He settled his sister, and she hunched over on the seat as she held her baby tight to her body. “She gets fussy at this time of night,” Beth said as she rocked Abbie, gently soothing her. “Would you like to hold her?” Beth asked, and James nodded.
Unlike a lot of men, he was used to babies. His older sister Mel had two, although he didn’t see them as much as he’d like now that they lived in New York. Beth rose and, with the utmost care, laid her daughter in his arms. James looked down at the small bundle, his finger larger than her hand. Her eyes opened sleepily before she blinked up at him. His world settled as he knew another female had entered his life that he’d die to protect. Abbie clutched at his finger, turning her head and looking for food.
“She’s beautiful, Beth.” His sister looked on with a smile on her face that was radiant. “When did you have her?
“On Mom’s birthday two weeks ago.” Instinctively she touched her finger to her daughter’s sweet cheek, brushing it gently.
“Do Mom and Dad know?”
“No. I couldn’t tell them, James. You know how things got after I left. They’ll hate me if I go back with a kid in tow.”
James shook his head and reached for her hand, noticing the brief flicker of hope before she doused it and closed down on him, pulling her hand away.
“Would you like some cocoa or anything to eat?” Mercy asked.
James almost sighed in relief as Mercy stepped in to break the ice. Something was going on. Beth had always been the wild child, the one most likely to get in trouble but she was also the brightest of the three siblings. But now though, he detected a broken quality in his little sister that had never been there before.
“Is there somewhere I can wash up or take a shower?” Beth asked, focusing on Mercy, and showing none of the fear from before.
“Yes, of course. Let me go get you some spare clothes.”
Mercy disappeared, and Beth tilted her head at him, a light of mischief in her eyes he was relieved to see.
“Girlfriend?”
“Nah, colleague,” James answered, but he should have known his sister would call him out, she’d never missed a thing growing up and now was no different.
“But you want her to be more.”
James shrugged. “It doesn’t matter what I want. She doesn’t.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure of that if I were you.”
James didn’t have a chance to say more because Mercy came back in with a bundle of clothes and toiletries.
Mercy held her hand out for Beth to follow. “Let me show you where to go.”
Beth dropped a bag he hadn’t realized she’d been carrying onto the floor. “That’s Abbie’s stuff, everything you need is in there. Will you be okay with her?”
James smirked at his sister as she stroked her daughter’s fingers and gazed at her with so much love in her eyes. “I’ve taken care of a baby before, you know. I can cope.”
Beth smiled, although James noticed it didn’t reach her eyes that were misty until she blinked, and the sadness was hidden again. He knew his older sister had been the same after her kids were born. Tired, emotional, overwhelmed, and she had a husband. James had yet to broach the subject of Abbie’s father, wanting Beth to settle a little first.
“I know but I wanted to check.”
“Go. Take a shower and relax. Abbie and I are going to get acquainted.”
James watched his sister and Mercy leave, listening to their hushed voices as they moved further away. He watched his niece, wondering at the mystery behind her arrival and knowing there was so much more going on than he could fathom. But now they were here, he could take the time and find out how he could help his sister.
Mercy walked back in, her eyebrows raised as she moved closer, looking down at the baby in his arms. “She is so cute, and I have to say, Romeo, it totally suits you.”
James looked up with a smirk on his face. “You think?”
“Total babe magnet.”
James laughed. “What about you, Merc? Does this get your motor running?”
“Haha! Not sure this is in my future.”
James saw pain cross her eyes and a longing she couldn’t hide as she watched them. So many women in his life were hiding shit from him. “Well, little miss, let me show you some beautiful big airplanes.”
Mercy grinned. “Not sure that’s going to impress her much at this stage.”
“I know, but it stops my mind from going in a hundred different directions as to what’s going on right now.”
Mercy sat beside him and turned the chair to face him. “I take it you didn’t know about Abbie.”
“No fucking clue about her birth or that my baby sister was pregnant. We haven’t exactly seen eye to eye since she shacked up with some biker gang up north.”
Mercy rubbed her lips with her thumb, and James bit back the desire it evoked as he imagined her soft lips against his. “Wonder if the father is a biker?”
“No clue, but I’m going to find out. Talking of which, where the hell has Beth got to?”
James stood with Abbie in his arms, a sudden urgency flowing through him as a terrible thought pinged into his brain, making him fear the worst. Mercy must have thought it too because she stood and rushed toward the door with him.
He hit the ladies’ room just after her, but he knew. The silence was deafening as Mercy searched the stalls. The only thing they found was a note with one word on it. “SORRY.”
His sister had run, leaving him holding her two-week-old baby in his arms.
Chapter Two
Mercy sighed as she locked the Agency’s door behind her. Despite having dashed out after Bethany, James’s sister had vanished from the area.
As she walked back to the conference room, she found herself distracted by James’s deep voice coming from the command center.
The sight in front of her made Mercy halt on the threshold; James, tall, muscular, dangerous, holding the tiny infant in his arms like she was the most precious treasure in the world. He was deep in conversation on the phone, probably with one of their bosses, Emme or Shane, walking back and forth in front of the computer screen, caught up between his conversation and his niece.
Heat wrapped around her heart before settling deep inside her belly. It took all of her might to mentally shake herself from the fog of desire she suddenly found herself in. Even though it would be easy to let herself be swept away by passion and fantasy, Mercy had to remember the reality of her situation.
The man before her was not only a co-worker but obviously a man who aspired to have a family one day. They could indulge in their attraction, have a burning fling, but it would cause more pain than contentment in the long run.
At that moment, James glanced up at her and frowned in question, before returning to his call. “Yeah, I know. Thanks, Emme.”
He hung up, never stopping the side-to-side motion as he rocked Abbie. “Emme is calling Alex and Imari for help. They both have computer skills, especially Imari. They’ll be much quicker scanning the cameras around the area than I will.”
Imari was new to the team, the latest recruit to join the Alliance family, at least Mercy thought of them as a family. Imari was a hacker who’d previously worked on the dubious side of the law, but that only made her that much better at what she did.