Page 75 of Delta Force Defender

“What about this Francis?” Templeton asked. “We think he’s less of a contender?”

Again, Caradine looked at Lindsay and saw the bruises, always on her abdomen and sides so no one could see them. And the fragile way she’d walked sometimes when she’d come in from a “date.”

The way she’d stood in that dark street and looked at Caradine so bleakly.I love that you think it matters what I say.

“The bottom line is that if either of them are coming after us, it’s for the same reason.” Luana was babbling, standing between her mother’s knees and drumming something on one leg. It seemed to take Lindsay extra time to look up, and when she did, her mouth was a flat line. “If it’s Francis, he always thought that I was his property. And he hated Julia.”

“I was a bad influence,” Caradine agreed, almost cheerfully. Or possibly just manic. “Destined for a bad end.”

“Either way, they thought they owned us.” Lindsay’s laugh was harsh then. “And whatever we like to tell ourselves now, they did.”

That sat on Caradine wrong. It made her feel as if the world were spinning too fast. Like she’d had too much to drink and one false move might force her stomach to betray her.

“Well,” Templeton said, drawing out one syllable to about three. “Looks like we’re going to Boston.”

Caradine glanced at her sister. Then looked around at these big, capable men arrayed around them in the shade of the lanai. And she knew the kinds of things that they could do. She’d seen a number of those things with her own eyes. But deep down, she wasn’t sure she believed that they or anyone could save her from this.

“Do you really think that you can end this?” Lindsay asked. She was also sizing up the Alaska Force team, but she looked even less convinced than Caradine felt. “You look like you know how to get in a fight, sure. But can you actually end a war?”

“That’s what we do,” Jonas said quietly, his dark gaze level.

And by now, it was familiar to see the way they sprang into action once a decision was made. Isaac called Oz and put him on speaker. They started talking strategy and possibilities, producing tablets and batting around ideas.

All the while Caradine sat on the couch with her sister and the niece she hadn’t known existed, and couldn’t tell if the weight that felt trapped inside her chest was joy, a sob, or some heavy combination of both.

“Looks like they think they can do it,” Lindsay observed in a low voice, eyeing her husband and the way he’d joined in the conversation. “But don’t men always think they can do anything? Despite reality?”

“They have a good record,” Caradine said, surprising herself.

“How did you end up tangled up with a militia? Or are they mercenaries?”

“Neither. They’re actually good men.” She caught her sister’s sideways glance. “I know. Believe me, I know. But they are.”

They both sat there a moment, listening to the two-year-old babble mostly incoherent words. As if she were singing herself the kind of song neither one of them would have dared sing in their silent, scared house growing up.

“I might look like Mom these days,” Lindsay said in a low voice, her gaze on her daughter. “But I’m no martyr. And there’s no way in hell I would sit by and watch someone brutalize my kids the way she did. I can’t even get my head around it.”

Caradine looked at the little girl, her own heart jarring unpleasantly in her chest. “No. I don’t have to be a mother myself to feel the same way.”

“Most days I forget,” Lindsay said softly. “I live my life in one of the most beautiful places on earth. We don’t have a lot, but we own everything we do have. And Koa’s family is wonderful. They actually love each other, if you can imagine such a thing. That isn’t to say they don’t fight, but it’s different. They don’t...”

Caradine thought of that scene in the lodge, with all those people determined to learn the truth and love her anyway. Or before that, even, in Isaac’s cabin. With the hugging.

Family, whether she liked it or not.

“They don’t want to hurt each other,” Caradine finished for her sister. “They disagree, but they don’t try to take each other out when they do. I don’t really understand it, either.”

Lindsay looked at her a moment, then cut her gaze to Isaac. “You and him? Do you have...?”

“We don’t have—” But Caradine stopped herself. “I have a family,” she said to her sister, and she felt a kind of riot inside. She couldn’t tell if she wanted to rip her tongue out of her mouth, or give in to that sob, or maybe it was all joy, all along. Maybe she was still too unfamiliar with it to recognize it. She had to cough before it got too intense. “I have a kind of family, and yes, he’s part of it.”

And then, unsurprisingly, she wanted to die.

Lindsay’s eyes got too bright, and Caradine was terribly afraid that hers did, too.

“So you know how it is,” Lindsay said, though hervoice was now a whisper. “Some days you just forget. And then something happens and you’re forced to remember, and that’s worse. Because we’re not safe. We’ll never be safe. And I can run forever. If I had to, I could pick up and leave right now. But I don’t want that for Luana. And if they find her—”

“They won’t.” Caradine knew that coughing wouldn’t help the lump in her throat then. “They won’t.No matter who’s doing this, I can’t think of anyone better to stop them than these men. I promise.”

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