She kept her gaze steady on his, no remorse, even a challenge. Wyatt reached out and caught her hand in a warning hold. She didn’t relent, didn’t stop focusing on Trap.
Trap blinked. “I did?”
“Yep.” It was Malichai who answered. “Like they were little rats in a lab just waiting for you to come along and study them.” There was the smallest bite to his tone, as if, like Pepper, he hadn’t liked what Trap had said earlier about studying the babies.
Trap shoved his hand through his hair. “Pepper, I don’t think like that. Wyatt’s family to me. That means those kids are family. If you’re his choice, you are. That’s the way it works with me. I can’t help the way I am. My mind solves problems, and I don’t think how to word something when my brain is running a hundred miles an hour.”
“That’s true,” Malichai agreed. “He’s like a processor running at top speed.”
“And he’s clueless when it comes to social skills,” Draden added.
Trap scowled at them. “The point I’m trying to make is, I would never experiment on babies or children. I just wouldn’t do it. But I’ll find a way for the girls to live as normal a life as possible. When I’m being insensitive, kick me in the shins or something. Eventually I’ll figure it out, but know I’d never use those babies.”
There was no way to miss the sincerity in Trap’s tone.
Pepper nodded. “Thanks for explaining, Trap. I know you didn’t have to. Unfortunately you triggered the mama tiger in me.”
“Um, no, darlin’,” Wyatt corrected with a small grin. “That would be the mama snake.”
Pepper laughed softly with the others, just as he’d wanted her to do. She turned her attention to the blueprints, the smile fading as she bent closer to look them over. Immediately the team surrounded the table.
“These blueprints are all wrong, Trap,” Pepper said. “The first floor is probably the closest to what this looks like, but the rest of it…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “The outside follows the blueprints, but the inside, not so much,” she continued.
“Can you fix them, babe?” Wyatt asked.
Pepper nodded. “I studied the place, I can give you pretty good details. Why don’t you go put Ginger back to bed? She’s getting used to you doing that, and I’ll sketch the floor plans and put in all the changes. I should be done by the time you get back.”
Wyatt had been putting Ginger down at night, hoping she would get used to him. He liked holding her in his arms and rocking her while he gave her a bottle of warm milk and looked down at her little face. Love had taken hold sometime around the first or second time he’d done it.
Nonny handed him the baby as soon as he stepped outside with the bottle and a blanket to wrap her in. He was grateful the bayou was rarely cold. Ginger had trouble holding on to her body heat. She lifted her face for his kiss and snuggled right into him when he dropped into the chair beside his grandmother.
“That’s my girl,” he whispered to the baby. “She’s so beautiful, isn’t she, Nonny, just like her mama.”
Ginger didn’t like to hold the bottle. She liked him to hold it for her as she cuddled against his warmth, the blanket snug around her.
“She’s beautiful,” Nonny agreed. “Looks just like you when you were a babe. Glad you finally figured out what you needed in a woman, boy. Joy didn’ belong here. She would never have made you happy. That one in there” – she indicated the kitchen – “she’s the kind that will stand by you.”
“Yeah, I kind of figured that out.” He watched in awe as Ginger’s little fingers wrapped around his index finger.
“Pepper is a woman of great courage. She fought for them even when she knew if she did those people in that lab would probably kill her. She braved the swamp with a child in tow. Tha’s a woman who will stand with you through anythin’. She’ll walk through fire to get to those she loves. She’ll sacrifice anythin’, even her own happiness, to protect them.”
“There might be a reason for our attraction to one another…”
She leaned over and shook her head. “I spent a lot of time with Flame when she was so sick with the cancer. She talked, some in her sleep, and some when she thought she was goin’ to die. I know all about Whitney and how he pairs his soldiers.”
“Nonny, you can’ talk about that.”
She laughed. “I don’ expect he’s got him a listenin’ device planted somewhere in my home and if I talk to you about this he’ll send someone blastin’ at me with a gun. I’m old, Wyatt, and I’m not afraid of very much. Life is to be lived. It doesn’t really matter the how and why of things. It matters how you choose to live. I taught you to live life large. Tha’s all, Wyatt. Love when you can. Laugh. Sing. And take care of your family and friends and then your community. It’s not always easy, but it’s good and at the end of it all, you’ll be satisfied.”
“You know I’m a rescuer.” He sighed. He hadn’t ever voiced the one concern nagging at him. He was certain of Pepper. He wasn’t going to give her up, even if what he was doing was playing the knight in shining armor. “This feeling I have for her, it could be wrapped up in my need to rescue someone.”
Nonny smiled at him. “Or you have it all wrong, boy, and she’s the one rescuin’ you. It’s possible you need her every bit as much as she needs you. Let things be, Wyatt. Don’ question them so much and just let things happen.”
He smiled down at the baby’s face and lifted her little fingers to his mouth. “Actually, Nonny, it’s important to me that you like Pepper. I’ve never felt more alive, or more content and passionate in my life. I know what’s comin’, the battle to get the children back, but I know we’re goin’ to succeed. I’m lookin’ forward to every morning the moment I open my eyes. I look forward to nighttime. She’s the one. I know she is. If I find somethin’ different when we get to the laboratory…”
Nonny held up her hand. “Don’, Wyatt, don’ even say it. She’s loyal to those she cares about. She isn’ about to betray you, no matter what your friends think.”
“Trap’s a good man, Nonny. He’s different, but he’s a good man.”