Page 102 of Crossed By the Stars

A few years ago, I would have called him whipped for it, but I had no desire to be gone from Jada either. We might not have a trail of kids behind us, but we had each other. It was enough.PapaandMamanwould love to have grandkids to spoil, but I think they’d finally realized that Jada’s past had left some permanent scars. Children weren’t in the cards for us. I was lucky I’d gotten her to agree to marry me.

“Well, I guess miracles do happen,” I said with a smile.

“They do,” he said, quiet again.

“Why so serious?” I asked.

“Are you with Jada?”

“On my way, why?”

“She called Violet earlier, and Vi got that worried look on her face. She wouldn’t tell me what was going on. I think I might have an idea…” he trailed off.

“But?” I asked.

“I’m getting the stink eye. Just make sure she’s okay,” he said.

I loved and hated that Dawson still felt so protective of my wife.

“Always,” I said.

We hung up, and I hurried the remaining steps to her office with a new worry flooding me. When I got to the door, it was ajar. When I pushed it aside, she was at the desk, looking down at a paper with her hand, flipping her phone over and over on the glass surface. Nerves. Nerves I rarely saw in her these days.

“Mon bijou?” I said softly.

She jumped, the phone sliding across the smooth surface. She turned the paper over, and I couldn’t help the fear that bled into me. Five years ago, she’d been almost as jumpy when I’d found the death threat in her possession. A bloodykaikenand promises of retribution.

I crossed the room, and she rounded the desk to meet me.

I pulled her into my arms, tucking her into my chest and squeezing tightly. She belonged there. With me. Next to me. Part of my life.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Did Dawson call you?” she returned my question with one of her own.

“Yes, but I was already on my way to get you. You’re late.”

The scold was said with heat. Usually, we both liked it when she was late, and I had to come and carry her home. Tonight, she didn’t return my desire with one that matched mine. Instead, she pushed away.

After taking two steps, she looked back with so much of the old Jada that my heart found its way into my throat and stayed there. The closed-off woman she’d once been had disappeared over the last few years. She laughed easily and smiled regularly these days. Lighter. Freer. Closer to the stargazer on a regular basis than she’d ever been to the tiger lily.

“What is it?” I asked.

She put her hands to her forehead, rubbing the temples.

“TheKyodaina?” I asked, holding my breath.

They’d become pretty much defunct after Malone and his team had finished with them. All the leaders from her father’s time were in jail. But like any hydra of the underworld, they still had heads that popped up now and again as some of the lower minions who’d been left behind tried to resurrect it.

Jada shook her head. “No…but still something…life-changing.”

I took a step back toward her, and she countered by moving away.

“Mon amour, you’re worrying me.” She still didn’t like the endearment, and I still used it when I needed to push her buttons. But it was so rare these days that we were both surprised when I said it.

“This is your fault,” she said.

“Mine?” Surprise continued to fill me.