Page 44 of Saved By the Marines (Soldiers Of Misfortune)

The door opening in the foyer below made Kip tense up again and my heart tripped in my chest. If they’d come back, I wasn’t sure we’d be able to run them off a second time. I didn’t want to think about Kip having to defend us against so many again.

Amy and I were on his heels—despite his barked order to stay put—and I let out a huff of relief when I saw my father and the other guys walking into the house.

We came down the stairs right as the questioning began.

“What the hell happened to you?” Dad asked Kip.

“Who’s she?” Jasper jerked his head toward Amy.

Wolfe stood, eyes narrowed, huge arms crossed over his chest as he took in every detail of the room. Finally, his gaze landed on Kip and Kip explained.

Dad looked as furious as the others when he heard that Ted had forced his way in here. For a moment, my heart lightened at this display of outrage on my behalf. As usual, Dad stomped all over that spark of hope as quickly as he could. “You let them in my house?” he barked at Kip. “What am I keeping you around for if you can’t even follow the simplest of instructions?”

Of course, damage to the house was more important than his daughter. A pang of pain entered my heart.

An arm went around my shoulder and I gave Amy a sad smile. I was used to this. Typical. He wasn’t worried about me or my safety, just that his orders hadn’t been followed. Realizing that this was how he’d been for my entire life cemented my choice into a firm decision.

“You don’t care about me at all, do you?” It took a moment for me to realize that I’d spoken aloud. Everyone was staring at me.

Dad glared at me. “Tell me, if I don’t care about you, why I just left an important campaigning event to be there when they arrested your kidnapper?”

My brows drew together in confusion. The guys had said Salazar was dead. I looked to Wolfe for answers. He was trustworthy enough to give them to me.

“We got a tip about someone who’d been at the embassy and had sent payments to Salazar,” Wolfe explained. “We went to go speak to him.”

“And?” I asked.

“Turns out the police made the same connection,” Dad answered in a smug tone.

I wasn’t sure why he took such pleasure in needling the guys. Did it have to do with my connection with them? Probably.

“We didn’t have a chance to talk to him,” Jas muttered.

“But he’s being arrested on conspiracy to kidnap in connection with what happened to you.” Wolfe gave me an encouraging smile, but I could see they were frustrated that they hadn’t been able to question him themselves.

“I did that,” Dad said, thumping a thumb into his chest. “I insisted the authorities get involved. Peter Coleman would still be free if I didn’t care about you.” The sneer in his voice wasn’t really selling it for me.

“Peter…Coleman.” I cringed and looked at Wolfe.

“What?”

“I met someone named Peter at the embassy. Sort of overheard a private conversation.”

His eyes narrowed. “And you didn’t tell us?”

“I didn’t think it was a big deal. It wasn’t like I actually overheard anything he’d said. He told me to basically keep my mouth shut and I just went out of my way to avoid him.”

Wolfe sighed. I didn’t look over at Jas or Kip. One man showing his disappointment was enough. “Bailey. You have to tell us stuff like that-”

“I will! From now on. Promise.”

“You owe me an apology, Bailey Marie-”

Anger flowed out of me and I pulled away from Amy, putting myself directly in front of my father. I felt, rather than saw the guys form a protective barrier around me.

Dad glared down at me. “You have something to say?”

His complete disregard for me and my feelings burned away every ounce of guilt that might have appeared with what I had to tell him.

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