Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
“Hey, Aidan,” a familiar voice said. “She’s in the bar. Do you know why she’s drinking straight gin martinis on a night when she should be celebrating Tristan’s homecoming?”
Sean Taggart. Carys’s father was the chef and owner of Top, but there was still an air of military authority hanging around the man decades after he left the service. He stood just outside the bar entrance, wearing slacks and a button-down that let Aidan know he wasn’t in the kitchen this evening. The other thing he wore? A tight expression, a sure sign he was worried.
“Tristan needs some time.” He didn’t want to give his best friend up.
“Tristan is playing dangerous games,” Sean said quietly. “Tell me he’s not bringing you into them.”
Well, at least he’d been right about one thing. He’d known damn well there was zero chance Ian Taggart hadn’t talked to his brother about the CIA team he was now leading. “You could have mentioned it to me.”
“I’m telling you now. I hoped he would come home and you could talk some sense into him,” Sean said. “But then I saw the look on my daughter’s face and realized what had happened. Did he break up with y’all?”
The fact he’d said “y’all” and not “her” showed how far they’d come. For many years, Sean had lived in what Aidan’s da liked to call Delusion. According to Da, it was a nice place where one didn’t have to think about one’s children having sexual needs who might make a couple of mistakes along the way. Sean had been forced out of Delusion when they’d gotten engaged right here on the patio at Top. To his credit, he’d taken a long swig of Scotch and then welcomed both Aidan and Tristan into the family.
“No. He asked for more time,” Aidan replied.
“Didn’t he already ask for more time and you gave it to him?” Sean asked.
“It’s complicated.” He wanted to talk about it. Sean would understand. Sean might be able to advise him.
But he’d promised Tristan.
“It always is. So what have you decided?” Sean studied him for a moment. “I ask because I know you’re about to walk in there and convince Carys to do what you think she should do.”
“Sir, is there something you would like to talk about?” It had been a rough night, but it looked like it was going to get rougher. He now knew way too much about a former arms dealer known as The Jester and far, far more than he ever wanted to know about the dark threats of the seemingly peaceful world around him. A threat that could kill everything he loved if Tris was right. And now he had to deal with his future father-in-law, who seemed to have taken exception. “Because I don’t make Carys do anything. No one can. She makes her own decisions.”
“Ah, but she makes them with the two of you in mind always,” Sean argued. “And now I worry one of you is no longer thinking with her best interests at heart.”
“Do you mean me or Tris?”
Sean sighed. “Of course I mean Tris. Aidan, I wasn’t in the same position Tris is in, but I know it’s damn hard for a man to give himself one hundred percent to his spouse when he’s involved in the kind of job he’s doing. My brother got out for that very reason. So did Ten Smith and Beck and Kim Kent. So did Kayla Summers. You find someone you love and get out. Not the other way around.”
He wished Tristan had fucking come down here with him so he wasn’t the one who had to face down a disappointed father figure. But no, he’d gotten a call from Lou, who needed him desperately and he’d said sorry, I have to go. Like always. Like Sean was telling him. The job came first. Before Aidan. Before Carys. Before anything else.
And yet he was going to defend the asshole. “It’s not forever.”
“How long are you going to put off the wedding? We’ve already done it once.”
On this Aidan wouldn’t be moved. Tristan was on a timer. Hell, Tristan had been the one to tell him it might be better if they went through with the wedding because it would keep up the illusion they were no longer together.
Were they together? Because he sure as fuck felt alone right now.
“We’re not moving it again,” Aidan replied. “At least that’s what I was going to talk to Carys about. If she’ll have me, I’d like to go through with the wedding. It’s not like what we were planning was exactly legal.”
“No, but I thought Tristan was the one who would legally marry her and then they would both take your name.”
Because Carys had said she refused to be Carys Dean-Miles O’Donnell. They’d sat up late the night they’d asked her to marry them and argued about it. They’d passed a bottle of expensive champagne around as they’d lain in bed and reached a compromise.