“I’m leaving the documentation you’ll need.” He nodded to an envelope on the nightstand. “You have his birth certificate. Proof of my relationship to his mother, a letter she wrote naming me his guardian. Now I’m naming you.”
“You can’t just give him away!” she shouted. “He’s a child. A person, you son of a bitch. He’s got feelings, too, you bastard, and this is going to destroy him.”
“I’ve done nothing but destroy him, destroy his life, bring him pain for the past few years,” Gus said. “I did what I had to because it was necessary to protect him. And that’s what I’m doing now. Protecting him. He needs a real life, Vaughnne. I can’t give him one.” He headed for the door.
“What makes you think I should?”
He paused in the doorway, smiling a little. “It won’t be because you should. If you did what you should, you never would have gone to Mexico. You never would have gone after the men who hurt your sister.”
She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Yes. I know about that.” He’d learned as much about her as he could in the past few days, calling in favors, bribing, threatening. He had to make sure he was doing the right thing, he’d told himself. In truth, he’d just been hungry for what he could learn of her. For anything about her. “You took leave, just to hunt them down. You don’t always do what you should, Agent . . . do you?”
“Obviously, we make a great pair,” she said, her lip curling in disgust. “Except I don’t abandon the kid who loves me.”
He arched a brow. “Exactly. That is why he should be with you . . . he loves you already. Don’t disappoint him as I’ve done so many times.”
TWENTY-FOUR
DON’T disappoint him.
As Taylor guided her down the steps to the TV room in the basement, Vaughnne tried to steady her breathing. Tried to quell the fury still burning in her heart. Yeah. She’d expected anger would carry her through, but she hadn’t expected it to be like this.
As she rounded the corner and saw Alex sprawled on his belly, next to a dark-haired girl with a headful of wild curls, she sucked in a deep breath. Breathe, Vaughnne. You can do this.
Then, out of spite, she focused her thoughts and reached out.
She knew when she touched a mind. Could always feel it—it wasn’t much different, to her, than touching somebody’s hand, or seeing the way a person reacted when she said their name. She could just . . . feel it.
And she felt Gus’s reaction as she said, I’m getting ready to break this kid’s heart, you son of a bitch. Wherever you are, I hope you’re having fun.
Then, because she was feeling pithy, she added, Don’t suppose it ever occurred to you to try this with me together? This kid could use two people in his life who love him. We could have both given him a home . . . I would have been happy to have you in my life, Gus. But you’re too much a coward to try it.
She didn’t even have to worry about a response.
That was the beauty, sometimes, of her gift. A curse at other times, but just then, it was welcome. She didn’t want to see him, didn’t want to hear from him. Not when she was going to have to break this poor kid.
“Jillian.”
The girl looked up.
The name was familiar, and Vaughnne stilled as the girl sat up and turned around. The teen focused a vivid pair of blue eyes on them.
Jillian. Jillian Morgan.
Shit, the girl was already a borderline legend back at headquarters and she was still in high school.
This was the girl Taige had rescued all those years ago, and if the rumors were true, the kid was already feeding Taylor bits and pieces of information that sometimes led to their cases being solved.
Narrowing her eyes, she focused on Alex and then looked over at Taylor. She never did hear just how he’d learned about Alex’s presence in Orlando. She’d assumed it had something to do with Nalini, but standing there, looking at Jillian, she realized she’d been off base. Way off base. No wonder he’d been so fucking vague about things.
She told you about him, didn’t she?
Taylor’s only response was a flicker of his lashes.
If she’d been wrong, he would have said so. But he didn’t. Not then. And never once, after that.
Looking back over at the girl, Vaughnne watched as Jillian came to her feet, a diminutive thing, maybe five feet two, at the max. All curls and dimples and big blue eyes. But under the shields Jillian had wrapped around herself, Vaughnne sensed a power that almost made her teeth ache.
“Hi,” Jillian said, smiling at her.
Vaughnne smiled back, although she had to force it. Smiling was the last thing she had inside her just then.
“Jillian, your mom is about ready to go.”
Jillian sighed and looked over at Alex as he sat up. “I’ve gotta go, Alex. I’m going to try and talk them into staying a few more days if I can. But if I can’t, I’ll call you.”
Alex tucked his chin against his chest, his cheeks flushing a dull red. “I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here. My uncle . . .”
Jillian looked over at Vaughnne.
Too young, she thought absently. That girl was way too young to have that kind of wisdom in her eyes. Wisdom . . . and sadness.
“It’s okay. I’ll find a way to keep in touch,” Jillian said, bending down to hug the boy’s skinny shoulders.
She was halfway across the floor before he looked up. “Bye, Jillian.” The look in his eyes was one that hit Vaughnne straight in the gut.
Loneliness. Such loneliness. She knew what that was like. She remembered how it had felt, the first time she’d ever really made a friend.
He needs a real life . . . That was what Gus had told her.
Yeah. The kid needed a real life. Needed friends. Needed a home and stability and structure, and for all that was good and decent, he needed to know how to control the wild gift inside him. But why in the hell couldn’t he do that with Gus in his life?
It was a question she had no answer for, she knew.
But she couldn’t let that get in the way.
She had to focus on Alex now.
Crossing the floor, she sank down in the spot where Jillian had been, watching as Alex continued to play the video game. “You seem to be pretty good at that,” she said softly as Taylor and Jillian left.
“I’m lousy at it,” he said. But there was a bit of a smile on his face. “Jillian is good at it. I could get better. But . . .” Then he shrugged. “Gus will be coming for me soon and we won’t have the money for things like this. It’s fun, though.”
“Actually . . .” She blew out a breath and opened the folder. Gus hadn’t just left the legal documents. Taylor was already doing what he could; he’d started that ball rolling once Vaughnne had talked to him. Still, all in all, this was just a nightmare in the making.
The good news, Alex was underage and hadn’t had any say in what the adults in his life had done. His mother was dead, his father was dead. Taylor would go to the wall to keep the boy from going back to a place where he’d be in danger and the man had a lot of pull, knew a lot of people who owed him favors.
The bad news . . . it was going to be a rough road before this all settled down, and she had to break Alex’s heart.
Withdrawing the letter Gus had written for the boy, she held it out. “He isn’t coming back,” she said gently. “I’m sorry.”
GUS didn’t set the house on fire, although part of him wanted to see another piece of that hell go up in flames. These men had known about Alex. He was careful, leaving no sign of himself, and unless the authorities there were very, very good, they’d assume exactly what Gus had wanted them to assume. A card game between two friends, gone very, very wrong.