Page 89 of Her Delta Force Protector

He could give her those children she wanted and be a good father as long as that was what he chose to be.

It was a choice, and he chose Harper.

He tossed the last stone across the pond, then went looking for his brothers. They were still in the backyard, standing together as they watched Duke play with Ember. He walked straight to his brothers and wrapped his arms around both. “Love you assholes.”

Parker laughed. “You just couldn’t leave out theassholes, could you?”

“Give him a break,” Tristan said as he hugged Kade back. “He just had a come-to-Jesus moment.”

“Yeah, I did. This probably won’t surprise you, but I’m heading to Florida in the morning.” He hoped he wasn’t too late. “And don’t get mushy on me, big brother, but thank you for putting up with all my shit over the years.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Tristan said, laughter in his voice. “You tried my patience more times than I can count.”

They returned to the house that now felt like a home, Kade laughing as his brothers reminisced about the trouble he’d gotten into as a teen. That was the thing about his brothers: they still loved him in spite of all the reasons he’d given them not to.

They’d reached the patio when the radio clipped to Parker’s belt went off with an alert. “Have to go.” He whistled, and Ember raced to his side. “Good luck with your girl, Kade.” He squeezed Kade’s shoulder. “Just be honest with her. Women like that.”

“What do you know about what women like, baby brother?” As far as he knew, Parker hadn’t gone on a date since returning home from France five years ago.

Parker laughed. “Absolutely nothing.”

Tristan’s phone chimed with a text, and after reading it, he said, “It’s a wreck out on Running Creek Road. A tractor and a car, and the car caught fire. Skye and I need to go. Can you stay with Ev?”

“Of course, but I’m leaving in the morning, so be back before then.” He had a woman to see and confessions to make.

Nothing would have stopped him from going to her the next morning except for the alert on his phone that showed his cabin on fire when he brought up the feed from his security cameras. Sheriff Lamorne turned out to be as useless as Tristan and Skylar had said he would be. The good news in the middle of all this was that Sorenson had been arrested trying to get on a plane for Thailand.

Kade called Chase after sending him a video of the bikers wearing the Road Killers colors who’d burned down his cabin in the middle of the night. “As much as I want to go after them, a trip to Florida is my priority,” he’d told Chase.

“Go get your girl. Nick and I got this. By the time you get back, they’ll be turning against each other. The prosecutor’s going to have a field day.”

“Think Nick can get me an address for a Dr. David Jansen in Apalachicola, Florida?”

“Piece of cake. I’ll text it to you as soon as he has it.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Just report in next week. That’s all the thanks we need.”

It took two days to deal with the local fire department, the sheriff, and the insurance company before he was able to get on the road. He’d intended to leave Duke at home, but the dog wasn’t having any part of that. Kade had the weird feeling that Duke knew exactly where he was going and wasn’t about to miss out on going to get their girl.

“You think she’ll be glad to see us?” he asked the dog once they were on the road.

Duke looked over at him from the passenger seat and gave him a goofy grin, as if saying that was a ridiculous question.

“Hope you’re right, dog.”

Chapter Forty-Seven

The only way to keep from crying because your heart was broken was to keep busy. Harper had a life to plan, one that wouldn’t have Kade in it, and as much as that hurt, there was nothing she could do to change it.

She spent her first day home closed up in her bedroom, and her father, seeming to understand she needed time to grieve, left her alone. She’d told him everything on the way back to Apalachicola, including that she was in love with Kade. She’d thought he would tell her that she’d been foolish to fall in love with a man like Kade.

Instead, he’d smiled and said, “Love always wins in the end.”

She had no idea what that meant or how he could smile when her heart was irreparably broken. After giving herself one day to be sad, she wiped her tears away. Day two was spent on her computer, and on the third morning, with her research notes and a list of the things she wanted to cover, she got out the card Chase had given her and called him.

“This is Harper,” she said when he answered.

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