Scorch: A Soldiers of Fortune Romance (Military Bad Boy Romance) (24 page)

"You're to be commended, Agent."

The Director's office is as cold and sterile as the rest of the building; all metal and glass and blank surfaces devoid of emotion. Because that's what the job is; a lack of emotion and a lack of empathy in order to get done what needs to be done.

Except a "lack of emotion" is basically the exact opposite of anything at all that happened on my first field mission. The Director doesn't know that, of course, but it's still making me feel impossibly small and unrewarding of any sort of "commending".

"Thank you, sir."

"You kept your head, you kept cool,and you followed your instincts."

No, I didn't
.

My instincts were to get as far away from that man as possible, and telling my instincts to fuck off was the best thing I’ve ever done.

"I didn't-" I shake my head; "I didn't complete the mission, sir."

The Director snorts a laugh and stands from him chair. He walks over to the dry bar in the corner of his office and holds an empty glass towards me; "Drink, Agent?"

How about tequila with a side of waves and a dash of sunset.

"No thank you, sir."

He nods before turning and pouring himself a splash of scotch; "I'm not worried about the original mission, Agent Archer; we did one better. Javier Toro was a nuisance; a pain in my ass and a thorn in the Agency’s side. With all due respect to what happened to you with your mission, it was a gopher mission; basic retrieval for an asset I'd rather just have disappear off the face of the Earth than actually have to deal with."

My hands clench into fists and I force myself to breath as I close my eyes and count backwards from twenty.

"I have no idea how you managed to persuade him to make that phone call, Agent, but Javier gave us
everything
; Koufax, Blackriver, all of it." He sits back at his desk and frowns; "They're denying it, of course; saying this Benson character was a 'rogue operative' or whatever. It's all bullshit, obviously, but we'll have a hell of a time proving that."

"What happens now?”

"With Koufax?" The Director's lips turn into a smile; “Columbian border control caught him coming through Cali and our teams there took over.” The Director smiles thinly; “Koufax disappears; end of discussion. I've got him on collusion, espionage, and treason. He's gone; he's a Goddamn ghost." He sips his scotch and nods slowly at me; "Toro's phone call solved a lot of stuff, Archer. I'm glad you got out when you did, but you should know we were going to come for you no matter what."

Of course you were,
I think, mentally rolling my eyes.

"We leave no one behind, Agent."

Except we did.

We left the man I love.

“She’ll be back.” Logan’s face is grim, and he’s not looking at me as the door to Hudson’s penthouse slams shut with my sister’s exit.

My whole family is here for my “ripping the band-aid” moment of spilling my guts about the last few days, about Javier, and about, well, everything else they don’t know about me. Hudson sits quietly on his couch next to Reagan with my little niece Christine burbling quietly between them, pleasantly innocent of the drama brewing around her.
 

“Logan, I-”

“I don’t really need to know the details of you and that fucking piece of shit, OK Chels?”

He’s still avoiding my eyes, looking at a blank spot on the wall opposite from where he stands with his arms crossed and his face grim. His sister Peyton shoots me a quick sympathetic look before she resumes playing the “everyone not looking at Chelsea” game while she rubs his back.

“Logan will you look at me please?” Logan’s gaze steels itself, unwavering from it’s piercing stare at the wall. The air is thick with tension with me sitting by myself in the middle of it feeling like I failed them all.

“So how long were you planning on having us think you were actually getting a masters in international economics?” Hudson isn’t overtly smiling, but I know that glint of humor in his eyes when I see it, and it gives me a
sliver
of confidence that my family will ever speak to me again.

“I-”

“School was part of her cover, Hudson.” Major Lawson has been quiet the whole time so far, standing by the window and looking out over Manhattan. My secret life has been cleared with my family as of one hour ago; all his doing. He turns, leveling his gaze at the three men in the room, one by one; “I’m sure you can all appreciate needing to
hide
a facet of yourself from even those love you.” Hudson grins, and even somber and quiet Bryce off by himself in the corner cracks a hint of a smile.

Logan maintains his steely-eyed gaze, unwavering.

“He’s not a bad guy, Logan.”

“Yes, he is, Chelsea.”

“OK, maybe he
was
a
-
”
 

“Agreed.”

Reagan puts Christine in Hudson’s lap before she comes over and gives me a hug, and I all but lose it right there; “I’m mad at you, you know,” She says, mashing her face into my shoulder as she squeezes me tightly to her; “But I understand, and I love you.”

I raise my eyes to Logan as Reagan pulls away from me; “He saved my life, you know.”

“It’s a start.”

“Jesus Christ, Dempsey, how long are you going to hang onto this?” Bryce growls from across the room. He shakes his head at Hudson and Logan; “Are the two of
you
assholes seriously going to hold falling for someone you shouldn’t over her fucking head?”

My face burns red and I raise my eyes to Bryce;
‘Thank you’
, I mouth to him, and he winks at me.

Hudson breaks first; “
Damnit
,” He huffs, standing and passing my niece to his wife before he comes over and scoops me into a big bear hug; “I guess I owe you for helping me sway this one.” He says grinning, jerking his head towards Reagan. “I don’t like him, you should know that; but I’m not going to get between two people who are going to crash into each other anyways.” I sniff back a tear as I smile at him, and he ruffles my hair like the kid-sister I am to him; “I’m just glad you’re ok, Chels.”

Peyton prods Logan in the arm, but he brushes her off, and then growls as she rolls her eyes and comes over to hug me as well.

Major Lawson clears his throat, and everyone - even stone-cold Logan, turns; “When I told William I’d watch his daughters,” The older man smiles and shakes his head; “Well, the job has certainly given me a bigger run for my money than I ever expected.”

I can feel Reagan move behind me and squeeze my shoulder, and I look up at her and grin; “Major, I hope you know that we-”

“I made a promise to your father, and I stand by that vow; no matter what.” He takes a deep breath, nodding as if choosing his words carefully; “Your father saw things in people. He saw the good and the worth in them when other’s didn’t.” Logan scowls and starts to turn away when the Major looks at him sharply; “Like,
for instance,
your adoptive brothers, Chelsea. Just like Hudson, and Bryce,” He looks at each of the men in turn; “Just like Logan. The three of them were,” He chuckles; “Well, I think we can agree that they were all works in progress when your father found them and when I first met them.”

Hudson and Bryce share a look and shrug as they grin at each other.

“But your father saw promise in them; the promise of the men they
could
be.”

“He didn’t see it in Javier,” Logan mumbles.

Major Lawson shoots him a look; “But
Chelsea
did.” He turns to me; “There’s a lot of William in you, my dear. Your sister of course as well, but you,” He nods; “You took a lot of him.”

I lean into Reagan’s embrace as she hugs me again.

“So, Javier.” The Major looks pointedly at me, and I blush, embarrassed and ashamed, and I hate that I’m ashamed of my feelings.

“Javier-”

“Is a good man, at heart, I’m willing to believe. Probably better than anyone’s ever given him credit for. He sacrificed himself to save you, which counts for a
lot
in my book.”

I sniff, and the tears I’ve been desperately and furiously holding back begin to trickle from my eyes.

“It means something in my book and I know it meant something in your father’s.”

The front door to Hudson’s place bangs open again, and a tear-eyed Quinn storms in. She’s crying as she quickly crosses the room and throws her arms around me, and it’s then that I just go to pieces.
 

“Don’t ever go and get kidnapped again, OK?” She sniffs into my shoulder, making us both choke out laughs through our tears.
 

“He’s still there, with Blackriver,” I say quietly, wrapping my arms around her.

Quinn looks up at Major Lawson; “Javier; he saved her, didn’t he?” The silver-haired man nods, and she turns to Logan; “We’re not leaving him there to die then.” Logan’s jaw tightens, but I know I’m watching the facade crumble. She looks back at Major Lawson; “We can’t leave him there.”

“No, we certainly can’t.”

I look up sharply, but I’m not the only one. Reagan, Quinn, Peyton, Hudson, Bryce, and even Logan are also jerking their heads up to look at the Major.

“What?”

The Major grins; “I said we certainly can’t.”

“
Logan
,” Quinn says pointedly; “What if it was me? What if they’d been after me and he stepped in?”

Logan glares at my sister; “But it wasn’t-”
 

“It might have well been, man.” Hudson says sharply; “They were after her to get to us. It could have been Reagan, and it could have been Quinn, and the only reason she’s not hurt,” He nods at me; “Well, Javier Toro is the only reason.”

Logan closes his eyes, shaking his head for a moment before he opens them; “He called me, you know.”

I jerk my head up and stare at him; “
What!?
When?”
 

From before he broke you out, when you were there with Benson and Blackriver.” Logan nods slowly; “He called my old second line and just said that he was settling up with karma, and that he was sorry.”

My heart almost breaks right there, and I find myself clinging to Quinn as if I might shatter and scatter to the winds if I don’t.
 

Logan turns, and when he does, I can see him drop the rest of whatever he’s holding onto. He looks pointedly at the Major; “How soon could we do this?”