Kane kept Rose in his sight, strolling down the street after her. She paused, and he saw her face light up. She threw her head back and took a deep breath. Had he been keeping her prisoner? It probably felt that way to her. He hadn’t deliberately locked her away from the world. The sun was out, and her hair shone almost blue black under the blaze. He loved the way she moved, flowing silk over concrete.
Fan out a little. Mack’s voice brought him up short. He was getting lost in Rose’s wonder, in the way she absorbed the outdoors and her freedom. She actually threw her arms out once, as if to embrace the world around her.
I should have seen how much she needed this, he confided to Mack.
Laughter floated back to him, turning heads around them. His body tightened. The three women were attracting a lot of attention. His eyes narrowed and his stomach settled. He loved watching her have fun, but that wasn’t his job. Keeping her safe was all that mattered. His attention had to be on the crowd, on their surroundings, not on Rose, as much as he would have liked to see her experience the freedom of having fun with friends.
Rose nudged Jaimie. “When do you get to the point of not being hyperaware of the team surrounding us?”
“Honestly,” Jaimie said, “it’s usually only a couple of them in the crowd and one on the roof. They’ve been at this since we were kids. Mack and Kane never wanted us to walk through a park without an escort. We lived in a pretty rough neighborhood.”
Rhianna nodded. “It was nice back then to know someone cared enough to look out for us. Jaimie had a mother, but she worked all the time. We spent a great deal of time alone.”
“What is it like having a mother?” Rose asked. “I never had one.”
Rhianna shrugged. “Jaimie would have to answer that. I never had one either.” She shifted her gaze to the crowd, her eyes seeking out a familiar face.
“My mother was awesome,” Jaimie said. “A best friend when I was young. I grew up too fast for her. Sometimes I felt as if I was a terrible disappointment, although I know in my heart I wasn’t. It was just that I never did the things most moms think about.”
Rose laughed. “I don’t know what moms think about. Me, I think about how fast I can take apart a weapon and put it back together again. Nice legacy to pass on to my child.”
“Your child will need it,” Rhianna pointed out. “Teaching him survival is the best thing you can ever do for him, Rose. Don’t let the rest of the world tell you any different.”
Rose smiled at her. “Thanks, Rhianna, that’s a nice thing to say. I’m totally winging it as far as the mother thing goes.”
“He’s beautiful,” Rhianna said. “I’ve never held a baby before. It was very different than I thought it would be.” She sent the other two women a wry smile. “I never even held a doll. Did you?”
Rose burst out laughing again. “Can you imagine Whitney giving us dolls? Hell no. You met him. He wouldn’t understand why a girl might want a doll. We were learning hand-to-hand combat, not playing with toys.”
“Not much preparation for his breeding program,” Jaimie said. “What did he think you were going to do once you had babies?”
“I think he planned to take them away from us and give them to professionals who would raise the ultimate soldier under his guidance,” Rose said.
“Someone needs to put a bullet in that man’s head,” Rhianna commented.
Rose loved the feeling of life pulsing around them in the marketplace. She identified half a dozen languages as they moved through the crowd. The place was alive with laughter. Two vendors argued politics. A husband and wife examined wares holding hands. Children raced down the rows, and parents chased after them.
“Isn’t this amazing?” Rose asked.
Rhianna grinned at her. “You really love this, don’t you?”
“Yes. It’s wonderful. Real people.”
“They’re real, all right. You see that man over there? The one lounging around looking hot with sunglasses and tight jeans?”
“Very hot,” Rose agreed.
“He’s looking for girls. Young girls with nowhere to go, starving for attention, hungry and scared. He’s a hawk, Rose, and he can spot one a mile out. The one over there, just in front of the row with all the flashy cool jewelry to draw kids is a drug dealer. That man over there beats the hell out of his wife, and those two kids are shoplifting, even though they’re wearing shoes that cost several hundred bucks a pair.”
“Rhianna!” Jaimie frowned at her.
“That’s what I see. I’m sorry, Rose. I shouldn’t have pointed them out to you. Just because it’s how I view the world, I shouldn’t put those images into your head.”
“Yes you should. How will I teach Sebastian if I can’t tell him what dangers to look for?” Rose objected. “How in the world did you learn to spot those kinds of things?”
“Hard experience,” Rhianna’s voice was strictly neutral.
Rose heard the warning. Rhianna didn’t want to talk about her past. She glanced at the set face and remained silent.
Jaimie put her hand gently on Rhianna’s arm. “Rose was in a breeding program, Rhee. She’s been forced to do things and see things neither of us has ever had to face.”
Rhianna flashed Rose a small smile. “Sometimes I have a chip on my shoulder. You know, the woe-is-me-I’m-such-a-martyr complex. Ignore me.”
“Nice to know you’re human. When we train, I swear you’re a machine.”
Rhianna’s smile widened. “If any one of us is a machine, Rose, it’s you. You just had a baby, and you run circles around us.”
It was the first time any of them had complimented her that way. Kane endlessly told her how beautiful she was, but no one had mentioned her abilities in the field. No matter how hard she’d tried, how much she embraced the things they taught her, how fast she learned, or how many times she hit the target without a miss, no one had commented. She tried not to let the glow she felt show on her face. These women—and Kane’s team members—viewed their lives matter-of-factly. They didn’t give compliments; they took it for granted that if you trained and worked with them, that you were elite.
She found herself smiling. They’d accepted her not only into their family but as a member of their squad. She should have known. She had never been told she’d done a good job, she’d never been praised. If she succeeded or excelled at something, she moved on to the next task. Sometimes she felt being a soldier was bred in her bones, the very legacy Whitney wanted for her son. It was who she was, what she was, and she would never know anything different ... But Sebastian was going to have a choice, if she could possibly give it to him.
“Hey!” Jaimie threw her arm around Rose’s neck. “Stop thinking so much. We’re out here having fun. I want to go to that wicked cool boutique just down the street. I can’t believe I live next to it. It has the hottest boots of all time.”
“Of all time?” Rhianna’s eyebrows shot up. “I’ve got to see that. I’ve been around the world and visited every shoe shop I could find along the way. This shop has a lot of competition.”
“I love the boots you sent me from Milan.” Jaimie dropped her arm and walked in front of Rose, turning to walk backward so she could face her as she talked. “Rhianna and I both adore boots.”
“She has boot emergencies,” Rhianna explained. “Every now and then I get a frantic SOS from her, and wherever I am, I go out and find her a pair of supercute boots.”
Rose laughed. “I wear combat boots.”
Jaimie rolled her eyes and dropped back to her side. Rhianna closed in on the other side. “We noticed,” Jaimie said. “Hence the boot boutique. Seriously, Rose, you need us. We’re going to show you the true code all women should live by.”
“A pair of boots?” Rose asked skeptically.
Rhianna and Jaimie looked at each other and then burst out laughing, shaking their heads. “Not just a pair of boots,” Jaimie corrected. “The boots. Hot boots.”