“Go home and host a wake she didn’t deserve?” Grace sighed, ensuring her voice was too low for others to hear. “Pretend to grieve, Uncle Vinny?”
“Just for a little while,” he promised. “Life will return to normal soon, I promise.”
He promised.
It was a promise he couldn’t keep.
As she turned to follow the others, a strong, broad set of shoulders drew her gaze.
He hadn’t even spoken to her. She’d waited, hoping, believing he would, but he hadn’t said a word since her mother had been taken. In the six weeks after Lucia had been taken away, she hadn’t even glimpsed him. Before that, she’d seen him as often as once a week. He’d teased her, flirted with her, he’d looked at her with hooded gray eyes that grew darker, that grew hungry.
He didn’t do that anymore either.
“It’s time I move, Uncle Vinny.” She held herself distant even as he offered her his arm.
“Not yet.” There was no arguing with that tone, usually.
She steadied her voice and lifted her chin in determination. “Yes, it’s time.”
“Why?” The hard tone of command was simply impossible to ignore, but that didn’t mean she had to obey.
“Because I need to think.” She wouldn’t lie to him, he deserved far better than that. “I need to learn how to live, Uncle Vinny. If I stay at the house with you, Cord, Deke, and Sawyer, then you’ll just hover over me and try to protect me from what she’s done. I have to deal with it, now.”
He was silent for long moments and she actually expected him to argue. Instead, he breathed out heavily. “You’re like a daughter to me, Gracie. Kenni returning hasn’t changed that. When I thought she was gone…” He cleared his throat as emotion thickened his voice. “You were there, and you made me hold on when I didn’t want to. Not Lucia, you. Because I knew you were grieving just as hard and just as deep as the rest of us were. I couldn’t leave you alone. You didn’t leave me alone.”
Her eyes filled with tears. Had Lucia expected that? No doubt she had.
“No one blames you, Grace,” he promised her. “Least of all that oblivious young man you have your heart set on.”
She swung her gaze around, surprise surging through her at the statement.
Rueful amusement filled his gaze as he watched her affectionately.
“Think I didn’t notice?” he asked her.
“He didn’t.” Turning, she stared back at that broad back as the man she’d had her heart set on paused to talk to one of the women who stopped him.
She hated those women. Hated how they were so comfortable with him they could touch his arm or shoulder, smile up at him so confidently, so certain of their effect on men. Perhaps on him.
“He’s a good man,” Uncle Vinny said softly. “An honorable man. Sometimes, though, honor stands in a man’s way when there’s no reason that reaching out for what he wants would tarnish that honor. You’re young, but he doesn’t understand the quiet maturity that’s so much a part of you. I have faith in him though. I think he’ll get his head out of his ass soon enough.”
She wanted to laugh at that. Six weeks ago, she would have laughed over it.
“Perhaps it was for the best that he hasn’t done so before now,” she decided. “He is honorable, Uncle Vinny. And a damned good man. He deserves far more than a traitor’s daughter.”
Before he could protest or make up any excuses his sons and the daughter he’d thought he’d lost were striding to him. Grace stepped back before slowly drifting away. She thought no one noticed either. She believed no one noticed that she walked to her car alone, and that she drove away alone. And she thought no one saw the tear she brushed from her cheek.
Most of her things were packed and waiting to be loaded in that car. If she was lucky, very lucky, she could take care of that before the family even arrived at the house. The question was, exactly where would she go?
Don’t miss these other novels of seduction and suspense by #1 New York Times bestselling author
Lora Leigh
“Leigh’s books can scorch the ink off the page.”
—RT Book Reviews
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www.loraleigh.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
#1 New York Times bestseller, LORA LEIGH is the author of the Navy SEALs, the Breeds, the Elite Ops, the Callahans, the Bound Hearts, and the Nauti series. You can visit her website at www.loraleigh.com. Or sign up for email updates here.
Also By
Lora Leigh
THE CALLAHANS
MIDNIGHT SINS
DEADLY SINS
SECRET SINS
ULTIMATE SINS
THE ELITE OPS SERIES
LIVE WIRE
RENEGADE
BLACK JACK
HEAT SEEKER
MAVERICK
WILD CARD
THE NAVY SEALS TRILOGY
KILLER SECRETS
HIDDEN AGENDAS
DANGEROUS GAMES
BOUND HEARTS
WICKED PLEASURE
FORBIDDEN PLEASURE
ONLY PLEASURE
ANTHOLOGIES
LEGALLY HOT
MEN OF DANGER
Praise for Lora Leigh’s other bestselling series
THE CALLAHANS
“Leigh continues to do what she does best: write steamy hot love scenes, dangerous enemies, and deadly revenge.”
—RT Book Reviews on Ultimate Sins
“Midnight Sins has everything a good book should have: suspense, murder, betrayal, mystery, and lots of sensuality … Lora Leigh is a talented author with the ability to create magnificent characters and captivating plots.”
—Romance Junkies
“[An] erotically charged tale woven tightly around a chilling suspense about love and betrayal. Midnight Sins features some outstanding characterization and a plot that unfolds to reveal a horrific tangle of events that lead to the unthinkable. You won’t want to put this book down until you have read the very last page.”
—Fresh Fiction
ELITE OPS
“Leigh delivers … erotic passion. This is a hot one for the bookshelf!”
—RT Book Reviews on Renegade
“Overflowing with escalating danger, while pent-up sexual cravings practically burst into flames.”
—Sensual Reads on Black Jack
“Sex and violence power the satisfying second installment of Leigh’s Elite Ops series.”