Noah turned her in his arms. Set her down at the table and put her coffee cup in front of her. Then he got his. Alice was humming a song to herself as she spooned oatmeal in her mouth. She got a lot of it on the tray and her bib, but she was doing it herself and that was good.
Jenna’s eyes filled with tears. She didn’t want to leave sweet little Alice. And she definitely didn’t want to leave the tiny girl’s big, strong, sexy uncle.
She could still feel the ache between her legs from all they’d done, and she’d thought until just a few minutes ago that she’d be doing more of that with him. She’d been daydreaming about it, remembering the way he’d touched her. The things she’d felt.
Noah sat and put his fingers beneath her chin, tipping her head up gently. Forcing her to look at him. Blue eyes studied her very seriously. “Tell me what the problem is, Jenna. Is your aunt sick? Do you need to go to her?”
She swallowed, still torn. “It’s not Aunt Maggie… I shouldn’t drag you into it. It’s not your responsibility.”
But Aunt Maggie was in trouble if Jenna didn’t return the Flanagans’ money. She didn’t have a single clue what Owen Fisher had been talking about, but she remembered he’d had a similar exchange with Sam. Only now she believed that Sam had the money and he’d been brazening his way through the conversation.
What money, Sam? What did you do?
And how was she going to convince the hitman that she didn’t have it or know where it was? How was she going to move the focus from Aunt Maggie to her and make sure her aunt stayed safe?
“It is now,” Noah said, drawing her attention back to him. “You live here. With us. You’re part of the family.”
Part of the family. Considering he was a man who hadn’t really had a family, she understood how incredible it was for him to feel that way about their little threesome now.
“I don’t mean just you, me, and Alice,” he continued, as if sensing the direction of her thoughts. “Though I do mean that. But I also mean you’re a part of my HOT family, too. Those men you hung out with yesterday would do anything to help you. So would the women.”
She thought of everyone at the barbecue and how welcoming they were, and her gut twisted. Did she want to bring them into it? Put them in danger?
“I should go, Noah. You should let me leave. You don’t want to be a part of this, believe me. I… I think it’s the Mafia. And they aren’t playing.”
His beautiful eyes hardened. “Honey, I’m not afraid of the fuc—fricking Mafia. None of us are. They want to go up against elite operators? They won’t win. Trust me.”
“I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me.”
“It’s not because of you. It’s because of them. The kind of people they are. They aren’t worth the brass it takes to make the bullet that puts an end to their shit.”
“Sit!” Alice yelled.
“Crap,” Noah muttered. “You can’t go, Jenna. She’ll be cussing like a new recruit in no time.”
He was making a joke, but her shoulders slumped anyway. Every instinct she had told her to run—but she was beginning to believe those instincts were wrong. She’d been running for months, and it hadn’t helped a bit. They’d found her anyway. Or found how to get to her. She could have cut off all contact with Aunt Maggie, but she didn’t think that would have stopped the Flanagans or Fisher.
They’d have gone after her aunt anyway, and when Aunt Maggie couldn’t produce a number or address, they’d have eliminated her out of sheer evil.
“My aunt’s in danger,” she blurted. “And I don’t know how to protect her.”
He put his hands on either side of her face. Held her. “I’ve got this, Jenna. I won’t let anyone hurt your aunt. My team will go get her, and we’ll keep her safe until it’s over. But if you want me to help put an end to the danger, you have to tell me everything. Who’s after her and why? What do you have to do with it? I need to know it all.”
Jenna took a sip of coffee. Her hands shook. What choice did she have? It was time to trust someone with her secrets. If it ruined everything, it was the least she deserved for hiding it from him. “Okay. Yes.”
She took a deep breath and started to talk. She told him everything, from her job with Sam to hearing him get murdered to feeling like she was being followed to leaving town and using her mother’s last name and social security number for jobs when she needed a social. She told him about living in Lola sometimes, about how she’d planned to leave again before he’d offered her the job, and how she shouldn’t have taken it because she’d been afraid of putting him and Alice in danger.
It was a lot to tell, and when she was done, her stomach was in knots. Because surely he’d tell her to get out now. She’d stayed in his house for weeks and never mentioned that dangerous people were looking for her.
He took her hand and wrapped her fingers in his. The move shocked her because she’d thought for sure he wouldn’t want anything to do with her. Maybe he still didn’t, but he was too kind to literally put his foot against her behind as he threw her out the door.
“I’m sorry, Jenna. For everything you’ve been through.”
Her eyes felt scratchy and achy. She hadn’t cried, but she wanted to. “You aren’t pissed off at me for bringing my junk to your door?”
“Did you bring it to my door? Seems to me like you were trying to leave.”
“I shouldn’t have accepted the job. I should have left.”
He shook his head and kissed her knuckles. The thrill of desire that shot through her was no surprise. “I wish you’d trusted me sooner, no doubt. But if you hadn’t taken the job, where would Alice and I be right now? She’d still be moving among sitters, and I’d be certain I was screwing her life up by being so bad at taking care of her.”
“You aren’t bad at taking care of her. You’re good with her.”
“Because you taught me what to do. Hell, I might have figured out that I needed to google things, but I was so overwhelmed that it didn’t occur to me until you said it. So, yeah, you got me and Alice onto the right track. You did that, Jenna. And then you moved in with us and made it all work. I’m not mad at you.”
He squeezed her hand gently. “Strike that. I’m a little mad at you for not trusting me. You know what I do. I told you before that I wasn’t the kind of guy you wanted to see coming if you were doing something wrong. Did you think that didn’t extend to these Flanagan people? Or Owen Fisher?”
“You’re Army, Noah. They’re civilians. No, I didn’t think it applied.”
He grabbed his phone from the table. “It applies, babe. I need to call a team meeting so we can make a plan. First we have to get your aunt out of Dunkirk.”
Jenna reared back to gape at him. “You know the town?” And then it hit her. “You checked me out.”
He didn’t look apologetic in the least. “Not completely, but I wanted to know if you were really talking to an aunt that day. Hacker confirmed it. That was all I asked and all he did.”
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but then she realized it was hypocritical as hell to be even the remotest bit offended that he’d looked up her aunt. In his position, she’d have done the same. More, actually, since she hadn’t given him a lot to go on when he’d taken her into his home and trusted her with his niece.