Page 139 of Risky Passion

Why the hell did they save this crap?

The first two-thirds of the box were an exercise in tedium, but near the bottom was a pile of sealed envelopes with handwritten names on the front, no addresses, though.

I broke the seal on one, pulling out a handmade Christmas card. The front was decorated with a lopsided tree, drawn in crayon. The green was smudged and uneven, the kind of messy charm only a child could create. Inside, the message was scrawled in the shaky, uneven handwriting of a kid.

I forced myself to read it, even as my stomach twisted tighter with each word. It was simple with misspelled, crooked letters, and a hopeful plea for a visit from someone who cared. It was signed,Glenda.

My throat tightened. The cruelty of it was staggering. Whoever had stored these envelopes had known damn well that the children’s hopes for a reply would never be fulfilled.

Unable to stomach reading another one, I shoved it all back into the box, and my chair scraped against the floor as I stood. I marched back to the unopened boxes with the tightness in my chest morphing into frustration. Pissed off that I hadn’t contributed to the evidence spread thin on the wall, I grabbed another box from the untouched stack.

I was halfway back to the table when Maya breezed into the room, her energy breaking through the tension like a wrecking ball.

“Hey, gang, the cavalry has arrived!” she said, arms outstretched like she was trying to hug us all at once. Her black eye had darkened, the swelling nearly sealing her eye shut, but Maya wasn't the type to let that slow her down.

Just like Tory and that bullet wound. The thought of her made my heart skip. She'd barely winced when I’d cleaned that bullet graze, acting like it was nothing more than a paper cut.

Maya swept her gaze to mine, and she grinned. “Hey, Jaxson, have you met my fiancé, Zac?”

I set the box down and extended a hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Likewise.” Zac’s handshake was firm, and his tone friendly, but there was something about his accent that threw me. American? Maybe. But it wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t pin it down.

“Any news on Viper or Blade?” Maya asked, her gaze sweeping over the group.

“Not yet,” Aria replied, her voice clipped and tight.

Whisper leaned back in her chair, her smirk playful and laced with mischief. “Huh. I figured at least one of them would’ve escaped from the hospital by now.”

“They would if they could,” Maya said, her expression darkening. “Those boys were in rough shape by the time we got them out of that water.”

“They’re lucky to be alive,” I added. “I have no doubt they would have drowned in that high tide.”

Cody shuddered. “Know that feeling.”

Whisper reached over and curled her hand around Cody’s neck,pulling him in for a quick kiss. “When we were lost in the Daintree, I had to fish my man out of the water twice. Didn’t I, Cowboy?”

He rolled his eyes but didn’t pull away. “Yeah, and now she’s torturing me.”

"Learning to swim isn't torture, you big baby," she teased, grinning.

Cody wriggled free of her embrace. "It is when waves keep trying to drown me."

Laughter rippled through the room.

A phone rang, and Aria eased back her chair, pulling her phone from her pocket as she strolled to the far windows.

"You have surf here?" I glanced at Cobra.

"Nothing huge ‘cause the offshore islands block most of the waves, but decent enough," Cobra said.

"Didn't know you even had a beach," I said. "Rosebud doesn't."

"We do, and it's gorgeous." Maya's eyes lit up. "Take School Road to the end, turn right, and follow it till you hit sand. Oh, and when you get to the beach, go left and you’ll find the turtle hatchery that Zena and her sister Brooke saved."

I pictured Tory and I walking along that beach under moonlight, and my cock pulsed to life.

"Morning." Tory’s voice pulled my attention, and my heart did an embarrassing flip as she strolled in. Her tiny shorts showed off miles of tanned legs, and her pink button-up, knotted at the waist, revealed just enough skin to short-circuit my brain.

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