Page 41 of Saved By the Marines (Soldiers Of Misfortune)

My brows pulled together in a frown. “That I’m what?”

He just gave me a patient smile. “Don’t let your father influence your decision. If you decide you don’t want us…fine.” The growl that came out with the word fine told me that might not be the case. “But don’t let worry for us sway you. This is your choice, not his.”

I nodded and let my eyes drift closed again. My feet were back to aching—especially after my run around the room—but I ignored them. Knowing that Wolfe was here made it easy to fall asleep. I’d decide what to do in the morning.

CHAPTER19

Kip

It’d been a week and we’d taken turns watching over Bailey while the others followed the senator around. He was pissed that his daughter was ‘taking too long to heal’ —fucking asshole. Although in fairness, Bailey was getting restless too. She insisted she was fine. Years of seeing fellow Marines struggle with PTSD told me she wasn’t fine. Not yet.

We were all taking the time to continue getting to know each other and with every day that passed I knew she belonged to us. I’d known it before—we all had—but this was just cementing the fact inside of our minds. We were meant to be together. We hadn’t pressured her to give us an answer, and we wouldn’t. We wouldn’t need to. She’d come to her own conclusion—the right conclusion—in her own time. Well… We wouldn’t pressure her for now. If she came to the wrong determination, I doubted Jas would sit back quietly as she tried to leave us. Fuck, I wasn’t even sure what I would do in that situation. I was just hoping she didn’t decide this was too much for her.

She placed her cards down and gave me a wicked smile. She had a flush, and had once again trounced me. The fact that I was dealing from the bottom of the deck had gone unnoticed to her.

“What the hell, Beauty? We need to take you to Vegas.”

Her laughter made me grin as she started shuffling the cards. It was good to see her loosening up. For the first few days after we’d gotten back, she’d been jumpy as hell. Couldn’t really blame her there, but seeing her relax and ease into a routine made me feel better.

The sound of the door slamming open made me frown. I glanced down at my watch. Wolfe and Jas were out chasing down a lead Zinnia had given us and Senator Michaels was out doing something that didn’t require us, for once, and shouldn’t be back yet. Now that we were back in The States he was hitting the campaign trail hard. There was still about eight months until the election. It was going to be a long road for all of us.

“Stay here,” I told Bailey, standing and heading over to the door that led into the foyer.

My eyes narrowed as I stepped out of the little sitting room we’d been in and shut the door. Six guys and a woman about Bailey’s age stood there, looking around.

“Bailey!” the guy out front yelled. His voice echoed through the house, but he didn’t yell again as he spotted me.

“Who are you?” I asked, fingers itching to pull out my gun. We’d had too many close calls to be casual about men forcing their way into the house.

The butler stood off to the side and I met his gaze. There was an apology there, but he didn’t get a chance to voice it before the pipsqueak stormed toward me.

“I’m looking for Bailey.”

“Not what I asked you, Bud,” I told him. Anyone who knew me would have realized that despite the smirk on my face they were entering dangerous waters. It was all in the tone.

“My name isn’t Bud. It’s-”

“Quit being an asshole, Ted,” the girl said, offering me an apologetic smile. “I’m Amy. We’re here to see Bailey… Or at least I am. Theyinsistedon giving me a ride.” Her eyes drifted over to the others and I caught on to the fact that Bailey's sniveling ex had brought five others as back-up, just in case. He was going to need them if he planned on causing trouble.

“Amy!”

My head jerked to the side and I gave Bailey a sharp look. “Stay put.”

Her brows lowered, but she didn’t leave the doorway to the little sitting room.

“You,” I said to the other girl, “can go in.”

Amy didn’t bother asking questions, just jogged around me and hit Bailey with a bone-jarring hug. They were making those high-pitched noises happy women made and if I didn’t have to deal with the assholes in front of me I would have grinned.

“Leave.” There was nothing but demand in my tone.

Ted looked at me like I was a cockroach crawling across the floor. His eyes swept over my BDUs and my boots and his top lip lifted in a sneer. They were all dressed alike in khaki shorts, button down shirts, and some kind of dress shoe without socks. It was my turn to sneer.

“I’m not going anywhere until I talk to Bailey.” His eyes drifted to my left just as I felt her touch my arm.

My snarl of frustration had her gripping my bicep. Normally, I wouldn’t worry about assholes like this, but I was outnumbered and couldn’t actually kill them. That created an unfortunate disadvantage. It would stir up entirely too much trouble. Parents didn’t like when their bratty little college boys were killed. Didn’t matter that they were starting something and asking for what they got.

Not to mention the senator whining about dead frat boys.

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