Page 118 of Run, Little Rabbit

“I am.” He tucks his hands into his pockets, and I can’t tell whether that’s arrogant or not. That he’s so confident in his abilities that he’s comfortable enough to relax around us.

“You were there that night, weren’t you?” Max asks as he steps up next to me, also tucking his hands into his pockets.

Hatcher chuckles, and his smile widens as he turns his attention to Max. “I was. You’re welcome, by the way.”

I look up at Max. “What’s he on about?”

“On the night I got shot, I thought I’d heard a sniper, but I didn’t know if I’d imagined it, what with the dying and everything.”

I slap his chest, but there’s no real strength behind it. “Hey, we don’t talk about it like that.”

“Sorry,” he huffs before turning back to Hatcher. “Thank you, Hatcher. You saved my life.”

Hatcher shrugs, and there’s one thing I can’t quite get my head around. “Did Rory know you were Larke when he hired you? And did you kill my mum?”

“No, kiddo. I didn’t kill your mum,” he says with sincerity. “That’s why I’m here.”

Hatcher steps forward and pulls a photo out of his jacket pocket. It’s a picture that must have been taken recently because Hatcher looks like he does now, with the same wrinkles around his eyes and the same amount of grey at his temples.

But he’s not alone in the photograph.

He’s looking at the camera with a woman, their cheeks pressed together and bright smiles on their faces. She’s older now, but I’d recognise her face anywhere.

“She’s alive?”

“What?” Angel gasps as he looks at the photograph over my shoulder.

Niki waves his hand to get Hatcher’s attention. “Why isn’t she here?”

Hatcher casts a wary glance at me before answering Niki by signing.“She didn’t want to upset Echo too much. She wasn’t sure she’d be welcome.”

Niki’s eyebrows almost hit his hairline. “You can sign?”

Hatcher nods, a slight frown above his eyes. “Yes, Norah is deaf.”

Niki turns to me then, a question burning in the depths of his eyes.

“I didn’t know much when Mum was there, but yes, she taught me to sign, and then when she died—left, whatever, the twins and I kept it up for a while, communicating so the nannies didn’t understand what we were planning. But that stopped when Rory got his hooks into the twins, and then I just didn’t sign anymore.” I turn back to Hatcher and look deep into his eyes. “Rory said that he wasn’t sure he was my father. Is… is that true?”

The smile that spreads across his face is impossibly wide and full of love. “You might have the name ‘Quinn’ on your birth certificate, but your real name is Echo Moira Hatcher. Moira was my mother’s name.”

A sob rips from me at his words, and my knees threaten to crumble.

Hatcher throws his arms wide, and I run straight into them, feeling something click into place. Something I never really knew was missing but something I knew I’d never had.

He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “You’re mine, kiddo. I’m sorry it’s taken us this long to reach out, but we didn’t want to put you at risk.”

I understood. I did, but it still hurt that they left me behind. It hurts that I had to grow up not knowing them.

I take deep breaths, breathing him in, and he reminds me of the sea. Something wild and free, strong, powerful and resilient.

“I’d like to see her, to meet her again.”

“She’d like that. We’d love for you to come and see our home; perhaps we could tempt you over to Ireland for a holiday?” Hatcher asks, hope lacing his words.

“We were just discussing where to go on holiday,” Angel says with a chuckle.

“I, for one, am not surprised our Rabbit is a little killer with a man like this for her dad,”Niki says, a little flush creeping up his neck.

---