Page 85 of Fall of a Kingdom

Everything will be all right.

Chapter30

FLYNN

After I hungup the phone with Barrett, I went in search of Sasha. I assumed Ramsey was down for the count. I knew Duncan was brooding because he’d locked himself in the study, no doubt to think about life and all the choices he’d made that had led him here. I just hoped he didn’t call his wife in the middle of the night to tell her nothing and everything was wrong.

Honesty was not always the best policy when it came to women. It made me think of my own decisions where Barrett was concerned.

When she’d returned from Dolinsky, she hadn’t been on birth control. It had run out. I didn’t remind her about it. Instead, I’d used the lapse to my advantage. It had been calculated, for sure. She’d be livid if she found out what I’d done to ensure she never left me. Barrett had claimed she didn’t want to be a mother. At the time, I’d believed her, and I knew she had the capacity to be a rolling stone. If we hadn’t had children to bind us together, I often wondered if the pressure of the SINS would’ve done us in. If Igor Dolinsky’s memory would’ve been enough to tear us apart.

A woman could leave a husband far more easily than she could leave her children.

Was it manipulative? What I’d done?

Absolutely.

If I could go back and do it all over again?

I’d have made the same decision.

Barrett was a hair-trigger. Aye, she was loyal, and she loved fiercely, but she also had an innate survival instinct within her. She would detonate her entire life if she thought she had to in order to protect herself.

I stepped outside to the terrace and stood underneath the overhang of the balcony. It had rained earlier, and the stone walkway was slick. The air was chilly, and it cooled my blood and calmed the thoughts in my head.

Sasha stared across the lawn of Duncan’s home, hands in his pockets. There was enough light from the house that I could see one side of his face, the side that wasn’t scarred.

“Can I join you? Or would you prefer to be alone?” I asked.

“You can join me,” he said. “I was just admiring the landscaping.”

“Are you having buyer’s remorse?” I asked him with a grin.

“Not at all. I made the right decision, even if Quinn is upset with me.” He smiled. “She can be as upset as she wants, but she’ll be glad once she’s moved in and redecorating.”

“You didn’t have to run out and buy the first place you liked. You could’ve waited a few weeks, maybe adjusted to the time change completely. We would’ve been glad to have you stay for a while.”

“I appreciate that,” he said. “But when you see the right thing, you just know it.”

I approved of men who knew what they wanted and went out and got it. Sasha was one of those men.

“I’m ready to go home. You?”

Sasha nodded. “I’m too drunk to drive your Aston Martin back to your house.”

“Leave the car. Angus can drive us back.”

I texted Duncan to let him know we were leaving, but I didn’t get a reply. I assumed that meant he’d passed out on the leather couch in his study.

Thirty minutes later, I crawled in bed next to Barrett and stole a hand across her back.

She inhaled a sharp breath. “Flynn?”

Her voice was husky with sleep. I chuckled softly. “Who else would it be, hen?”

Barrett draped herself across me and pressed her face to the crook of my neck. “I’m so glad you’re home.”

I hugged her tightly.