Always (Family Justice Book 1) (53 page)

“OH, MY GAWD!” TORI CRIED for the hundredth time as she ripped open package after brightly wrapped package filled with baby gifts and naughty bits for the new mommy.

“I love it,” she giggled enthusiastically when she pulled a tacky, gaudy infant onesie emblazoned with the famous Las Vegas sign from the bright tissue paper.

Her mother held up the card and read, “For my maid-of-honor. What happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas! Kisses and Hugs, Love Shawn.”

“Awww,” she sighed. “That was so sweet.”

“She wanted to be here, Tori, but she and Garry are in Vancouver where he’s filming. Did you see her on the cover of
Style Rage
magazine? Bet that non-outfit raised a lot of eyebrows.”

“She’s a sweetheart,” Tori assured Lacey. “Not anything like the dumbass shit that gets printed about her. Not all models are airheads.”

She wiggled in her seat, trying to find a comfortable spot. Her tummy felt heavier than usual. Maybe because she’d royally pigged-out on the Thanksgiving feast? Probably. Pretty sure she was going to be regretting the excess later, Tori grabbed the straw tumbler filled with ice water that she was keeping nearby and took a couple of gulps. She didn’t know why by the cold water seemed to be easing a bit of the twitchy tightening that was distracting her.

What is Draegyn doing
, she wondered. Even though she was having a blast surrounded by all the women she loved and a bunch of Ninja Turtles, Tori was fixated on her husband. Her actual, in sickness and in health, husband.

Staring at her new rings was becoming a guilty pleasure. There was something incredibly sexy about knowing that her super-cool husband had spent time with a jeweler searching for what he wanted. What he thought she’d want. Didn’t he know that a paper cigar ring would have been just as memorable and romantic as a set from Cartier?

Tori never put much stock in all the fascination people have for relationship bling. A ring just wasn’t on her list of things she just had to have. I mean, after all, she had Draegyn and that was enough. More than enough, in fact. She never doubted his passion for her. Okay, maybe that was a new spin on her pregnancy narrative because she had been a hormonal mess at one point and imagined all sorts of horrifying scenarios involving her 007 and a bevy of model types.

But when she had her head screwed on right, Tori knew what was real. They were a classic mess and their relationship would always be full of more sarcasm and wildfires than lovey-dovey shit. Now that they’d declared their vows before family though, it seemed very, very real instead of the by-product of a conversation over breakfast.

ALEX WAS ENJOYING HIMSELF. HOW could he not? He hadn’t been speaking out his ass earlier when he said they all had good reason to be thankful.

Glancing at Cameron, he found the once brooding and miserable loner smiling from the inside out. He perched on an ottoman at Calder’s knees, a cigar clenched between his teeth as the two engaged in a Slapsies contest.

Each time Cam whacked Calder’s hand, he’d shout out, “Blow me,” and laugh. A far, far cry from the empty shelled man he’d been before Lacey turned up. And now look at him. Married. Happy. A father.
Shit.
If happily ever after ever needed a mascot, it should probably be the Camerons.

Ben, the old fucker, was clearly up to no good. Although Alex couldn’t hear what he was saying, he had the distinct impression he was talking about him as Gus and Brody listened to whatever he was driveling with captivated expressions. Occasionally, one or all of the three men would glance his way and laugh. Not that he hadn’t provided an ample reserve of stories to tell practically every time he and Meghan took the limo out for a drive. But, Jesus. Was nothing private around here?

Drae, who was in the chair by his side, was quietly watching, too. They’d come a long fucking way from their earliest escapades when the two first met. Alex wondered whether he was also thinking about how damn lucky they all were.

Cam sauntered over and joined them after Calder exclaimed that his hands were giving up. Alex found an odd contentment knowing that his uncle and the two men he considered his closest brothers were long-time friends.

First, it had just been he and Drae hanging out at Calder’s beach house whenever they had R&R. But over time, Cameron became part of their inner circle, and after that, it had been just the four of them. Giving them refuge from the suck of war meant his mentor-uncle knew where some of the skeletons were buried.

“Hey, dude,” Cam hooted at Drae. “Know what I just realized?”

“That you’re a cock gobbler?” came the irreverent, sarcastic reply.

Cam snorted. “Well, you’d be the one to know now, wouldn’t you?”

Alex almost choked on the brandy he’d been swallowing when Draegyn grabbed at his crotch and pinned Cam with a haughty look.

In all honesty, these were some the times he enjoyed the most—when Cam and Drae were sniping at each other as the insults flew right and left.

Turning to Alex with mischief in his expression, Cam waved his cigar at Drae. “The way I figure if Calder hooks up with Tori’s mom, that will make him his fucking father-in-law!”

This time Alex did choke and sit forward quickly while Drae thumped him on the back.

“Holy shit,” Drae muttered.

Cam blew a couple of smoke rings and then started howling with laughter. “Holy fuck!” he yelled. “And that will make you two sorry pieces of shit, like…what? Cousins?”

Calder had joined them and was standing there with a mock-horrified look on his face. “Slow the fuck down boys,” he jeered. “Marriage is for the young.”

“Oh, come on,” Brody interjected. Apparently everyone was going to offer an opinion and climb on this bandwagon. With a look of pure innocence, he taunted Calder some more. “Don’t try and tell us you haven’t thought about it.”

“Humph,” Calder grunted. “I think about a lot of things—none of which I’ll be sharing with you pussies.”

Gus and Ben were racked with laughter at the exchange. Alex eyed them both then went for the gold. “What the fuck are you giggling about, Gus? And when the hell are you going to ball up and take control of my housekeeper?”

Drae and Cam grinned and rumbled, “Oooooh, snap.”

“He’s making a point,” Brody drawled with a sneer.

“I think they’ve got ya, buddy,” Ben added with raised eyebrows.

Gus looked around at all of them and reddened. Finally, he fixed Alex with a steady stare and chuckled, “Control, you say? You want me to control that lady? You’ve met her, right?”

“Caveman style, dude,” Cam joked. “Just smack her on the ass, heft her over your shoulder, and get on with it!”

“Shut the fuck up,” Gus mumbled.

They all barked with laughter and refilled their snifters.

He saw Cam considering Brody with a long, inquisitive look before he bluntly asked, “What’s with you and the mad baby skills? You’ve never struck me as the diaper changing type.”

And then an unusual silence descended as the dog guru clammed up.
What in the hell is that all about,
Alex wondered. He caught Brody’s glancing his way a second before he took a heavy gulp of the brandy.

A bunch of things happened all at once. Drae, the cool-headed analyst, sat up straight and leaned with his forearms on his thighs—staring at Jensen’s unsmiling face. Calder leaned a hip against the enormous wood desk and said nothing, but his expression suggested he sensed a disturbance in the force.

Cam seemed to be considering the question he’d posed—searching for an easy explanation for the abrupt change in Brody’s mood. Gus and Ben looked a lot like jurors considering evidence.

“I’ve got a kid,” Brody muttered into the heavy silence.

Alex froze. What the fuck? Brody Jensen was a father? How in the fucking fuck did that little fact escape a background check?

The quiet grew deeper. There was an odd humming in Alex’s head—maybe from the brandy—and he swore, if it happened, he could have heard a pea drop.

As usual, despite the brandy, Drae got there first.

“Let me get this straight—you…Brody Jensen. You have a kid? That none of us know about?” Astonished best described Drae’s delivery.

“Back East?” Alex mumbled. “Is that why you travel? For a kid?”

As quickly as his sluggish mind could, Alex reviewed the Jensen file in his head. The guy was the real fucking deal. Ex-Navy SEAL. What Alex knew, and he knew everything that wasn’t buried in some deep cavern of secrecy, was that Brody enlisted right out of high school. Knew how to handle a rifle so the SEALs scooped him right up.

Ten years total in Naval Special Warfare—lots of it so confidential the security clearance needed to access the info was beyond imaginable. Alex was able to uncover the fact that Jensen had been part of an elite sniper team. He didn’t dig deeper than that. Didn’t need to. He was Special Forces, after all, and knew all too well what being on a sniper team meant.

He had about seven years in when the unlucky S.O.B. got shot. In the fucking head. He recovered, but that pretty much meant the end to handling a rifle for an assignment. Somehow, he ended up in the Canine Corps training and handling the spectacular frontline dogs that serve such an important role in the military.

At twenty-nine, he left the Navy. Less than a year later, he was referred to the agency by one of Alex’s D.O.D. contacts. After finding out that he was capable of designing and offering a first rate dog program for the agency, they hired him. That was three years ago.

Just the three of them—he, Drae, and Cam—knew anything at all about the intense loner. Mostly, he kept to himself making an exception for the inner core of Family Justice. They knew he was from back East, and that he’d considered San Diego home base while in the SEALs. He managed to get a teaching certification when he left the military and started out on the faculty of a community college.

But he had issues. They all did. He’d seen some shit and done his share of things…the kind of stuff that kept a man awake at night, and before too long he was spiraling downward. That was when he came to their attention. His deal with the agency was simple—from the end of May until sometime in December—he was in charge of the canines searched out and recruited for agency training. And he ran his little doggie kingdom with an iron hand.

They didn’t poke around in what he did when he wasn’t in Arizona. He’d been open with them at first, explaining that he found a way to continue his work at the college on a semester-by-semester basis. Whether he had a girlfriend, a wife, a kid, a family of any kind…well, it never came up. And clearly it should have.

He’d asked Brody a question that the man reluctantly answered. “No. Going East has nothing to do with her.”

“You have a daughter?” The shocked wheeze in Gus’s question got a brief glance from Alex. He knew how the man felt.

“Aright, aright, aright,” Drae cut in with a quarter of a brandy slur. “This’ll get us nowhere. Just let me ask the questions and the rest of you turd blossoms shut the hell up and let me think.”

SHIT,
BRODY THOUGHT. MAYBE HE should have thought that through before he blurted it out.

Only thing was, he’d been trying to tell Alex for the last couple of weeks, but just hadn’t found the words. He was getting tired of the back and forth and thought some changes might be in order, so he’d started talking to the boss—testing out scenarios that might lead to staying in Arizona full-time.