Page 5

As it turned out, they only had to stay for two days before the team back home said it was safe to leave. They put Jewel, Gemma, and Brad on a commercial plane, and they all left with Tillie. By the time they were home, a celebration was planned.

After the food, laughter, and hugs, a huge group went to The Well. Leo had been a few times with the team, but seeing Tillie there with all the male attention was a bit daunting even for him. He thought about how his life had changed.

Leo was grateful every day that he’d been tapped to work with the Voodoo Guardians.

His full-time job was working on the custom bikes and cars at Steel Patriot Cycles.

But like the others, he was often asked to help with other duties, like the rescue of Tillie.

Although technically, he wasn’t asked. He volunteered.

Tonight, he was on a break, along with several of the other men and their wives, celebrating Tillie’s return.

The Well was their go-to place to relax, dance, and enjoy good food.

He spotted Victoria seated with her parents, looking as if she were being tortured.

He knew the girl was having a hard time.

He just didn’t know how bad it really was.

“Hi, Leo,” said the soft voice. He turned and swallowed, standing so quickly the chair fell over.

“Oh, hi, Tillie,” he said, smiling at her beauty.

Matilda Sung. The name just rolled off the tongue. Although he definitely liked Tillie better. She was a beautiful mix of her parents’ cultures with gorgeous, flowing, silky red hair and almond-shaped eyes.

“Would you like to dance?” she asked.

“Oh. Um. I-I’m not sure.” She laughed a beautiful lilting laugh, looking back at her father. Tanner walked toward them and reached out, shaking Leo’s hand.

“It’s alright if you’d like to dance with my daughter, Leo. She’s a grown woman now, as much as I hate to admit it. Thirty-three.”

“Thirty-four, Dad,” smiled Tillie. “What do you say, Leo?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’d love to dance with you.”

Leo was tall, taller than Tillie first thought. She’d hugged him and didn’t realize how tall he was. At five-feet-nine, she wasn’t a small woman. Now, standing in her sandals, reaching for his shoulders on the dance floor, it felt as though she’d shrunk.

“You’re much taller than I remembered,” she grinned.

“I’m six-three,” he said, looking down at her. “But you’re pretty tall as well. Obviously, you take after your dad. Your mom is very small.”

“She is,” grinned Tillie. “I got the best of both of them. They’re the absolute best. Where are your parents?”

“Oh. They’re both gone now. My father struggled with depression and mental illness most of my life.

He hardly ever had a job. I was raised by my mother, mostly.

She was a nurse in the emergency room. Worked her ass off all the time, taking night shifts, anything to make more money.

She used to work on her days off at a local clinic. She was the best.”

“I’m sorry,” frowned Tillie, looking up at him. “How did she die?”

“A patient in the ER. He shot her. I was almost finished with my senior year of high school. She didn’t die until several years later, but had I been in the Navy, I might not have made it home.

I had already switched to the Coast Guard by the time she passed.

They lived not far from my base, so it was a blessing to be there for them.

“It was only a few days later that my dad died. I think from a broken heart. He didn’t understand why she wasn’t there any longer. He kept asking when she was coming home, and I just didn’t have the heart to tell him that she wasn’t ever coming home.”

Tillie wrapped her arms around his neck, squeezing him closely.

“I’m so, so sorry, Leo,” she whispered in his ear.

“Thank you. Don’t feel bad for me. I had a good life. I was a state champion swimmer, got to swim for the Naval Academy, and do what I loved. I was much luckier than most kids.”

“I feel the same way,” she nodded. “My mother was from a very wealthy, very cruel father that she was forced to run from. He killed her mother and then tried to kill her. That’s how she and my father met.”

“That fucking sucks,” muttered Leo.

“Mmhmm. Dad’s parents were activists in North Korea. He was put on a fishing boat and brought to San Francisco, where he was adopted by a family. He did well for himself, becoming a SEAL, but neither had storybook childhoods.”

The music stopped, and Leo wanted to curse the skies. Then another slow song came on, and he looked down at Tillie. She nodded, smiling at him, as they continued to dance.

“Well, it sounds like we were both luckier than most and fortunate to find such amazing people to be around,” said Leo.

“It does sound that way. So. Tell me about you. No girlfriend? Wife?”

“Nope,” he said, giving a smirk to her. “I didn’t have a lot of time for that. I also didn’t want to leave a woman alone after promising something to her.”

“You seem to have the same rule as most of the men here. I’ve heard all of them say that from time to time. I went to school with Mav, Saint, Pax, CJ, and Brax. We are all very close.”

“Yet you didn’t date them?”

“No. No, they felt more like brothers to me. I didn’t want to date them. We were best friends, and they helped me to learn to fight.”

“They did a good job,” he smiled. “You got away in Botswana. That’s pretty amazing.”

“Yeah, but something about all of that still bothers me,” she frowned.

“Me too,” he said. They were quiet for a few minutes, just enjoying the dance and the warm summer night. “Will you go back?”

He asked it so quietly, so softly, she almost didn’t hear him.

“I’m not sure. I thought I would, but something changed.”

“What changed?” he asked, looking at her.

“You. You came into my life, and now I’m not sure I want to leave,” she said, staring up at him. He lowered his mouth to hers, whispering against her lips.

“Then don’t.”