didn’t care about the consequences. I didn’t realize what could happen to me.”
He’d thought that was because she’d been spoiled, that she’d been her father’s princess and believed he would never let anything happen to her. Now Brendan realized that she’d cared more about others than herself.
“You’re the brave one,” she said. “You’ve put yourself in danger to protect others. To protect me. Thank you.”
He shook his head. He didn’t want her gratitude. He wanted her love.
“I thought you might have left with the others,” she said, glancing around the empty hall. “With your mom...”
“She’s still here,” he said. “She’s getting food and coming back up.” The woman had made a life of feeding hungry kids—food and love.
“I’m glad she’s coming back,” she said. “CJ has been asking about her. He wants his grampa to meet his gramma. I think he thinks they should be married like other kids’ grandparents are.”
A millionaire and a mobster’s widow? Brendan chuckled.
“I’m really glad that you’re still here,” she said.
His heart warmed, filling with hope. Did she have the same feelings he had?
“I owe you an apology,” Josie said. “It was all my fault—all of it. And my mistakes cost you three years with your son.” Her voice cracked. “And I am so sorry....”
He closed his arms around her and pulled her against his chest—against his heart. She trembled, probably with exhaustion and shock. She had been through so much. She clutched at his back and laid her head on his shoulder.
“My father knew who you were,” she remarked. “What you were. From his sources within the FBI, he knew you were an agent. If I’d told him what story I was working on when the attempts started on my life, he would have told me to drop it—that there was no way you could be responsible. I should have known....”
“He knew?” Brendan had really underestimated the media mogul in resources and respect. He could be trusted with the truth, so Brendan should have trusted his daughter, too.
“He’s a powerful man with a lot of connections,” she said, “but still he didn’t know that I wasn’t dead. I hate that I did that to him. I hate what I did to you. I understand why you can’t trust me.”
“Josie...”
She leaned back and pressed her fingers over his lips. “It’s okay,” she said. “I understand now that sometimes it’s better to leave secrets secret. There will be no stories about you or your mother in any Jessup publications or broadcasts. And there will never be another story by me.”
“Never?”
Tears glistened in her smoky-green eyes, and she shook her head. “I should have never...”
“Revealed the truth?” he asked.
“Look what the consequences were,” she reminded him with a shudder.
“Yes,” he agreed, and finally he looked at the full picture, at what she’d really done. “You got justice for your friend—the girl that kid assaulted. If you hadn’t written that article, it never would have happened. And I know from experience that it’s damn hard to move on if you never get justice.”
“That’s why you went after all those crime organizations,” she said, “to get justice for what your dad did to your mom.”
“She gave up her justice for me,” he said.
“So you got it for her and for so many others.”
He shook his head. “No, Margaret got it for her. Go figure. But you helped your friend when no one else would. You can’t blame yourself for what the boy did. And neither should his father.”
“He needs someone to blame,” she said.
Just as the people in her new town had blamed her for her student’s death. Someone always needed someone else to blame.
“And so did I,” she added. “I shouldn’t have blamed you.”
“You shouldn’t have,” he agreed. “Because I would have never hurt you, then or now.” He dragged in a deep breath to say what he’d waited around to tell her, what he’d waited four years to tell her. “Because I love you, Josie.”
“You love me?” She asked the question as if it had never occurred to her, as if she had never dared to hope. Until now. Her eyes widened with hope and revealed her own feelings.
“Yes,” he said, “I love your passion and your intelligence and—”
She stretched up his body and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I didn’t think you’d ever be able to trust me, much less love me.”
“I don’t just love you,” he said. “I want to spend my life with you and CJ. No more undercover. I’ll find a safer