Of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (13 page)

Jericho rubbed his chest in slow circles, a frown on his face. “I know what I’m going to do. Do you have to keep bringing it up?” he muttered, and Dahlia couldn’t help thinking he didn’t know he was speaking aloud.

“
Mamá
,” Gabriel shouted as he rounded the curve into the hallway at a dead run. “Did you see our new stuff?”

Dahlia closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing so she wouldn’t attack Jericho in front of her child. When she opened them again, it was to see Gabriel and Jericho were both looking at her, something akin to hero-worship for Jericho reflected in Gabriel’s eyes. It was enough to make her sick. Jericho’s expression clearly read,
What are you going to do now
? Gabriel’s expression was just confused, obviously not understanding why Dahlia wasn’t as excited as he and Esperanza were.

She gritted her teeth. Jericho had manufactured this, damn him. He knew she wouldn’t snatch these things out of the hands of her son once he’d seen them. He was manipulating the situation, and she didn’t care for it at all.

“
Mijo, ve y ayunda a tu abuela
.” As Gabriel jogged off to help Esperanza finish unpacking groceries, Dahlia walked up to Jericho until they were nose-to-nose.

“I really hate it when I can’t understand you guys,” he said, almost to himself. “I need to learn Spanish.”

Dahlia smacked him in the chest. “Don’t bother, you’ll be out of our lives in a matter of days. And thank
God
I’ll never have to see you again.” She was fuming. “Listen to me, and listen to me good, you stubborn, manipulating
cabrón
. You get one more thing for this house and then use my son to force me into accepting it, and I’ll throw you out on your
culo
, you got me? And I’ll make sure you never find us again!”

Jericho’s face fell. “You think I’m
manipulating
you?” he asked in a horrified whisper.

“That’s exactly what you’re doing, and don’t pretend otherwise.”

“No, Dahlia. Just …
no
! That wasn’t my intention at all. I just have all this damn money from the government for what happened to me and — ” He stopped.

His mate.

“It’s dirty money, and I don’t want it. It made me feel better to spend it on you … and Gabriel.” He was looking at the floor now, but she could see he was still frowning.

Dahlia was speechless. Was he telling the truth, or was this just another part of his male manipulation? She honestly didn’t know, and it frightened her. It had been ages since she’d been able to be fooled by a man, and the thought that some of her savviness might have vanished frightened her to no end. How was she going to survive if she had gone back to her pre-Gabriel days?

She had to know, so she stretched out her hand and brushed it down his arm lightly. His head snapped up, and he tried to reach for her, but she jerked back. She’d gotten what she needed. The Knowledge had told her Jericho was
good
. Still. Probably always.

Oh, shit, she was in deep. She had no idea how to handle a good man. She envisioned arguments like the one they’d just had occurring over and over again for the rest of their lives until she finally drove him away with her distrust —

And then she remembered that he was going to be going away anyway. In a couple of days when he took her back to the compound. She knew she would never be able to forgive him for taking her away from Gabriel. And so things would end then. No matter what.

“Don’t do it again,” she whispered. “I can take care of my son.”

Jericho’s eyes still looked bleak, but he nodded despite obviously wanting to argue.

“And speaking of my son,” Dahlia charged on, her voice rising once again as she remembered how Gabriel had looked at Jericho. “If you get him to love you, to depend on you, and then you hurt him, I will castrate you with my bare hands,
comprende
?”

Jericho’s nostrils flared, and she saw undefinable emotion in his eyes. “Of course,” he said in a gravelly voice. “You’re right.”

Without another word, he turned on his heel and walked into the kitchen.

Dahlia watched him go. Against her will and her temper, her eyes ate up the wide expanse of his back, the narrowing of his hips, the way his ass moved beneath the seat of his pants, and she sighed. Why did she feel like the bad guy in this?

Later that night, Jericho sprawled on his back in the floor of the empty guest room and propped his head up with one arm behind his neck.

Twenty-four hours ago, he had been someone entirely different than he was today: a soldier who knew his job and would never shirk from completing it.

But now? He shook himself mentally.
No
. He was still a soldier, he still knew his job, and he would
not
shirk from completing it.

The worst thing that had happened today was Dahlia warning him off her son.

His gut clenched. Jericho blew out a frustrated breath. So he had to cut off interaction with the kid. So what? No one said he had to like it, he just had to do it. He threw himself onto his side and focused on steadying his breathing so he could drop off into some much-needed sleep.

Sleep was long in coming, but when it did finally come, it was quickly interrupted. Jericho was jerked to consciousness by the brush of something on his arm.

Years of training kept him still until he had determined the threat. It took only three seconds for him to realize Gabriel had woken him up.

“Hey, buddy,” Jericho said.

“I had a bad dream.” Gabriel’s voice was shaky and small.

Jericho closed his eyes again.
Distance.
He had to keep the kid at a distance.

Gabriel’s broken breathing had Jericho opening his eyes again and pulling himself into a seated position. “A bad dream?”

Jericho could see Gabriel’s silhouette nod.

Shit
. What did Gabriel need from him? What was he supposed to do? “Do you want to tell me about it?” Jericho asked hesitantly.

Gabriel shook his head, but the words tumbled from his mouth anyway. “Mommy was gone, and you weren’t there to save me.”

“Save you?” Jericho frowned.
From what?
“Well, Mommy is here, and so am I. You’re safe. I promise.”

But the air dripped with Gabriel’s doubt. Jericho sighed and scooted back until his back hit the wall. “Here,” Jericho patted his knee. “I’ll sit up with you until you fall asleep again, okay?”

It was obviously the purpose behind Gabriel’s visit, because the kid scrambled over and practically threw himself into Jericho’s lap. Jericho reached beyond him and grabbed the blanket, making sure the boy was covered. Then he leaned his head against the wall and waited for Gabriel to fall asleep so he could take him back to his own room.

So much for distance.

• • •

Gabriel was gone.

Dahlia clamped a hand over her mouth to keep the scream inside as she stared down at her son’s rumpled, empty bed. Oh, God, it had happened. He’d found them.

Her first coherent thought was to get Jericho. Jericho would help her. Her second thought was
hell, no
, but she was so desperate that she willingly threw aside her need for independence in favor of her son’s safety.

She tore down the hallway to Jericho’s room. The door was open, so she didn’t have to slow down. She grabbed the doorframe and swung into the room at full speed …

Only to screech to a halt.

Across the room against the far wall, Jericho was sleeping sitting up. His head was tilted back at what looked to be an incredibly painful angle. His mouth was wide open, and his snores rent the morning air.

Curled up with his head on Jericho’s knee was her son.

Dahlia was so shocked and relieved to find him in Jericho’s room that she didn’t immediately react. She was able to take in Gabriel’s peaceful sleeping face. Jericho’s hand on the boy’s head. They looked … like they belonged together. Like a family.

Dahlia lost her shit.

She stomped over to Jericho and poked him in the shoulder. “
Tss
,” she hissed at him through her teeth.

She knew he had woken up, because he stiffened. But he didn’t move. After several long seconds, he opened his eyes slowly, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. His sleepy eyes caused her gut to clench.

Which only made her more furious. “What the
fuck
is my son doing in here?” she whisper-yelled at him.

That woke him up. He raised his head with a jerk and looked at Gabriel’s sleeping form. He cursed softly.

Dahlia nodded. “That’s right, sunshine. Feeling the life of a eunuch, hmm?”

Gabriel slept on blissfully as Jericho lifted the boy’s head, slid out from under him, and placed the pillow where his knee had been. He then turned to her and gestured for her to meet him out in the hallway.

She stormed away and waited while he left the room and closed the door behind him, keeping their impending argument from Gabriel’s impressionable ears.

“Well?” she demanded.

Jericho winced. “I’m sorry, sweetheart — ”

Dahlia smacked him on his chest in the same spot she had last night. “
Sweetheart
? Do you
want
to die?” The Voice tried to interject some reason.
You didn’t seem to mind the endearment yesterday.

“You can shut right up,” Dahlia said out loud, and Jericho looked at her cautiously. Great. She was truly going crazy.

“He had a bad dream, okay?”

Dahlia reeled back. Her son had had a bad dream and gone to
Jericho
? Jealously reared its ugly head.
She
was his parent, wasn’t she? What did Jericho have that she didn’t?

Besides incredible height, and incredible strength, and incredible superhero looks …

Damn the man. No wonder her son had gone to him. He practically looked like Captain America.

The door creaked open and both Jericho and Dahlia’s heads swiveled around to the sight of a sleep-rumpled little boy.

“Morning,
Mamá
,
Pa —
” Gabriel cut himself off and blushed beat red.

Red was all Dahlia was seeing. She threw her head back and groaned angrily at the ceiling. Her mind tried to tell her it was an innocent mistake — how many times do little kids call their teachers “mom” by accident — but she was having none of it.

“Your fault,” she whispered at Jericho through her teeth before stalking off. She stormed through the house and right out the front door to the lawn where she sank to the ground and covered her face with her hands.

She was going to kill him. How dare he steal her son?
She
was the one who had always been there for Gabriel. And now this do-good, grinning idiot was taking her place?

Yep, she was going to kill him. But first she had to get Gabriel off to school. Without her son around, she was finally going to tear into the man.

An hour later, after Gabriel had been washed, fed, and sent off to school, Dahlia was exhausted, and the day had just begun. She was in the kitchen with Esperanza working on tamales for dinner and thinking of what she was going to say to Jericho when she heard a car pull up outside the house.

The marrow froze in her bones. She had no way of knowing this for sure, but her heart told her that trouble had finally arrived. She’d been lulled into a sense of complacency here with Jericho taking care of everything. How had she forgotten that they would be coming for Gabriel?

She jerked her head up and her eyes immediately found Esperanza over by the stove. She had frozen in place, too. Her eyes met Dahlia’s, and she read the same fear there.

Like a shot, Dahlia was out of her chair and sprinting through the living room, Esperanza right behind her. They flew to the window and glanced out surreptitiously through the curtains.

Dahlia heard the click of a pistol being cocked, and then she felt Esperanza slip the cool weight of a gun into the palm of her hand. Dahlia turned briefly to thank her and make sure the older woman was also armed before turning her attention, once again, to what was doing out in front of the house.

Dahlia’s breath caught in her throat. Jericho had thrown down the tools he’d been using to repair the roof and was walking calmly to the car that idled in front of the curb. Dahlia couldn’t see around him, but she could tell from the car that it was bad, but not as bad as she’d feared.

“
¿No es mi hijo?
” Esperanza asked breathlessly.

Dahlia sighed briefly and shook her head. No, it wasn’t Esperanza’s son. But after these clowns left, it soon would be. They were here to get information, and in her brilliance, Dahlia hadn’t told Jericho all of her problem, so he may let something slip that could ruin them.

Through the haze of the curtains, Dahlia saw Jericho lean over and brace himself on the open window of the old, burgundy Lincoln and engage the occupants in conversation.

“What is he saying?” Dahlia muttered to herself, tensing as the conversation seemed to go on forever.

Like a shot, Jericho jerked from the car, took a step back, and looked over his shoulder at the house, anger flashing in his eyes.

“Oh, shit,” Dahlia said at the same time Esperanza muttered, “
Madre de Dios
.”

Neither woman had a clue what had just happened, but both of them recognized infuriated male.

The Lincoln burned rubber as it pulled away from the curb, and Jericho stormed toward the house.

And just like that, everything Dahlia knew about Jericho — that he was a good man, that he would never hurt her, that she might be falling for him — fell away as Dahlia reverted about nine years into her past.

A whimper escaped her lips. One thought repeated like a mantra through her brain:
He’s angry. He’s angry. He’s angry.

As though under water, Dahlia heard Esperanza crooning to her, brushing her hair back from her suddenly sweat-slicked face, but Dahlia couldn’t grasp what was reality, what was not.

The door of the house crashed open, bouncing off the living room wall as he barreled inside. “Dahlia!” he shouted, rage dripping from every word.