Page 51 of Assassin's Heart
“Yes!” Brooke turned to me, eyes softening me up more than a puppy dog’s ever could. “Please?”
I laughed. “I can see I’ll have to up my bacon game. Turns out I do have some just waiting for you.”
Brooke’s smile made my chest go tight.
Eli was back before breakfast was over. He handed the necklace to me, and I slipped it over Brooke’s head. She smiled at me again, this time around a big bite of bacon. Leah’s gratitude shone from her eyes when I glanced up.
“I’ve got the”—Eli paused, eyed Brooke—“information downloading.”
“I imagine you all have some planning to do,” Abby said. “Maybe Brooke wouldn’t mind helping me carry the dishes to the sink, and after I load the dishwasher, we could play Frogger.”
Brooke looked to her mom as if for permission. When Leah nodded, she asked, “What’s Frogger?”
Abby gasped. “What is Frogger? You mean you’ve never played Frogger?”
Brooke shook her head, smiling a bit at Abby’s antics.
“You have been missing out, girlfriend.” Abby stood and began to gather plates. “Frogger is only the best video game of all time! These guys play their zombie games—”
“Zombies?” Brooke’s eyes rounded.
“Zombies! And race cars. And—” Abby waved off the rest of the list as if our RPGs were too silly to care about. “Give me the classic games anytime. And Frogger is the best of the classics.”
Leah stood, watching Abby and Brooke carry dishes over to the counter. The uncertainty in her expression, the need to both be with her daughter and address the issues we both knew weren’t going away, tore at me. I moved behind her, slid an arm around her hip to her stomach, ignoring the tensing of her body against me.
“She’ll be fine with Abby for a little while,” I said quietly. “And we’ll be an easy intercom away if she needs anything at all.”
Leah grabbed my wrist. “I don’t know how to do this,” she admitted, voice just as soft so that Brooke couldn’t hear. “I’m a mom, not a…vigilante. I can’t fight the mob.”
“You’re a stronger fighter than you will probably ever realize,eshethayil. But this time you don’t have to fight alone—we’ll do it with you.” I wanted to do it for her, but hard as it was for me to accept, I knew I couldn’t. Leah needed to have some part in closing this door to her past.
I couldn’t resist the pull of her warmth and bent to nuzzle the side of her neck. “Come downstairs and we’ll work it out.”
She turned into me, her hand coming up to grab my shirt, clutch it in her fist just over my heart. I covered it with my own.
“Okay,” she finally said. “Let me tell her where I’ll be, and we can go.”
When she released me, a part of me went with her. I thought that might always be the case. Even if she walked away from me, we would always be connected. But my job was to convince her to stay; I just had to figure out how.
OceanofPDF.com
Chapter Twenty-One
Leah —
Brooke happily followed Abby to an office where an old-fashioned Atari setup waited. I was surprised the thing actually worked, but according to Eli, the refurbished classics were all the rage nowadays. I left Brooke to learn about Frogger and followed the men down to the bat cave.
Downstairs, we gathered around a small conference table that looked more like it belonged in an executive boardroom than the basement playground for three assassins. Remi sat next to me, his big body barely contained by the chair he squeezed himself into. I don’t think that’s why his arm and leg pressed against mine, though. That was because he wanted to torture me. His heat and scent reminded me that I’d woken up beside this man only twenty-four hours ago. I knew what he felt like when he was hungry for me, what he looked like in the grip of climax. I might be a mom, but I was also a woman, and now that Brooke was safe, I found myself remembering.
And wanting.
Ross just died. Your life is in chaos. You shouldn’t be thinking about sex!
Why the hell not? Remi and Brooke were the only good things in my life right now.
The thought struck me right between the eyes. Remi was a good thing. He was. I trusted this man with my daughter’s life, with my body. So what did that mean in the long run? Because I couldn’t see myself married and raising a daughter with a man who killed people for a living. I could see myself walking away, knew in some part of my overloaded brain that it was the right thing to do, but just the thought made my heart ache so bad I had no idea how I’d go through with it.
When had it gotten this strong between us? And where did that leave me in the end?
