Page 23 of Fatal Thrill
The teacup was warm in her hand and the toast had gone down and stayed there so far. She was still hungry, but decided to wait a few minutes to make sure everything was kosher before she went for a secondpiece.
“So you’re some type of paramilitary guy, huh?” Better to start the conversation talking abouthim.
He loaded his fork with egg and sausage. “I have skills that can help people. SFI gives me the means to dothat.”
“You could have toldme.”
A wall of silence floated between them as he chewed his food. Jaya had the feeling he was using it to get his thoughts inorder.
“I wanted to,” he said, “but everything we do is top-secret. We take an oath to maintain secrecy, and we have rules we have to abide by. Our Rock Star clients never know our real names, only our codenames, and that’s how we want it. Some of the guys have not so great pasts and they don’t want to end up under a spotlight or bring any attention to themselves. Our SFI missions are dangerous, and discretion is the only way we can insure that our friends and family members are kept safe from any repercussions those missions might bring down onus.”
Jaya thought about the baby who might be growing inside her, and resisted the urge to touch her belly again. It was so important to protect the innocent, and never an easy task. At least not in her experience. “I getit.”
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “You’re notmad?”
“Oh, I’m peeved, and a little hurt to be honest, but I do understand. It’s just that, well, my dad kept a lot of secrets from my mom, from all of us. Still does, obviously. He did stuff behind her back when we were kids. He’s not just a treasure hunter—he’s a grifter, a con man. Being a treasure hunter sounds romantic and exciting, but it’s really a cover for his other not-so-romantic charades. He’s charismatic and intelligent and he’s swindled a lot of people out of their money and valuables, so I get my hackles up when I feel I’ve been tricked or deceived—it brings up nasty daddy issues forme.”
He wiped his hands on a napkin and reached over to rub her back. “Your dad sounds like a real charmingguy.”
She didn’t miss the sarcasm. Her feelings for her dad were so mixed up, she wasn’t sure what to say about him. “I love him, but I have a lot of anger too. He basically abandoned us for long stretches of time when Finn and I were kids, leaving Mom to raise us. When he turned up, he was usually wasted, beat up, andbroke.
“But when he was sober and he and Mom were on good terms, he made me feel like a princess. He was full of stories about kings and queens, knights and magic. Leprechauns and pots of gold. I thought Ireland must be the most magical place in the world when I was kid and he always promised to take me there. There’s this ruined castle in Kinvarra that he claims used to be an O’Sullivan stronghold. He said he’d take me there for my 16thbirthday.”
Jon’s face told her he knew the punch line to that joke. “But hedidn’t.”
The one thing she would never do to her kid was make promises she couldn’t keep. “Someday, I’m going to go there and find it. I don’t need him to takeme.”
“I’ve been to Ireland a couple times. Mostly at night and under cover of darkness. Didn’t get to take any tours of the countryside, but from what I could tell, it’s a pretty coolplace.”
That made her smile. “My ancestral line on that side of the family is full of everything from Gypsies to royalty. Some days, I think my Native side is easier tohandle.”
They shared a laugh. Jon had Native blood as well and knew the labels and difficulties itbrought.
She set down the tea and fidgeted with the new cell phone next to her. “You said search and rescue is your thing. Was that what you did in theSEALs?”
He got serious again, moving the last of his eggs around with his fork. “I grew up training K9s. After college, I helped out the FBI on some cases, but never saw myself as an agent, so I went into the Navy. I continued to work with search and rescue dogs, became a SEAL, and then…ended up backhere.”
There were a lot of blanks in that story, but she didn’t need to know the details. Not yet. If she had her way, there would be plenty more of these kinds of talks in their future. “Your folks trainedK9s?”
“After Dad got out of the army, he was messed up. My mom runs a dog rescue in North Carolina and he tried helping her out, but his PTSD got the better of him and he had to get away from people. He started training dogs, but living in the woods. We barely saw him. He took the unadoptable ones Mom had and turned them into K9s. The next thing I knew, my parents separated for good. I didn’t see Dad much except for summers when I stayed at the cabin with him. The dogs became my bestfriends.”
“Do you see your mom and dadmuch?”
A stiff shake of his head. “Dad, never—long, ugly story there. My mom, once in awhile. She’s into her dogs, you know? And I get it. They need her more than I do, and I’ve gotwork.”
Jaya kept her face passive, knowing Jon didn’t like being pitied. This was more than he’d told her in the months they’d truly been a couple, and she didn’t want him to clam up on her again. “Nosiblings?”
“Nope. Maybe if I’d had some, it would have made family life easier, who knows? All I do know is that bringing a kid into the world is serious shit. You shouldn’t do it if you’re not a hundred percent on board with the responsibility. Not just when they’re babies. They’re your kids forlife.”
Boy, didn’t that hit the nail on the head? Would he be one hundred percent on board with her pregnancy? She already knew that answer. He’d mentioned before he didn’t want to have kids and she understood why. Maybe the real question was, was she one hundred percent on board with having achild?
Her heart said definitely. Her mind saidmaybe. It was a huge responsibility and she might totally suck atit.
Before she could ask another question, he changed the subject, “So what brought you to DC? I mean, this thing with Finn didn’t happen until after you got here, right? You didn’t say anything about paying me a visit, and I know you didn’t come back to help Savanna with the wedding. You didn’t even know her before today, didyou?”
“I, uh…” Was this the right time to tell him? She had the pregnancy test in her overnight bag. Which was in her van. The van she didn’t have at themoment.
A knock sounded at the door. Jon tensed and hopped off the stool. “Stay here.” The way he said it sounded ominous. Like he was expectingtrouble.
