Training the SECRET (Corrigan & Co #6) (3 page)

“Don’t even fucking
joke about that. You are
not
going to die. Not while I’m still breathing.”

“I appreciate the
protection, but again, why now?”

I take her hands in
mine and look into her eyes. I want her to know that I’m telling
the truth. “When you disappeared, I thought my life was over. I’ve
been through a lot of shit over the years, but nothing felt as bad as
the thought that you’d left me, and weren’t coming back.”

“I wasn’t leaving
you
, Nate. You can’t
leave someone if they aren’t yours.”

“I’m yours. I
should’ve told you that a long time ago, and thinking that there
was a possibility you left because I didn’t, well it made me crazy.
I mean, that’s what I thought at first. That maybe you left because
I couldn’t give in to my feelings for you.”

“I wouldn’t leave
my job for you. I
was
going to start ignoring you, though.”

“Were you now?”

She blushes again. God,
I love that I can do that to her, when I’ve never seen her do it
for anyone else. “You deserved it.”

“I did, and it
probably would’ve had your desired effect.”

“I don’t know what
you’re talking about,” she tells me, as her face gets even
redder.

“I was Special
Forces, Angel. And before that, I grew up on the streets. I know
every game there is. You were hoping that by not paying attention to
me, I’d finally make a move. I’m telling you I would have. I
can’t even fathom how bad it would feel to be ignored by you.”

“It feels pretty bad.
At least from this end.”

She drops her chin, so
I bend over to look her in the eye. “I’m sorry you thought that,
but it’s not true. I never really ignored you, even when it seemed
like I did. I always knew exactly where you were in a room, and who
you were with.”

“Even when you were
kissing other women?”

“Even then. It was
you I pictured. I know that’s all kinds of fucked up and wrong, but
it’s true. When I kissed another woman, or took one to bed, it was
always you in my mind.”

“It could’ve been
me. All those times. I would’ve said yes. Every damn time.”

“I know.”

“Then you have to
understand why I can’t just be all ‘rah-rah Nate likes me now’
and life is good. I have people who want to kill me, and a father who
is seriously ill. I can’t worry about you walking away because you
get bored when I just need a hug sometimes. I want you, you know I
do, but I don’t think I could survive losing you right now on top
of everything else.”

“First of all, I
don’t need to fuck all the time. I can hug, and cuddle even.” She
raises an eyebrow at me, and I have to laugh. “Okay, so I don’t
ever do that, but I can. For you. I want to be here for you. I came
here for you, and I promise you that I’m only going to leave if you
tell me to. You know that I don’t take promises lightly. Let me
help you.”

“I
do
know that you take your promises seriously. So let’s go talk to my
dad.”

“Your dad?” I ask,
swallowing hard.

“Um, yeah. If you’re
hanging around, you’ll have to meet him.”

“Of course, yeah,
sorry. I just don’t usually meet the parents.”

“Then it’s a good
thing I only have one, isn’t it.”

I manage to smile when
I want to throw up. I never expected—or wanted—to see Hunter
Garrett again. If I’d known Jade was his daughter, I would’ve
asked Matt to place me in one of the other Corrigan & Co.
locations. But I didn’t, and now the demons I ran from are about to
come back to not only haunt me, but possibly end me. If I still had
faith left, I’d say a prayer, but when I lost my soul, I lost that
too. So I’m going in alone.

Nate

Jade holds the door for
me as I carry her ladder inside the gym. She’s smiling as we set
everything down, but the guy at the front desk isn’t. He’s bigger
than me, but I don’t scare easily. Jade notices his frown and takes
my hand, pulling me over to him.

“Heath, this is my
good friend, Nate. Nate, this is Heath. He watches out for my dad.”

“Hey, man,” I say,
holding out my hand.

He looks down at it and
crosses his arms. So he knows who I am. I nod my understanding, but
Jade is pissed.

“You’re not going
to shake his hand? What the fuck, Heath?”

“Language, Jade,” I
hear from behind me. I haven’t heard that voice in sixteen years,
but I still remember it like it was yesterday.

“He won’t shake my
friend’s hand, Daddy.”

“Exactly how long
have you and Nate Anderson been friends?”

“You know Nate? I
mean, I guess you know who he is because of his career, right?”

“Something like that.
You didn’t answer my question.”

I still haven’t
turned around, but Jade pulls on my hand, making me look at him. His
eyes are cold, which is no surprise. Jade is tense next to me, and I
can only imagine what she’s thinking. Since she hasn’t answered
her father yet, I jump in to save the day. Or at least this
conversation.

“Jade and I met
because I work security for Corrigan & Co.”

“You don’t just
work security, Nate. Stop being modest. Nate is
head
of security for the company.”

“That must be a lot
of responsibility.”

“It is, sir.”

“You don’t have to
call him ‘sir.’ Everyone at the gym calls him Hunt.”

“That has to be
earned, Jade. Mr. Anderson has not earned that right.”

“No, I haven’t. But
you can call me Nate.”

He nods. “Let’s
have a talk in my office, Nate.”

“Daddy! We’re just
friends.”

“The marks on your
neck, and the fact that you’re holding his hand tell me a different
story.”

“It’s fine, J. Just
stay close, okay?”

“I can take care of
myself, you know.”

“I
do
know, but I didn’t come here to watch from the sidelines.”

“This way, Nate,”
Mr. Garrett tells me, as we both pretend that I don’t know where
his office is.

I let go of Jade’s
hand, flash her a smile that I’m not feeling, and follow him up the
rickety staircase. He’s out of breath by the time we get inside,
and I look away as he leans heavily on his desk. I’ll give him the
dignity he deserves. I owe him that, and so much more.

“Are you really
expecting me to believe that it’s a coincidence that you ended up
working for the same company as my daughter?”

“It’s the truth. I
had no idea until this morning when someone from WITSEC came to the
office. If I’d known, I would’ve asked to be transferred to
another location in the company.”

“You
do
know now, and you’re still here, holding her hand and
marking
her.”

“I love her.”

“You’ve told her
that?”

“No. We aren’t
there yet. I stayed away from her for the past couple of years
because I didn’t think I deserved someone as good as her.”

“You don’t.”

“She thinks I do.”

“She doesn’t know
what you did.”

“No, but I fully
expect you to tell her. I know she’ll never want to see me again,
but I won’t try and stop you from telling her.”

“I’m not sure
that’s what she needs right now. She has enough to worry about.”

“Your call. I-I can’t
tell her. I just can’t. I know that makes me a coward, and worse.”

“What have you been
up to since I saw you.”

“Well, you know I
fought.”

“And won. Almost
every match. You were lucky to get the break you did, after well,
what happened. Although if the rumors I heard are true, your success
came with conditions. One that would be hard for anyone to handle.”

“It came with a cost,
but yes, I guess I was lucky to still be breathing. When I turned
eighteen, I joined the military. I found my true calling there and
became part of Special Forces. I met Matt Corrigan, and our friend,
Aiden Ford. We served together, and forged a bond that went beyond
being fellow soldiers. They’re my brothers in every way that
matters. When Matt had to go work for his family’s company instead
of re-upping, we went with him.”

“And you met my
daughter.”

“Yes. She used a
different last name, and well, she was six when I last saw you. You
can’t really think I’d recognize her.”

“No, I guess not. And
you looked me in the eye through all of that. I know you’ve had all
kinds of training, but I still think I’m a good judge of character.
Despite my past mistakes.”

“You believe me.”
Thank God.

“Yes. I do. Now what
are we going to do about my daughter?”

“Nothing she doesn’t
want us to do, I can tell you that.”

He actually chuckles.
“You
do
know her.
Just treat her right, and the past will stay in the past, Nate.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Hunt.”

We shake hands and then
spend another half hour figuring out how I can help out around here.
Besides the obvious repairs that need to be done, he asks me to teach
some classes, and I readily agree. This won’t erase what I did when
I was sixteen, but helping him—and Jade—is the right thing to do.
And for once, I want to be on the right side of things.

* * *

Jade

I’m more nervous
about Nate and my dad being up in the office talking than I was when
I was facing down a group of Sudanese terrorists last year. Of
course, I knew Nate was there, waiting for the right moment to jump
in and save me if I needed it, and now he’s here, too. He
came
for me. He says he won’t leave me until I tell him to. News
flash—I’m never going to tell him to leave. My head is spinning
from all the things he said to me. It’s like my every dream and
fantasy about him have come true. Except for him saying he loves me,
but I think he just might.

“He’s bad news,
Jade,” Heath tells me, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“Not for me, he
isn’t.”

“Yeah, for you. His
past is pretty ugly.”

“And we’re all
saints, right? You’ve never done anything you regret? Because I
sure as hell have.”

“Just watch your back
with him, so when he goes to stab it, you can be prepared.”

Instead of answering, I
glare at him and walk across the room to sit on one of the chairs
outside the big boxing ring there. I may not know all about his past,
but I
know
Nate. He’s
been there for me—in a platonic way—whenever I needed him. My
friends would say the same. It’s not right to judge someone by
their past, which is why I haven’t tried to pry it out of him. He
deserves the chance to live in the now, and so do I.

I stand when I see my
dad and Nate finally coming down the stairs. “Did you have a good
talk?”

“Yeah, we did. Your
dad wants me to teach some classes while I’m here.”

“You’d be great at
that. What kind?”

“I don’t know,”
he says, looking at my dad. “Sparring, floor work, training?”

“I was actually
thinking of self-defense. For women.”

I narrow my eyes at my
dad, but smile. “Nate taught my friends and I, so that would be
perfect for him.”

“Every woman in this
city is going to sign up to be ‘trained’ by him,” Heath says
with a smirk.

“Good. Women should
know how to protect themselves,” Nate says, not taking the bait.

“
Very
beautiful women, Nate. Who are going to offer you more than just
their attention in the classroom.”

“I’m pretty sure
you’re going to be meeting some, if not all, of Jade’s friends
soon. There’s not one woman among them who wouldn’t stop traffic
if they walked down the street. Granted, none of them thinks of me as
more than a brother, but I can handle some unwanted advances.”

“You handled them
from me for over two years,” I remind him. “I never thought of
you as my brother.”

“Yours weren’t
unwanted, but it’s true that I never acted on them.”

My father makes a noise
of displeasure, and I really wish he’d just get over it. I’m more
than capable of taking care of myself, and I told him that when I
came back. He knows about the Society, and my training. I guess he’ll
always see me as his little girl, though, and I’m not entirely
upset about that.

“Are you ready to go
now?” I ask my dad, noting that Heath has cleared out the last
stragglers who were hanging around the gym gawking at Nate.

“Yeah. Heath and I
have poker night tonight. I’m assuming Nate’s going back to your
place with you? You have that nice, empty guest house.”

“Daddy,” I say on a
sigh. “Nate is not sleeping in the guest house.”

Nate’s lips are
twitching as he chimes in. “I will if it makes him more
comfortable.”

“Will it keep you
away from her?”

“No. There’s not a
chance of that.”

“Of course not. Just,
you know…take care of things.”

That twitch is now a
fullblown smile as the only other man who can make me turn red does.

“I will, Hunt.”

I grab Nate’s hand
and pull him towards the door. “Let’s go, before I die right here
of embarrassment.”

“Give your old man a
hug, please.”

“Anytime, Daddy,” I
tell him as I hold him tight.

He’s hidden just how
bad things are from me, but I’m going to have Ainsley get me his
records. I need to know exactly how bad it is, and how much time I
have with him if it’s
really
bad. Because I know it won’t be enough.

“Stop it,” he tells
me.

“Stop what?”

“Stop thinking about
how our time together might be limited, and how if you hadn’t
spoken up about what you saw, we’d have been together all this
time.”

“It’s true.”

“You wouldn’t have
been able to live with yourself if you hadn’t spoken up. And from
all you’ve told me, you have a wonderful life now.”