Finally Home (Home Series) (51 page)

"Nick's.  That's Bella.  Nicos and Bella are his.  Aidan and Landon are Andre's."

She watched Mike start to put Bella down, and saw Bella tighten her hold on his neck.

"Carry me, Uncle Mike," she said.

"Bella, leave Uncle Mike alone," Nick said, reaching to take her from his brother.

Mike shook his head, shifting Bella slightly.

"She's fine," he told Nick.

"Can we see your other scars, Uncle Mike?" Nicos said, drawing Mike's attention.

"Yeah, can we?" one of the other boys asked.

Mike chuckled.  "We're about to eat, Nicos," he reminded his nephew.

"Oh, yeah.  Later then?"

"Maybe," Mike answered.

"I'd kiss them all for you and make you feel better, Uncle Mike," Bella said, "so your eyes aren't so sad anymore."  Lainey gasped.  It was too much.  She started to step forward to go to him but Be
lla's next words stopped her, "But you don't look so sad now.  You look like Daddy."

Lainey saw Mike lift his head and meet his brother's gaze. 
From the mouths of babes, she thought.  Little Bella had just helped her uncle take a step in the right direction.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

At the table, whatever hopes Lainey had about his family relationship were dashed some, as the conversation flowed pretty much the same as it had the last time they'd eaten dinner with them.  Everyone talked, except Mike.  Everyone asked each other questions, except to Mike.  She supposed she couldn't expect them to change overnight, but she did expect Mike to change.  He
had
changed.  He was a totally different man now than he'd been the last time they'd sat here; she knew that.  But it seemed to her that he was falling back into his same pattern.

At one point, Mike leaned over and nuzzled her ear, sending a shiver down her spine.

"Careful, Ms. Riley," he whispered, "your Irish is showing."

"So it is," she said when everyone got up to go into the sitting room for after dinner drinks.  Mike stopped her in the foyer after everyone else had moved into the room, brushing a lock of her hair away from her face.

"OK, let me have it," he said, bringing a small smile to her lips.

"If you recognize that I'm upset then you know what I would say."

"My family loves me,
cara
.  We just have our differences."

"As do
all families.  But, you need to-"

"Uncle Mike!  Please?  We wanna see your scars!" Nicos called from the doorway.  Mike and Lainey both turned to regard the boy, and Lainey noted that the whole room had fallen silent. 
They weren't dressed fancy for this dinner.  Mike wore a black long-sleeve Henley with his khaki combat pants and boots.  All he would have to do is raise his shirt or just pull it off.

"Nicos!" Carolina gasped, obviously the first she'd heard of the kids' request.

"I wanna hear about what you did in the war," Aidan said.

Mike's gaze returned to Lainey's for a moment, then they went into the room with everyone else.  Lainey thought he was going to ignore the boys' request, until he settled her on a sofa next to her mother, then turned to address his nephews.

"I can't talk much about what I did.  We rescued American citizens and diplomats who'd been captured and we went after a lot of bad guys."

"How were you captured?" Nicos asked.

Lainey saw Mike take a deep breath, then he sat on the edge of the sofa beside her.  All eyes in the room were on him and she could see that his family was eager to hear what he had to say.

"We were ambushed.  One of my men was killed by a sniper and another, Lainey's cousin and my friend, Riley, was seriously wounded.  We were outnumbered and I saw that if we stayed and fought, we would have all been killed.  So, I charged ahead and provided cover fire so the rest of my team could get Riley and the body of the one who'd been killed to safety.  When I did that, I was surrounded and they got me."

"Why didn't they just kill you?" Aidan asked.

"They knew they'd captured an officer.  So, they tortured me and sent video clips of it to
the State Department."

Lainey felt her breath catch.  She hadn't known that part.

Andre spoke up this time.  "How did they torture you?"

"Used a whip on my back until it pretty much looked like raw hamburger meat.  Broke a lot of bones.  Knocked a lot of teeth out.  Used a hot branding iron on me...among other things."

"How did you get away?" Nicos asked.

"My men came after me."

"How long were you held?" Nick asked.

"Twelve hours."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Nick pressed.  "We didn't know anything had happened to you until you came home...and that was almost, what, six months after it happened.  Why didn't you tell us so we could have been there for you?"

Lainey saw Mike's backbone stiffen slightly and reached up to place her hand on the small of his back, just letting him know she was there.  She felt his muscles tense at her initial contact, then as she slowly rubbed her hand over his back, she felt him relax.

"We didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on my service.  I asked my men to let the hospital know that I didn't want you notified unless I died."

"Why, Michael?" Jeannette asked.  Lainey's heart hurt for her, at hearing what her son had gone through.  She saw his eyes shift to his father briefly before looking back at his mother.

"I didn't want you to worry."

Lainey knew what he didn't say.  He didn't think they would care. 

"We worried about you all the time," his father spoke up.

"I led my team through nearly eight years of successful missions.  I'm pretty good at what I do.  Our luck ran out that day."

"Guess your luck ran out the day that guy broke into your loft, too, eh,
soldato
?" Andre chuckled.

Lainey stood up then, ignoring Mike's hand on her wrist.

"And now you see
exactly
why he didn't want to tell you.  None of you ever supported his decision to go into the Navy.  Why would he want any of you there to belittle him when he was fighting for his life?"

"We wouldn't have..." Jeannette began but Lainey cut her off.

"You wouldn't have.  Nick may not have.  Gia certainly wouldn't.  But Andre and his father?"

"Now, just a minute," Lorenzo said, standing, which prompted Mike to stand, as well as Lainey's father, Gavin.

"Careful," Mike cautioned his father.

"Don't you warn me in my own home, boy."

"Lorenzo, please," Jeannette said, laying a hand on his arm.

"You didn't even give us a chance to be there for you," Lorenzo shot at Mike.

"Why would he?" Lainey snapped.  "Think back to the last major conversation you had with him over his being in the Navy.  You cut him down and railed at him because he decided not to go into the family law firm."

"Because he is brilliant and he was wasting his talents!!" Lorenzo exploded, towering over Lainey.

Mike stepped in front of Lainey then, getting into his father's face.

"You will not yell at my fiancee like that," Mike said, his voice deceptively soft and low.

"Michael, Lorenzo, enough," Jeannette said, stepping between them.  "Lisa, Gavin, I apologize, we aren't normally-" she began, but Lainey interrupted her.

"Don't smooth this over, Jeannette.  This confrontation is ten years overdue.
"

Lorenzo's gaze shifted from his son to Lainey, who had stepped from behind Mike to stand at his side. 

"You are absolutely right,
bellisima
, this is something my son and I should have spoken of well before now.  Forgive me, son," he said, surprising Lainey, "I know that I did not handle your decision to join the Navy very well back then.  I was just so afraid of losing you.  And you would have made an excellent attorney.  I could see that.  I could see what you were walking away from and that upset me.  And we did think it was because of Nick and Carolina."

"Thank you," Mike said, softly, then shifted his gaze to his twin, "for the record...it never bothered me that Carolina fell for you.  There was no real chemistry between us.  I was more bothered just by the fact that yet again, it didn't seem to matter that I was an individual...that same twin thing we used to gripe about."

"I never looked at you and Nick as interchangeable," Carolina said, drawing his attention.

"I know that," Mike told her, "it was just what was going on between me and Nick at the time.  How we were feeling."

"I was so jealous of your friendship with Riley," Nick confessed, "still am, in a way.  And all that mess with, because you were born first, the extended family considered you Dad's heir.  Stupid stuff.  So, when I should have maybe looked the other way with her, I didn't.  And, then once I got to know her, it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with her."

"I know," Mike said.  "And I'm sorry I withdrew from all of you.  When I got home...it was hard to re-connect.  The kids were so happy and healthy and normal...not like the kids I'd been dealing with over there.  It was just...safer, for me to stay behind my walls, as Lainey says."

Nicos stepped forward when a lull had fallen in the conversation, looking up at Mike.

"Sooo, are you going to show us your scars or what?" he asked, causing Mike to chuckle.

"You want to see my scars, kid?"

"Yeah."

Mike looked down at Lainey, who nodded.  Then after a moment, pulled his shirt-tails from his pants and then pulled it over his head, handing it to Lainey.

Jeannette gasped, stepping forward raising trembling hands to his chest.  Behind him, the boys were ooo-ing and ahhh-ing over his back, while his family came to grips with what they were seeing.  Lainey gave his arm a squeeze then stepped back with her parents, letting
his family close in around him, pausing only when Andre spoke.

"Damn,
soldato,
" he said, drawing Lainey's temper once again.

"Andre, I swear, if you refer to him as a soldier one more time I will slug you," she said through clenched teeth, making everyone laugh.

"Sorry.  Old habit," Andre said, but his eyes were still on his brother's torso.

"Break it.  Now," she said, then stepped back to sit with her mother. 

"I knew you said he had a lot of scars, but...wow," Lisa said, taking Lainey's hand into hers.

Lainey nodded.  "Those aren't even the worst of them," she said softly. 

"The kids really seem to like him.  That's good."

"It's really good," Lainey said, resting her head on her mother's shoulder.  And it was really good.  Moments later, Mike came back to her, taking his shirt from her to pull it back on.  "Are you all right?" she asked him quietly.

"I'm fine, but you aren't.  What's wrong?"

She sho
ok her head.  "I'm just tired."

"You want to go home?"

"If you're ready."

He held his hand out to help her up.  Lainey stood...and then everything went black.

Mike's heart stopped when Lainey went down.  He caught her before she hit the ground, swinging her up into his arms, alarmed when her head lolled back and her arm was limp.  Her parents scrambled off the couch, giving him room to lay her down.  He crouched down, checking her pulse, finding it strong.  His heart was pounding.  Was this a complication from the shooting? 

"Lainey.  Open your eyes,
cara mia.
  Look at me, right now," he demanded, stroking his hand over her hair.  "Now, Lainey. Look. At. Me."

"Don't yell, Commander, please," she murmured, sending relief shooting through him.

"What happened?  Do we need to go to the hospital?"

"No, I'm fine."

"You just passed out, Lainey, I think we need to -"

"I'm fine.  Let me up," she said, pushing against his shoulder.  He sat back and helped her sit up, stroking his hand over her hair.

"You just dropped.  That isn't normal, we need to..."

She stopped him, pressing a kiss to his lips, then cupped his face in her hands and looked deep into his eyes.

"I am fine, Commander.  I am just a little bit pregnant."

She heard several gasps behind him but kept her eyes on his face, that had suddenly gone just a little bit pale.

"Come again?"

"They told me when I was in the hospital after getting shot.  I kept it to myself because there was concern that I would miscarry due to the trauma.  And since we aren't married, they weren't obligated to tell you, and I asked them not to.  But when I went for my checkup the other day for my shoulder, I had an ultrasound done," she pulled her phone from her pocket and showed him a picture.  "Can you see that?"  She watched those intense eyes shift from her to the phone to study the black and white ultrasound picture, and saw the instant he realized what else he was looking at.