Page 126 of Bossy Hero

“Yes. You didn’tonlytell us to hide, though. You did more to protect us.”

No. That can’t be right.

I shake my head, mashing my eyes shut and hiding behind my palms.

Because that’s what I do.

I hide.

Refusing to let me cower from this conversation, she gently tugs my hands away from my face. “Hold on. I have a hunch here. Can I ask you something?”

My chest shakes as I struggle to hold back the deluge of tears. I give her a lone nod, everything inside me rioting with regret, panic, and gut-wrenching sadness.

“Mom, do you remember how Leo would provoke Dad to get him away from the rest of us?”

Her question triggers a powerful memory that sends tendrils of ice over my skin.

Drew was struggling in school, and when report cards came home, Leo made damn sure Travis was distracted. At the dinner table, Travis asked to see the kids’ report cards. Leo intentionally spilled his drink all over his father’s lap, then mouthed off about it.

The backhand I took when trying to pull Travis off Leo knocked me unconscious.

Nodding, I swipe my tongue across my dry lips. “I hated when he would do that.”

My daughter’s brows draw in tight. “Then how can you possibly think you didn’t do anything to protect us?”

“I don’t understand. That was Leo. Not me.”

Her entire visage rumples with a quivering sadness. “Oh, Mommy.” She sniffles back a sob, pulling me closer to her by my shoulders. “Who do you think he learned that from?”

Despite relaxing peacefullyat Alan’s house now, I still don’t trust the calm. So I’m refusing to even so much as think we survived the day yet. If I do, Fate will likely barge through the wall like the Kool-Aid man.

Alan’s flat on his back in bed, and I’m draped over him on one side, using his chest as a pillow. His heartbeat pounds steadily against my cheek. My fingernails twirl through the hair on his lower chest and happy trail. He alternates between rubbing his hand along my spine and combing his fingers through my hair.

“What a fucking day,” he mutters in a low rumble.

“You can say that again.”

“What a fucking day.”

His deep chuckle makes my head jostle on his chest. I rest my chin on my fist and smile at him, keeping my bad arm slung over his stomach. “I’m surprised you can joke after the day you had.”

“It was a doozy, but I’ve got you here with me. All my kids are safe for now. Another monster is gone from this earth. Why should I be pissy?” He flicks his eyes to the ceiling, his expression and tone sobering. “And Lettie and I had a moment tonight.”

Oh goodie. I’ve been dying to ask but held my tongue to spare him from reliving the fight with his daughter so soon.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Still keeping his gaze locked above him, he nods and begins. “Maddie, that sweet, docile girl was so damn livid. Toe to toe, she eyed me down with the ferocity of a lioness. In front of my team in the middle of the fucking lair. She didn’t give a damn who was watching. Her strength was...” He looks at me and grins. “It was annoying as fuck because of the timing. But afterward, I was so damn proud of her. At first, she was fighting for herself. And for the others who suffered in that house with her. For what she thought was right and just regarding Viktor—may he rest in Hell.”

His smile grows impossibly wider. With a voice like hand-spun silk, he says, “After that, she was fighting for Tomer.”

There it is.

I knew Alan’s love for that boy wasn’t gone forever.

To get a better view of his face, I sit up and angle myself toward him. “You’re finally ready to forgive him, aren’t you?”

Although he doesn’t answer right away, his face says so much. His eyes narrow and then widen. His nostrils flare with a sharp intake of air. Then his jaw goes lax. “A thought occurred to me tonight when I was driving with Lettie out to the scene. A memory from maybe a year ago.”

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