Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“The world is healthy again,” he prodded. “It has been for years. There’s no reason to not gently reach out. Carefully, of course. I’ll be with you. I’m not going to let you go through this alone, but I think it might be time.”
She couldn’t. She couldn’t even think about Beck. She was happy. Her life was peaceful, and injecting him back into it would spark a fire she couldn’t put out. “I am a different person, Ezra. He brings out the worst in me. I do the same for him. I can’t put my son through that. I don’t know how he’ll react to Roman. He could have his own kids by now.”
“He doesn’t.”
“How would you know?”
“Because our cousins don’t keep a lock on their social media and I monitor their pages,” he admitted. “Beck was at a family reunion recently and he was alone. One of our cousin’s friends asked about him in the comments and was told that Beck is the family hermit. He’s living in Dallas and working with McKay-Taggart. From what my cousin said he doesn’t date at all. He’s going by his own name again.”
She hated the fact that her first impulse was to go to the computer and look him up, see his pictures, stare at them and see if she could pick out the changes the years had brought. She’d known he was in Dallas, but she’d imagined he’d moved on.
How would he react? Just because he wasn’t dating didn’t mean he was still thinking about her with anything but anger. He might blame her for his lack of a love life. He’d blamed her for everything else.
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not giving him a chance to savage me again. He made himself plain that night.”
Ezra stood and gave her what she liked to think of as his “peaceful, but I’m disappointed” look. “All right. I’ll let you sit with the thought for a while. I’ll help Roman with his Maltese this evening. He’s got a quiz coming up. Will you let me go with you to his teacher conference next week?”
He was asking her if she would punish him for bringing up Beck’s name. “I would love it if you would come with me. You know they’re always nicer when I bring a priest in.”
He nodded. “Then let’s enjoy tea. I’m sure Brother Francis brought back some treats from his trip. I heard from Anna that we have a shipment coming in soon. Let me know when and I’ll try to make sure I can be there to help.”
It was what he did. He helped, and he was only trying to do that now. But she wasn’t ready. “Thank you. I will think about what you said.”
She started down the path that led from the gardens to home at the top of the fort. They walked through the arched doors that once would have kept potential invaders from the inner sanctum, a gentle breeze caressing her skin as she heard her son laughing in the courtyard at something her uncle had said.
Life was peaceful. It was good. She couldn’t risk that.
“And don’t forget to check the CCTV,” Ezra reminded her. “I know it’s probably nothing, but I would like to make sure. I think you still have very good instincts about people.”
She forced herself to smile as they started toward the big covered patio. It was one of her favorite spaces because almost no one was allowed behind those gates. The gardens were open from time to time for special tourist groups, but the residence was private. Occasionally they would have guests from the Vatican, but she’d found they mostly ignored her.
“Of course.”
“Kim, I’m sorry if I upset you. I genuinely thought you were in a place where we could talk about him,” Ezra said as they approached the shaded space where her uncle and son were already enjoying tea and snacks.
Her son ran out, speaking in rapid Italian about the science kit his great uncle had found for him in Rome.
She let him lead her under the shade and tried to forget that the minute she’d found out his father was still single, something in her heart had leapt at the thought.
She squashed it ruthlessly and joined her family because she was over Beckett Kent.
She really was.
Chapter Eight
Beck forced himself to walk when all he wanted to do was run in like a crazy person, force Tag to tell him where Kim was, and go get her.
It was more complicated than that. He had to think about what was best for Kim. Levi was still out there, and that fucker played a long game. Beck didn’t care that Levi was engaged. He knew the man would still want Kim. They had to be careful.
He strode to the office and stopped at the door because he realized he’d left his keycard in his truck. He glanced through the heavy glass doors and frowned because the normal receptionist was not at the desk. It was Yasmin’s lunch hour. Normally that meant one of the guys took over. Instead there was a thirteen-year-old girl sitting at the front desk, staring at her overly bedazzled phone. The Taggart kids had been coming into the office all week because it was summer break and their camps hadn’t started yet. Tag believed in his kids learning the business. Or he believed in free labor. She grinned at something and he realized which Tag twin he was dealing with. At least it was the reasonable one.