Page 35 of Maximus (Gold Team #4)

It was not the words that Eva said that had set me on fire. It was the vehemence behind those words. The fierceness, the indignation on my behalf.

No one, not even my brothers-in-arms, had ever been so offended in defense of me.

There was no way I could tell her what her outrage meant to me, how it stirred something in my soul that I never knew existed. That by simply uttering two words, she’d sealed her fate.

Eva Dawson was mine.

She owned me.

As I held her, I waited for some sort of fear or apprehension to take over, but those feelings were absent. There was desire and longing and those two emotions flooded until there was nothing else.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

My arms tightened around Eva, not wanting her to pull away.

“Yeah?” I asked, irritated at Zane’s intrusion.

“Tex called. ”

Fucking hell .

“He’s cleared the way for Eva to talk to the prosecutor but he still would like to hear what she has.”

“Now?”

“They’d like to meet with her tomorrow.”

Christ .

My chin rested on Eva’s head and she clung to me tighter. That was the only thing that made the situation bearable—Eva wrapping herself around me looking for comfort.

“The boys,” she whispered.

“I thought Anaya could go with you to help with the kids,” Zane offered.

“Babe?” I gave Eva a squeeze and waited for her to lift her head off my chest. “Anaya used to work with Missing and Exploited. What I’m trying to say is, I know you’ve only met her briefly but she’s good and knows how to handle delicate situations. She’ll be good with the boys.”

“I’m not leaving—”

“No, honey, we’re not leaving them. But Anaya can go with us and either she and the boys can stay at the hotel or they can come with us to the prosecutor’s office and wait there. But I’m not leaving your side, so they’ll need someone to watch over them while we’re behind closed doors.”

I really wished my team could go with us to Alaska—not that I thought we’d need backup, but extra eyes are always welcomed.

“Okay. We’ll talk to Liam and Eli.”

Eva started to pull away and I begrudgingly let her. When she reached for my hand and threaded our fingers together, a peace that only she could provide settled over me.

“I’ll give you my cloud information for you to give to Tex.”

Zane made a noise like he was stifling a laugh, and sure enough, when I glanced from Eva to him, he was wearing a smirk.

There were a few options as to what put the annoying grin on his face. My first guess was because I was holding hands with Eva. My second guess was because Eva had offered to give Tex the login information to her cloud.

Which was cute she’d offer, but Tex didn’t need her password to get into her online storage.

Zane’s gaze dropped to our connected hands, then his eyes came back to mine. The smile dimmed and I braced.

“We’ll get this shit done and out of the way as quickly as possible.

” And with a jerk of his chin, he turned to leave but stopped and looked back over his shoulder.

“Kyle packed your shit up from the other house. He and Anaya will be over later, he said he’d bring it.

And you should know this place is available to you for as long as you want it. ”

“Actually, that was what I called you about this morning. I wanted to get the lease moved—”

“No need. Call it a job perk.”

“’Preciate it.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Zane was already out the door when Eva called his name.

“Yeah?” he asked and leaned back so he could look back into the room.

“Tell your wife to keep up the good work,” Eva told him.

And that was when I knew the hard-as-nails Zane Lewis liked Eva.

His tough-guy exterior melted away, his head tipped back and he laughed.

Which still wasn’t something I was used to seeing, and it had been years since he’d met his wife and she’d done the unimaginable—proved my boss was human, not just the animatronic warfighter we’d all thought he was.

“Yeah, Eva, I’ll tell her.”

“What was that about?” I asked .

“Let me check on the boys, then I’ll tell you.”

Eva rolled up on her toes, and in an all-too-brief press of her lips, she kissed me before I let go of her hand and she strutted out the door.

I didn’t follow.

Not because I thought she’d be coming back, but because I needed a moment alone.

There was still no fear. No apprehension. No second thoughts.

This was happening.

Thankfully, Zane left not too long after Tex called to tell us he’d listened to the recordings Eva had made of her conversations with Tracy and Malcom.

I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever heard Tex so excited, but he sounded downright ecstatic when he announced, “Tracy’s fucked.

” He also told us he’d been in contact with the authorities in Alaska and they’d offered Eva immunity.

The second piece of good news Tex had to offer was, he’d found the private investigator Kenneth Eklund had hired. And since Kenneth was an attorney and not a world-class hacker like Tex, Eklund’s network security was no match for my friend. Tex had found Kenneth’s client list.

Other than Heritage Plastics, which included Kenneth’s representation of Colin Wright and Sean Kassamali, the rest of his client list was a who’s who of Juneau’s criminal underbelly. Strange bedfellows—Juneau’s largest corporation, drug dealers, prostitutes, and even a rapist.

It didn’t take long for Tex to connect the dots—James George was awaiting trial for manufacturing and distribution of narcotics.

At the time of James’s arrest, he also had a small stable of women.

He was looking at some serious time. Tex had found that the drug dealer wasn’t business savvy and hadn’t laundered money, therefore when the government seized his assets he was left penniless.

Yet Kenneth Eklund was named as counsel on the court documents, not a public defender.

Finding one criminal led Tex down the scumbag rabbit hole, and from there he found the source of the contract to put an end to Eva’s life. Tex being a man of action already had one of the many teams of mercenaries he had in his back pocket en route to intercept the hitman.

All of this would be over in a few days and Eva and her boys would be safe. Things could go back to normal and we could get down to the business of moving on.

Now that she’d agreed to stay in Maryland, I was looking forward to normal. Not that I had a clue what that actually meant, but it sounded good.

“What was it like being a SEAL?” Eva asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

I shifted in the uncomfortable chair and toyed with the bottle of water that sat in front of me.

We were sitting in the dining room, Eva on one side of the table facing the room so she could watch the boys as they played in the living room, and I sat on the other which gave me a view of the nice-sized backyard.

We’d talked about a variety of things since Zane had left; favorite movies, books, places we lived.

Light topics that were easy to discuss. She hadn’t touched on my military service—until now—and I hadn’t asked about anything that would make her uncomfortable.

Besides, I didn’t care much about the past, I was more concerned about the present.

“It was hard,” I answered.

“Physically?”

“Physically painful and mentally challenging.”

“You don’t like to talk about it,” she guessed .

It wasn’t that I didn’t like to talk about it, I just never had.

“Never had the occasion to discuss what it was like being a SEAL,” I started. “I’m not trying to dodge your question. I’ve just haven’t thought about how to explain it.”

“It’s okay, forget I asked.”

“No, Eva, I want to tell you.”

It took a few minutes for me to explain what Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL school was and the selection process to get there, but thanks to the many documentaries and movies made, Eva knew the basics of BUD/s.

“So what you’re telling me is, the movies have it wrong?” Eva asked when I was done.

“A two hour movie cannot begin to encompass the physical, emotional, and spiritual toll of training. Personally, I think some films portray war better than others but unless you’ve smelled the devastation, you can’t imagine what it’s like.”

“Smell it?” Eva’s nose crinkled.

“It’s not something I can begin to describe.

It’s a scent that clogs your nostrils—a smell you can never forget.

And when you’re in the thick of a firefight, I swear, you taste it.

But it’s not something you can define—it’s simply death and destruction, fear and desperation.

And it’s not something that goes away, it lingers forever. ”

A knock at the door brought me palpable relief. Now that I’d done it, I found that I was wrong—I didn’t like talking about the devastating aftermath of war.

“That’s Kyle and Anaya,” I reminded Eva when she startled in her seat.

“Oh, right.” Her cheeks tinged pink and I wished the boys weren’t in the next room so I could touch her.

So close, yet so far away.

I got up and made my way to the front door and checked the peephole. If the boys weren’t watching me, I would’ve had my weapon unholstered and at the ready even though I could clearly see Kyle’s smirking face as he held his middle finger up for good measure.

Idiot .

I shook my head at his antics and opened the door.

“What are you, ten?”

“I see you’ve lost your sense of humor.”

I hadn’t, but ever since Kyle had fallen in love with Anaya, he seemed different, livelier—always cracking a joke and fooling around.

Was that how love made you behave ?

“Hi, Eva,” Anaya said, causing me to look over my shoulder.

Sure enough, there Eva stood in front of the coffee table, blocking the path to the living room where the boys looked up from putting together a puzzle.

The gesture wasn’t needed, but it was one more way Eva protected her kids.

“Hey,” Eva greeted.

“Have you guys eaten?” Anaya bypassed me and moved toward Eva. “Hey, boys.”

Anaya received two mumbled ‘heys’ but otherwise, the boys went back to their puzzle. They’d been going at it for hours.

“Liam. Elijah. Manners please.”

Both boys studiously stood and properly greeted Anaya and said hello to Kyle.

Once Eva gave them the go-ahead, they were both back in front of the puzzle. I glanced at my watch, surprised to find it was indeed almost time for dinner.

How long have Eva and I been talking ? Hours had slipped by unnoticed and I couldn’t remember a time, ever, when I’d simply sat and spoken to a woman for so long.

“What did you have in mind for dinner?” I asked Anaya .

“We thought we’d order in.”

“Babe?” I turned to Eva.

“Um… sure. Whatever you guys want.”

It took a few minutes to hash out what to order, deciding pizza would be easiest, and Kyle called it in. It didn’t take long for Kyle to pounce as soon as the women made their way into the kitchen.

“Glad to see you worked out whatever was troubling you.”

I glared at my friend then made a decision to do something else I rarely did—I shared.

“Never saw myself settling for a woman. After the bullshit Pam pulled, I never wanted to open myself up to that kind of pain again. I’m still not sure how it happened, but there’s just something about her.”

“And the boys?”

“That’s gonna take time. Dawkins was a dick and put them through hell. Especially Liam. Fuck, brother, every time I see the scars on his arms, I wish the man was alive so I could kill him myself. Elijah is so shy it might take me years to get in there with him.”

“Have you shown Liam your scars? Talked to him about what your old man did to you?”

“No, not sure if I should.”

“You absolutely should. He needs to know you understand. I bet after you show him, he’ll open up. And once Elijah sees he can trust you, he’ll feel safe and he’ll do the same. But I think you’re right, it’s gonna take time. But if anyone can heal that family, it’s you.”

Damn, my friend’s confidence in me felt good, but it did nothing to alleviate the rock in my gut when it came to the boys.

They scared me even more than Eva did. I didn’t have the first clue how to be a father, and if this worked out with Eva, that’s exactly what I would be. And those two kids deserved a good one.

“What makes you so sure I can heal them?”

The tone of my voice sounded foreign to my ears—it was unlike me to be so unsure. Hell, I wasn’t unsure about anything—ever. I made a decision and didn’t deviate. But with Eva and the boys, I was off-kilter.

“Because you understand them. The four of you are all the same. And if you let them, they’ll heal you, too.”

“I don’t need—”

“Brother, don’t feed me a line of bullshit. You must’ve forgotten who you’re talking to. I know you. You’ve got decades worth of shit bottled up. Let Eva sort that for you.”

“The last thing that woman needs is to take on my baggage.”

“You’re wrong. She needs all of you.”

All of me ?

That wasn’t part of the plan. Surely, I could give us a shot at happiness and still hold parts of me at bay.

“Everything okay?” Eva asked when she stopped at my side.

Without thought my arm went around her waist and I tucked her close.

“Yeah, babe, everything’s great.”

At least, I hoped it was.