Mine - HelenKay Dimon Page 0,22
smoothly.
“You mean your brother Andy?” She’d met him in the office. Actually, knew him from before, back when she knew Andy and Elijah slept together on a regular basis because Eli was on her team and her responsibility. Even knew that when Eli walked out, Andy struggled to deal and ended up in a rough place. She could understand why Gabe might be protective. It seemed ingrained in his DNA.
“I mean my son.”
“I just . . . You mean . . . ”
He leaned in. “Yes?”
He just put it out there. No explanation or anything. Surely he was joking or she misunderstood . . . but he just sat there.
When she just sat there, he continued to stare. Finally, he spoke up again, which was good because she couldn’t find the words. “I have a son.”
That couldn’t be right. She’d read his file and wanted to shake her head in denial, but she could see the truth in his eyes. She struggled to imagine him as a dad. Holding a kid and throwing a ball. All normal, or so she’d seen on television and in movies. Her life had never worked that way. She knew exactly what it was like to have a lethal father, but not Gabe’s kind of lethal. Not the controlled kind.
And a kid meant a wife or a girlfriend. Yeah, that.
A wave of nausea rolled over her. She was going to kick his ass if he really thought she’d be some sort of vacation candy for him.
She dropped both feet to the floor, ready to shove him if needed. “You have a kid?”
“That’s what ‘son’ means.”
Wrong time to be a smartass. She still had that gun he gave her. He’d be wise to remember that. “So, you’re married?”
He shook his head. “I didn’t say that.”
“Divorced?”
“Never.”
The game of verbal gymnastics ended right now. A sudden fury on behalf of a woman she didn’t know and envied in a weird way overtook Natalie. “All those passes and comments about getting me into bed—”
“Which is not something I do on a job.”
“—and you have a wife.” Her voice vibrated from the restraint of not launching across the table to smack his smug face.
He shook his head. “No wife.”
The two words had the tension fizzling out, but Natalie’s head kept spinning. Her emotions bounced from anger to relief. Fought with being ticked off for feeling either. He was her bodyguard, and an unwanted one at that. Getting wrapped up in his life, caring, all amounted to a huge mistake.
She’d seen the signs in agents over the years. They got sucked in, and their lives imploded. Of course, she’d moved past implosion a month ago. There wasn’t much further for her to fall.
“I give up. You said not divorced, so is she dead?” Natalie blurted out the question because there really was no way to finesse it. Not now.
“She never existed.”
Something blinked inside her brain. “I don’t—”
He smiled. “You know how babies get here, right? Being married isn’t a mandatory thing.”
Like that, a wave of heat flashed through her. Him, in bed. Sex. Coming inside her. She was never going to survive this captivity that was supposed to save her. “I can’t figure out if you’re joking.”
A nerve ticked in Gabe’s cheek. “I don’t joke about him, ever. Never talk about him on a job either, so this is new.”
That sounded more like the guy she’d come to know. Dependable and clear. “Your file didn’t mention a son.”
“I’ve had some help keeping his existence under wraps.” He grew even more serious. “For his protection.”
“Where is he now?”
“In school.”
Back to curt answers, but that one told her enough. It also deflated her all over again. “You send him away so you can play G.I. Joe?”
His eyes widened. “Wow, so many assumptions in one question.”
Yeah, probably too harsh. Likely unfair. She didn’t care. Not in that moment. Not when she could remember sitting in her room during holidays and having dinners with the staff. She’d been one of the charity cases that the school staff passed around because no one wanted to pick her up and take her home. She didn’t really have one of those.
“Am I wrong?” she asked, hoping she was.
“About almost everything in that sentence, yes.” When she started to ask more, he cut her off. “Is this some sort of payback for the comment about your father?”
The question shut down something inside her. He knew enough about her past to throw her those pitying looks. She’d experienced those her