For the Sake of Their Son (The Alpha Brotherhood #5)(33)
Author: Catherine Mann

He wasn’t laughing. “That had to be scary for you. I wish I could have been with you. We helped each other through a lot of tough times over the years.”

“I did try to call you,” she confessed softly, “right before I went in. But your phone went straight to voice mail. I tried after, too…I assumed you were off on an Interpol secret ‘walkabout’ for Colonel Salvatore.”

“I was.” He’d done the math in his head. Knew the case he’d been working at the time.

“I know I could have pushed harder and found you.” She shook her head regretfully. “I didn’t even leave a message. I’m so sorry for that. You may be able to move past it, but I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive myself.”

He stayed silent, not sure what to say to make this right for both of them.

“What would we have done if Malcolm and Conrad hadn’t kidnapped you from the bachelor party?”

Damn good question. “I like to think I would have come to my senses and checked on you. I don’t know how the hell I let eleven months pass.”

“Or how you found a fiancée so fast,” she blurted out. “You proposed to another woman barely three months after we slept together. Yes, that’s a problem for me.”

He weighed his words carefully. “This may sound strange, but Gianna was the one who got shortchanged. I obviously didn’t care about her the way I should have. I wasn’t fair to her.”

Her smile was tight. “Excuse me if I’m not overly concerned about being fair to Gianna. And from what I read in the news, she broke things off with you. Not the other way around. If she hadn’t left, would you have married her?”

Stunned, he downshifted around a corner. She’d read about his breakup? She’d left, but kept tabs on him. If only he’d done the same with her, he would have known about Eli. As much as Elliot wanted to blame a remote Interpol stint for keeping him out of touch, he knew he should have followed up with Lucy Ann.

Then why hadn’t he? She’d been so good to him, always there for him, always forgiving him. Damn it, he didn’t deserve her— Could that have been part of why he’d stayed away? Out of guilt for taking so much from her all their lives?

That she could think he still wanted Gianna, especially after what he and Lucy Ann had just shared… Incomprehensible.

“No. I didn’t want to marry her. We broke off the engagement. I knew it was inevitable. She just spoke first.”

She nodded tightly. “Fine, I appreciate your honesty. I’m still not totally okay with the fact that you raced right back to her after we… Well, I’m just not okay with it. But I’m working on it.”

Conrad had told him to grovel. Elliot scrounged inside himself for a way to give her what she needed.

“Fair enough. At least I know where I stand with you.” He stared at the road ahead, struggling. Groveling was tougher than he’d expected after the way his father had beaten him to his knees so many times. “That was the hardest part about growing up with my old man. The uncertainty. I’m not saying it would have been okay if he’d punched me on a regular basis. But the sick feeling in my gut as I tried to gauge his moods? That was a crappy way to live.”

“I’m so sorry.” Her hand fell to rest on his knee again. This time she didn’t pull away.

“I know. You saved my sanity back then.” He placed his hand over hers. “I always knew it was you who let the air out of my dad’s tires that time in sixth grade.”

She sat upright. “How did you know?”

“Because you did it while I was away on that science fair trip. So I couldn’t be blamed or catch the brunt of his anger.” He rubbed her hand along the spot on her finger where he should have put a ring already. “Do I have the details correct?”

“That was the idea. Couldn’t have your father get away with everything.”

“He didn’t. Not in the end.” There’d never been a chance to make peace with his bastard of an old man—never a chance to confront him, either.

“I guess there’s a sad sort of poetic justice that he died in a bar fight while you were off at reform school.”

Her words surprised him. “You’re a bloodthirsty one.”

“When it comes to protecting the people in my life? Absolutely.”

She was freaking amazing. He couldn’t deny the rush of admiration for the woman she’d become—that she’d always been, just hidden under the weight of her own problems.

And on the heels of that thought, more guilt piled on top of him for all the ways he’d let her down. Damn it all, he had to figure out how to make this right with her. He had to pull out all the stops as Conrad advised.

Full throttle.

He had to win her over to be his wife.

* * *

Lucy Ann sat on the terrace with Jayne Hughes, wondering how a woman who’d been separated for three years could now be such a happily contented wife and new mother. What was her secret? How had they overcome the odds?

There was no denying the peaceful air that radiated off the bombshell blonde with her baby girl cradled in a sling. The Hughes family split their time between their home in Monte Carlo and a home in Africa, where Jayne worked as a nurse at a free clinic her husband funded along with another Alpha Brother. She made it all look effortless whether she was serving up luncheon on fine china or cracking open a boxed lunch under a sprawling shea butter tree.

Lucy Ann patted her colicky son on his precious little back. He seemed to have settled to sleep draped over her knees, which wasn’t particularly comfortable, but she wasn’t budging an inch as long as he was happy.

Jayne paused in her lengthy ramble about the latest addition to the pediatrics wing at the clinic to tug something from under the plate of petits fours. “Oh, I almost forgot to give you this pamphlet for Elliot.”

“For Elliot?” She took it from Jayne, the woman’s short nails hinting at her more practical side. “On breast-feeding?”

“He called Conrad with questions the other night.” She adjusted her daughter to the other breast in such a smooth transition the cloth baby sling covered all. “I don’t know why he didn’t just look it up on Google. Anyhow, this should tell him everything he needs to know.”

“Thank you.” She tucked the pamphlet in her purse, careful not to disturb her son. “He didn’t tell me he called your husband for help.”