Live Wire (12 page)

Dad had cleared his throat. “You given any thought to college?”

That was the one topic they didn’t talk much about. School had sent home letter after letter reminding his parents how he was a candidate for great things. He had grades and the leadership skills—qualities that colleges apparently recruited.

“No.” He’d stepped to the line, and the world disappeared. When his target was in sight, Jared had tunnel vision. There was an instinctual focus that he couldn’t describe. It was predatory—or perhaps evolutionary, further drilled into him by his father. There was no option other than completing his objective. A direct hit, no matter what distractions the world offered.
Like college applications.

He emptied his clip, leaving a hollowed-out target, and turned to look at his dad’s approving profile. “I’m going to be a Ranger.”

Much like now, he knew with certainty that he was going to continue to excel in his job as family man.

Most people who said they wanted to be Army Rangers didn’t have a shot in hell. But even at sixteen, he wasn’t most people.

At the time, his Dad’s jaw flexed, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he took in the obliterated target. A minute passed by, and an unspoken conversation occurred between them. It wasn’t one of convincing or persuasion. It was not a mental mano a mano but a simple realization between two men cut from the same cloth.

Dad had nodded. “I’ll make sure to tell your mother.”
Now, standing in the hospital room with his own family, he was sure that whatever his children came to him with, Jared would have that same conviction in them that his father had in his dreams.

“You’re an excellent father,” Dad said. “When you decide to do something well, you do just that.”

The way his father said things, his man-of-few-words, always-speak-the-truth approach to life, it meant a lot. “I had good role models.”

“Your mother more so than me.” Dad laughed.

Mom joined in with his laughter. “I’d agree with that.”

Jared remembered the day during Sugar’s pregnancy when she had dropped the baby-name book to the top of her protruding stomach. “We should call her Violet.”

“What—like my mom?”

“Exactly like your mom.”

“Why?” Jared asked.

“You surround yourself with strong women. She was the first.”

“True…” Violet Westin. There was already one of those, and she was a live wire. “But…”

“The woman practically tore down a burning building to save her son.” Sugar’s eyes had gone watery. “I want that name attached to our daughter.”

Damn.
One of the scariest days of his life—he was man enough to admit that now—had been when his mom almost died because she loved him that much.

After his dad had gone back in to the burning house, his parents apparently walked out of it holding hands—holding each other up—but through the smoke and the fire, his mother had methodically searched for her son.
A mother’s love.

As Jared had grown up, he’d watched her deal with his antics and rule with an iron fist—and love with a giant heart. She kept the troops—what she called their family, including anyone needing a shoulder to lean on—in line.

So accepting Sugar’s choice of names hadn’t been difficult. She’d tried the name out, slowly saying, “Violet Westin.”

“Violet
Lilly
Westin,” Jared had said. “For the two strongest women I know.”

Sugar’s decision reached her eyes, and the name had been agreed to before Sugar could even mouth the word “yes” and kiss him.

He took a deep breath, focusing back on the maternity room in front of him.

The baby stirred, and Sugar’s dark-blue eyes drifted open. “I’m going to give this nursing thing a try again.”

Asal, Jenny, and Jared’s mom helped her sit up and futz with pillows as Asher and Jared opened up the food bags. Dad took a food order from his wife and Jenny and Asher and went to grab more cafeteria grub. Asal, apparently done directing her mom on the idiosyncrasies of nursing a newborn, hopped down and grabbed her lunch, pulling a chair to the table and tucking her knees under her as she got comfortable.

“God, I’m talented.” Sugar squealed, and Jared looked over. She nursed the baby while drinking out of a large hospital mug. “Small victories. Don’t knock ’em.”

He tossed a fry into his mouth. “I can’t imagine the complexities happening over there. You just flag for a refill.”

She beamed, and when Violet let loose for a minute, Sugar gave her drink to Jenny, grumbling. “If anyone says this is a piece of cake at first, they can bite my booty.”

Jenny and his mother agreed, and a few minutes later they heard one serious baby belch that could rival a few of the guys on his team. His mom held his newborn, and Jenny snapped pictures. All was right in their world.

“So what else is happening?” Dad asked.

“I’ve hired a few new guys.”

“For the main team?”

Jared nodded. “And I’m expanding Delta. Brock’s taking the lead on that.”

“Good.” Dad turned to Asher. “How about you? Everything still stinks in Washington. Having fun with that? Or about done?”

“Jenny’s about to announce she’s headlining something on Broadway,” Asher replied.

“Ah, the politician deflects.” Dad elbowed Asher good-naturedly.

“I didn’t know that!” Sugar said. “Why didn’t I know?”

“You had things going on.
Like a baby.
”

“Oh, BS. Asher’s throwing you under the bus. What aren’t you telling us?” Sugar’s eyebrows went up. “You
are
going to announce your candidacy soon, aren’t you?”

He laughed and shook his head, a dead McIntyre giveaway. “Come on, Sugar. We’re here for you.”

“Yay! This is so exciting.”

Again, Asher shook his head, this time not doing a great job of hiding his pearly-white smile. “Nothing is official.”

“It never is,” Sugar squeaked. “Holy moley. My sister will be First Lady of the United States. Do you know how crazy that is to say out loud?”

“
Could be.
” Jenny bit her bottom lip. “We’ll see. Things happen.”

Sugar decided to torture her sister later with that. “But you’re headlining Broadway? That’s crazy cool.”

“Way cooler. And a certainty.” Asher threw his arm around Jenny. “She’s amazing.”

Jared backed up and stared at his family. This room was full of impossible dreamers, surpassing what once could have only been a hope and a wish.

A Broadway headliner and a presidential candidate? His wife and children? Behind his family and friends was a group of warriors that he’d brought together for a greater good. Damn. Life was pretty fuckin’ great.

Asal fidgeted in the corner now that her lunch was done and the baby and all of the room’s guests were old news.

Jenny took her hand. “Want to go explore?”

“Yes!”

Asher grabbed a couple things for Asal. “We actually told Mia we’d take Asal out for the afternoon.”

Jared shook his hand. “Thanks.” Then he gave his little girl a kiss and sent her packing. His mom had the baby, who had nestled back asleep in a corner in a chair. His dad grabbed another chair.

“What do you think, Boss Man? Think we can break out of here soon?” Sugar asked.

“You’re raring to go that fast?”

Her blue eyes danced. “I want to get back to our life.”

His heart swelled. “Soon as we get a stamp of approval, we’ll be on our way. I’m good with that.”

“Take as much help from the hospital and nurses as you can while you’re here.” His mom stood, kissed the baby, and gave her to him. “And rest while you can. We’ll come over and help.”

“Thanks.”

Jared repositioned Violet so that he could stare down and watch her sleep. She fit inside his forearm even with the blanket wrapped around her. She was no longer than a football and weighed less than a brick of ammo. Vi-vi was… vulnerable. Precious. She was dependent on Sugar for nutrition, but damn if he wouldn’t provide for everything else.

She opened her little mouth and yawned. Even at full stretch, everything about her was tiny. She had a smattering of dark hair, and when she did open her eyes, they were blue. Jared leaned his head closer. “Hey, Vi.”

More than one person had said newborns didn’t smile after he announced that his daughter smiled at him. But he swore to God that Violet just smiled again.

“Oh, one more thing.” His mom reached into her bag and pulled out a pink-wrapped box. “One more thing. I couldn’t resist.”

The
you didn’t have to
s were said, and Sugar opened the box. It was a pink-camo onesie with, in military block print, “Titan Princess in Training.”

“Wow, Mom.” He picked up the outfit, running his thumb over the words.

She gave him a knowing look. “Sooner or later, you’ll have to be ready for the next generation of Titan.”

He thought about his teams, the new recruits, the men who’d been with him since day one, the paternity-leave requests, the women who had joined their ranks, and the babies and kids who ran the halls of Titan HQ. “We already are.”

THE END

Stay in touch with Cristin Harber by signing up for her
newsletter!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cristin Harber is a
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling romance author. She writes sexy, steamy romantic suspense, military romance, new adult, and contemporary romance. Readers voted her onto Amazon's Top Picks for Debut Romance Authors in 2013, and her debut Titan series was both a #1 romantic suspense and #1 military romance bestseller.

Connect with Cristin:
Email
|
Facebook
|
Twitter
|
Team Titan

Join the newsletter!
Text TITAN to 66866 or
click here
to sign up for exclusive emails.

The Titan Series:

Book 1: Winters Heat

Book 1.5: Sweet Girl

Book 2: Garrison's Creed

Book 3: Westin's Chase

Book 4: Gambled

Book 5: Chased

Book 6: Savage Secrets

Book 7: Hart Attack

Book 7.5: Sweet One

Book 8: Black Dawn

Book 9: Bishop’s Queen

The Delta Series:

Book 1: Delta: Retribution

Book 2: Delta: Revenge

The Delta Novella in Liliana Hart’s MacKenzie Family Collection
:

Delta: Rescue

The Only Series:

Book 1: Only for Him

Book 2: Only for Her

Book 3: Only for Us

Book 4: Only Forever

Each Titan and Delta book can be read as a standalone (except for Sweet Girl), but readers will likely best enjoy the series in order. The Only series must be read in order.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2016 Cristin Harber

All rights reserved. This book or any portions thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author and publisher except for the use of brief quotations used in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally.

ISBN-10: 1-942236-68-9

ISBN-13: 978-1-942236-68-9

www.CristinHarber.com