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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Kassandra

There was nothing more stressful than sitting around while I waited for news on the outcome of the raids.

David assured me things would be fine. Brittany's father was no match for his team, but the people they tried to con weren't going to be as easy. David tried to explain the entire network to me but I was ashamed to admit most of it went over my head. All I cared about was that my family would be safe after this.

"You need to stop pacing around the room and sit down. Grab a glass of wine and chill out." Addison's sarcastic voice filtered through the room from where I had her on speaker on my phone.

"How do you know I'm pacing and not sitting on my couch?"

"I can hear your feet moving across the hardwood floor."

I glanced down at my sock-covered feet. There was no way she should be able to hear me moving.

"No you can't."

Addison chuckled. "Okay, not really, but I figured that's what you were doing, so I called your bluff."

I rolled my eyes at the phone even though Addison couldn't see me. "How do you deal with this?"

"Practice and a good girls' night. I'm fortunate to have a great group of ladies to keep me busy when the guys go out on an assignment. You need to get yourself a girl gang like that."

I thought about the women Addison got to call friends. I had gotten to know most of them over the past few weeks by helping them with their designs. They were a great group and I could see why Addison liked them so much.

"I'll work on that."

"It'll get easier. This one is stressful because your family's involved."

"I just want them to be safe already. I hate that Michael left us a mess that couldn't be easily cleaned up."

"I can't believe he was using such archaic ways of communication. Who in this day and age doesn't communicate via text?"

It was my turn to chuckle. "That's because kids these days don't know the meaning of old-fashioned letters. I used to mail your father one letter, every other day, when he first deployed."

"Did he write you back?"

"Religiously. I always looked forward to hearing how he was doing. It nearly killed me when Michael forced me to stop. Those were the highlight of my day."

"Do you regret it?"

"I don't regret having my boys but I regret having to push your father away so I could have them. I know I couldn't have one without giving up the other, but I still wished we didn't have to go so long without talking."

"I'm glad my father found you. Did he tell you my mother used to talk about you?"

I grabbed the phone off the table and hit the button so the conversation would no longer fill the room before putting it to my ear.

"He mentioned that she knew I had feelings for him,” I answered. “I want you to know nothing ever happened back then. I respected your mother too much."

"I know you did. My mother knew it as well. I think the fact that my father’s family forced her to leave made her resentful."

"He still refuses to speak to them. I'm not sure he’ll ever be ready to talk to them again."

"Good riddance,” Addison spat. “Anyone who does that to a person doesn't deserve a second chance."

Normally I would disagree but I knew David's parents well. They never did anything that wasn't good for them or their reputation.

Addison stayed on the phone with me the whole time David and his teams were gone. It was well into the night before he walked back into the house.

"He's here. I gotta go. Thank you for keeping me company."

"Anytime. Give him my best, and tell him I'll call him tomorrow."

I quickly agreed and then tossed the phone down on the couch before racing into David's arms.

"Is it done?"

"Benjamin is gone. I’m sending Cobra to deal with the rest. You will never need to worry about Michael's problems coming back to you again. I’ll make sure of it."

Tears of joy filled my eyes.

"Where are the boys?" he asked.

"I made them go to bed. I told them we would wake them when it was all over."

"What did you do to keep yourself occupied all night? I figured you would've hung out with them."

I chuckled at the thought. Mikey and Nate never would've been able to distract me like Addison managed to.

"I called Addison and she helped me through it."

"I'm glad you had each other. Addison has a great group of friends in New Mexico but it never hurts to have more."

"She's a great girl. Madalyn did a fantastic job."

I wish I had known about Addison before this. I would've helped Madalyn through the difficult time and convinced her she didn't need to keep her baby a secret from David. There're so many things I wish I had done differently, but I guess in the end, this was how our life was meant to be.