Page 164 of Caution to the Wind

AXE-MAN

The Saturdayafter we systematically dismantled Seven Song’s Golden Door Inn Bank, I woke up in my bed at Lake Mead and saw Mei lyin’ beside me. Just the sight of her, tangled and naked in my sheets, hand outstretched as if reachin’ for me even in sleep, sent a wave of physical reactions through me. My heart started thrummin’, my gut swooped the way it did when you dropped with turbulence in an airplane, my mouth watered and my hand spasmed with the instant impulse to reach out for that hand and bring her closer.

She was inside me now. Lodged under my rib cage, beatin’ like a second heart. Or maybe, she’d always been there, hidin’ in the dark recesses of my chest, waitin’ for me to recognize her for what she was and give her the light she needed to thrive within me.

Such a long, messy history filled with mistakes on both sides, it seemed wildly unlikely that we could’ve ended up here in this bed together in this home I’d made in Entrance.

But in little ways, it made sense.

This madness had lain dormant inside me for years, not ’cause I hadn’t met the person I was born to love but ’cause I had, and we just hadn’t been ready to go there. So, for eight years I’d been in this holdin’ pattern, livin’ but not for myself, goin’ through the motions.

And it was only when Mei arrived back on my doorstep that I woke up again.

After all the battles I’d fought in my life, it should’ve occurred to me fate would give me a fighter to stand at my side and have my back. Someone as fierce as she was lovely.

I traced my thumb over the Chinese symbols forlove, faith,andhonouron her hand ’cause I couldn’t resist the urge to touch her, but I didn’t wake her up.

It was beyond time for me to do somethin’ I’d been putting off.

Cleo was already in the kitchen when I padded down the stairs barefoot in old sweats and a Hephaestus Auto tee. Sittin’ at a stool with her chin propped on one knee, eatin’ cereal and readin’ one of Mei’s Off-White Knight books while she listened to Taylor Swift.

“You know this Gloria character is kind of badass,” she told me as I came into the room and poured a coffee before goin’ over to top hers off.

I kissed her forehead as I did. “Fittin’ seein’ as she’s based on my badass daughter.”

She smiled at me, and I felt it like a hit to my chest. Those grins were startin’ to come easier now that Mei was back, now she had her casts off and more of a routine set. She was excited to get to Box n’ Burn every day to learn self-defence and she was writin’ again, somethin’ private in a pink diary Bea’d given her, but it was better than nothin’.

“You doin’ okay, Glory?” I asked her, leanin’ a hip against the counter and smoothin’ her hair back with one hand ’cause she liked the contact. It was growin’ now, startin’ to curl prettily around her face. “Tell me honestly.”

“Yeah, Dad,” she murmured, tippin’ her head back to look up at me with those Kay sage-green eyes that were so fuckin’ beautiful. “I’m getting there every day. Sometimes it’s hard, but I think it’ll be hard the rest of my life. My mum and dad taught me to be tough, so I can handle it when things go dark.”

“She’d be so fuckin’ proud of ya.” I had to swallow the lump that rose in my throat, but my voice was still hoarse. “But no way anyone could be as proud of you as me. You know that?”

Tears sprang to her eyes, but she didn’t try to dash them away. Instead, she leaned over to rest herself against my torso. “There’s this thing online about ‘lucky girl syndrome.’ Bea and I were talking about it, joking that I had ‘unlucky girl syndrome.’ But then I thought about it. The truth is, I am the luckiest because God took Mum from me, but He set the scales right when He gave me to you.” She looked up at me with her cheek pressed to my gut, and her eyes were wide with gratitude. “I don’t think I’d be alive today without you, Dad. Mei was right when she made you into the Off-White Knight, because you don’t wear armour, but you’re the best hero I ever could’ve had.”

My gut churned with emotion, heat and pressure behind my eyes I hadn’t had to deal with since Cleo was found near dead in a fuckin’ field.

These tears were good ones, though, and I was man enough to let my daughter see the way her words moved me.

“Glory of the father,” I muttered the definition of Cleo’s name and the reason I’d always called her Glory. “Always, sweetheart. You and me against the fuckin’ world.”

“You and me and Mei,” she corrected and when I blinked, caught out ’cause there was somethin’ in her voice I hadn’t been expectin’. She laughed. “Right?”

“Right,” I drawled, takin’ a sip of joe to collect my thoughts. “Fuck it, you know, then?”

She laughed again and it was bright and loud and long. I wondered if it would wake Mei up and decided even if it did, there could be no better alarm.

“Um,yeah, Dad. You and Mei’ve never exactly been subtle.”

“Um, hate to break it to ya, kid, but there was nome and Meibefore the last couple of weeks.”

“Sure, Dad.”

“I’m serious.”

She rolled her eyes playfully and then sighed like I was the kid and she was the parent. “Dad, you think after watching some of the most epic romances inhistoryplay out in front of my eyes the last five years, I don’t recognize soul mates when I see them? Whether you want to admit it or not, I’ve been quietly rooting for you and Mei since I was seventeen.”

“No shit.” The back of my neck was hot with somethin’ like embarrassment. “Was I the only one blind to Mei’s crush?”