Liam back. We just need this thumb drive for the exchange. Everything else is secondary."

Bellamy nodded. "I’ve made a copy here. There aren’t any obvious viruses. I’ll transfer it to one of the computers and copy the file again. I’ll email it to Hawk and ask for help. Hopefully, he knows someone who can break this encryption. You never know—this information might be useful."

No matter how true that statement was, he just didn’t care. Right now, it was all about getting Liam back. He only prayed the kidnappers played fair. There was no way to be sure, and he didn’t want to deal with Brooklyn if Liam didn’t come hometonight. The boy was her whole world and hurting her like that would shatter his own.

CHAPTER 19

Brooklyn movedthe food around her plate. She had no appetite, and her stomach was too full of screaming pterodactyls to really think about putting anything else in it. She wasn’t worried about getting lightheaded from lack of food, but she was worried about eating and then puking her guts up later if things didn’t go well.

She tried to squash the panic. Negative thoughts wouldn’t help Liam, and they wouldn’t help her. She needed to think positively and trust Ethan and his team. She took a sip of her tepid tea, grimaced, and set the cup down.

Slumping in her chair, she ran her hands down over her face and then glanced at her watch. Not long now. Time had dragged, but now, suddenly, it sped up.

“How are you doing?” Ethan asked as he put a new cup of tea down in front of her. He glanced at her plate but didn’t admonish her for not eating.

“I’m…” She had no idea how to answer that question.

Ethan sat across from her. “It was a stupid question. I know how you are.” He reached over and squeezed her hand. “You will get through this. We’ll get Liam back and you two will move past this.”

“Promise?” she asked but then waved him off. “That wasn’t fair. I know you can’t promise to get Liam back safely.”

“I will do everything in my power to make that happen. To keep both of you safe.”

Ethan looked so serious, so solemn that her heart squeezed a bit more. She was falling for this man, no question. He had done all the right things through this crisis. He’d been there for her at every turn. Said and did all the right things to make her feel safe. She’d been so mean to him, thinking he had ghosted her when he had no memory of their night together. Guilt washed over her for how she treated him. She needed to apologize. Anything could happen tonight. Anything. She needed to clear the air between her and Ethan.

Leaning forward in her chair, Brooklyn started. “Ethan, I want to apologize to you.”

Ethan frowned. “What for? You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I’ve been treating you…badly up until…this crisis, and that’s not fair to you. Even though I was an utter bitch, you stepped up and have done everything possible to help me and Liam. I owe you everything.”

He shook his head. “You owe me nothing. I promised you I’d protect Liam, and they still managed to grab him. That’s on me. If anything, I oweyouan apology.”

She shook her head. “There’s no way you could’ve known they would grab him at school. That is on the school and quite frankly, Liam. As much as I hate to admit it, he got into that SUV willingly. It’s not his fault, he’s just a kid, but there’s no way for you to anticipate that he might do something like that.”

She cleared her throat. “I need to tell you something though. The reason I was so cold to you, so bitchy is…I thought you ghosted me.”

The shrill sound of her cell phone ringing rent the air. It was as if all the oxygen was magically sucked out of the room.

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