Page 232 of Severed Heart

“I mean I both knew and loved Delphine, and I was her last recruit.”

I shake my head in denial as he elevates his voice.

“Her purpose in doing so is that you would need a new best friend.”

“Stop—”

“No,” he claps back, digging his heels in. “We’ve spent a lot of time together in the last six months. It started with the few chemo appointments you couldn’t be there for before she stopped treatment. I’ve been with her every second you weren’t or couldn’t be. While you worked or were on missions in Miami. I got to know her very well. She taught me how to play Battle. And it was because she purposely took the time to get to know me. She told me everything, Son, and my job is to be here for you because she can’t anymore.” He keeps his gaze zeroed on me as his eyes spill over. “IlovedDelphine, and while you’re devastated and grieving your wife, I’m grieving my friend, and honestly, I’m miserable she’s gone.”

I shake my head, disbelieving she would relay so much and spill so many secrets. A woman with an iron jaw who never slips. Even if it’s to her own detriment. “What do you mean she told you everything?”

“She told me the most incredible story I’ve ever heard. Of her past, of Matis and Alain. Of how the two of you started working together and bonded after I broke your trust, your heart. Of how you fought some dark places and the way you relentlessly trained. She told me about how close the two of you got and became fishin’ buddies while you fell in love here on our land.”

I stand reeling, disbelieving of his words as each one pummels me, re-stoking my hurts.

“She told me you went into the service to investigate it, mostly because of me and forme,” he croaks, “she told me all about your missions while you were in and about your time in the GRS. About Phillip. About losing Armstrong. She explained the history behind your tattoos, Son,bothof them.”

I gape back at him, utterly stupefied that the woman whose trust is unbreakable, whose secrecy is unsurmountable, broke mine to the one man I’ve been purposely mute to for a decade. She wouldn’t. But it’s the look in my father’s eyes and his admissions that have me believing otherwise as he stares at me with pride I’d long forgotten. Pride I forgot I so desperately wanted and worked for half my life. A pride and respect I lived for.

“She told me she wanted me to be the only one to know all of your secrets because she knows I’m the only other person on earth you would have once trusted with them.”

My vision blurs as he steps closer. His unease and hope palpable and rolling from him as I start to break further apart. Piece by piece.

“She wanted me to remind you that the true brilliance of any strategist lies within thesurprise... and I am her last wish, Tyler.”

Tears roll down my cheeks as I hit my knees, and he instantly crouches down next to me, palming my shoulder as I grip both of his.

“Because she wanted you to know me again, because she knows I’m the wound she could never heal. She asked me to come here long before today, before Zach called, and relay this to you because she trusted me to be able to do this, to be here for you. Which is why I’m the only other person on this earth aside from Pastor Ron that knows the two of you God married in the wildflowers last fall, but filed no paperwork because it was your promise to her to have—”

“Faith,” we both say simultaneously.

Fingers tightening on his jacket, I shake my head at his admissions, too stunned, too filled with emotion to utter any other word, but one.

“Dad,” I croak before he crushes me to him, going blind with pain as it unleashes inside me. Agony lights my veins as I lose myself in my grief, shattering in his arms, coming apart as he keeps me firmly in his grip, keeps me upright, whispering assurances over and over again as I break against him.

“You’re an incredible man, Tyler. I’m so fucking proud of you. So proud. I’m so in awe of you. Of what you’ve done ... I want so badly to fill the role she gave me. I want so much to be your friend again, your best friend and father ... I’m begging you, Son,” he whispers, “please, please, let me stay. Please let me stay.”

Crushed in my father’s hold, all I can do is nod.

Epilogue

TYLER

BLINK.

Russell pulls up in the King’s tow truck as my mangled hood comes into view. I clamp my hand over my mouth to conceal my lady-like gasp as fury lights in my veins. Zach eyes me from behind the windshield, where he sits in the passenger seat of the tow truck as Russell hops out and stalks toward me.

“Shit, brother,” Russell utters, reading my expression.

“You might want to take a breath before you ... do the daddy thing.”

“I’m good,” I lie, both shaken and furious. “He’s okay?”

“Yeah, he’s fine,” Russell assures, “he’s scared shitless but hiding it well.”

The passenger door closes and Zach comes into view behind Russell’s shoulder before he attempts to speed past the two of us to get to the house.

“Stop your feet,now,” I snap. Zach barely acknowledges my order but obeys, stopping feet ahead of us.