Page 69 of Liam
Eastern, who’d become a Navy SEAL but was now returning to Misty Peak to spend more time with his daughter. He was also running for town sheriff. Jace, the easygoing brother, was still in the Air Force as a tactical controller.
And Lock, the intense brother, part of an Army Ghost Ops team, couldn’t reveal what he did.
Liam absorbed every detail of Nylah’s life, wanting to know her and her family and all the things that had made her the woman she was today. He couldn’t get enough of her. Everything she was, he wanted.
Even though conversation flowed easily, he’d felt the intense looks from Cody. Knew every time he spoke, his words were carefully analyzed. Every time he touched Nylah, it was noted.
Good. Liam wanted her brother to look out for her. He was glad she had other protectors in this world. People who loved her and had been looking out for her since she was a kid.
While they busied themselves in the kitchen, Liam smiled as Nylah started telling her brother about the men of Blue Halo.
“There are eight of you, right?” Cody asked, directing his attention to Liam.
“Yep.”
“Going through Project Arma, being taken and held and changed…that had to affect you in ways you never expected.”
Liam looked Cody in the eye. “It affected every single one of us. Made us stronger in more ways than one, as the entire world knows. But it also created a brotherhood. We’re family. We’d each die for the others, and for each other’s loved ones.”
And fuck, he was grateful for that. His team and the men from Marble Protection were the only good things to come out of the project. Not a day passed where he wasn’t grateful for them.
Cody’s eyes stayed on him for a moment, studying, the former Delta soldier easy to see. The man had a hardness about him that only came from seeing intense military action.
“I’m glad,” he finally said.
“What made you get out?” Liam asked as he put their leftovers in containers. Nylah moved past him, her side grazing his as she set to work on putting dishes into the washer.
“My team and our missions always came first.”
Liam nodded. When you were in the military, especially special operations, that was your world. It had to be, with the life-or-death nature of the job.
“But back home, Dad was getting sicker, and it wasn’t fair that Nylah was shouldering all of that and the bar. So, both Kayden and I were discharged almost at the same time, and we came home for the last six months of Dad’s life. Certainly don’t regret it. And I don’t feel any pull to go back.”
Cody continued to ask questions about Blue Halo, Nylah filling a lot of the silence as they cleaned. They were just about finished when her phone rang. She lifted it and sighed. “It’s Paisley. I need to take this.”
She leaned up and pressed a kiss to Liam’s cheek before moving past Cody and squeezing his arm.
“Go easy on her,” Cody said before she left the room. “She really did think you’d already told me.”
Nylah dipped her head. “I know.”
When she stepped away, Liam looked back at Cody. “You grew up with Paisley too?”
“Yeah, the woman’s like a sister to me.”
“I look forward to meeting her one day.” He set another cup into the dishwasher.
“You gonna protect Ny?”
He’d been expecting the question or something like it. Liam straightened and looked the man straight in the eye. “With my life.”
There was another of those pauses, where Cody stared at Liam as if trying to decide if he believed him.
When Cody seemed to accept the words as truth, he nodded. “Good. Thank you for watching over her.”
“Always. But you should know something,” Liam added, crossing his arms. “Your sister’s tough. She fought off numerous attacks on her own.”
And he was so proud of her for that. For her strength. Her smarts. Her courage and ability to not fall apart in the face of danger.
