Aidan choked on his next breath.
Ghost slapped him on the back.
“Where?” he gasped, eyes streaming as he coughed.
“Lying way under the radar. In a cabin up in the damn mountains.”
Aidan gulped down the last of his choking fit, anxiety spiking along his nerve endings. He and Sam had been in the mountains, had spent their honeymoon naked in front of a crackling fire. Had Ellison been just down the road? Had they passed his footprints in the snow?
“How long’s he been there?” He leaned a hip against the changing table, reaching idly for Lainie with one hand. Her tiny fists thumped against his palm and her fingers curled against his thumb.
“Walsh thinks since February.”
So maybe they hadn’t been in the company of evil, out there in the woods. Some comfort.
“Five months of work to find the bastard,” Ghost continued. “But we’ve got him.”
Aidan’s heart bounded against his ribs, a hard knocking, like he’d just gone for a run. “Shit,” he breathed. Lainie was squirming, and he picked her up and folded her against his chest. Whether for her comfort or his, he didn’t know. “So it’s time to move, then,” he said, looking at his dad.
Ghost nodded. “We need to finish it.” His gaze went to Lainie, the handful of dark wispy hairs on top of her head. “To keep our families safe.”
Aidan nodded. He knew this; was ready for it. But he’d never felt this kind of fear, this acute, painful hesitation before.
“It’s different, isn’t it?” Ghost asked, face softening. “Once you’ve held them. And you think about going out there and putting yourself in danger.”
“Yeah, it…yeah.”
“I don’t know which is the better father. The one who doesn’t risk anything, who gets to go home whole every night to his family. Or the one who sticks his neck out, so they’ll be safe.” His dark eyes crackled with electric conviction. “I only know which kind of fatherI am. And I can’t change that.”
Aidan took a deep breath. “Right.”
~*~
“You two taking a nap?” Sam woke him with a gentle touch, pushing his hair back off his forehead.
Aidan startled awake and realized he’d fallen asleep with the recliner fully extended in its kicked-back mode. Lainie lay on her stomach on his chest, snoring and snuffling softly.
“Ah, shit,” he muttered, and moved to sit up.
“No, stay.” Sam patted his cheek and moved to the sofa. “No sense waking her up.”
Evening had come on, while he’d been sleeping, the light beyond the windows purplish with twilight. He frowned as he came more fully awake. “You’re just getting home?”
“Tutoring tonight, remember?” She kicked her pumps off and sighed with relief as she tucked her feet up beneath her. “God, that feels good.”
“Later, you wanna say that for a different reason?”
She smiled, eyes dancing. “Now that’s an idea.” She flopped her head back against the couch. “What did you guys do today?”
There was a limited amount of stuff you could do with a newborn baby. But he could have told her about feeding, burping, diaper changing, the embarrassing amount of interest he’d paidThe Price is Rightwhile he tried to coax Lainie into a nap.
Instead, he blurted, “We found Don Ellison.”
Sam jerked upright, eyes popping. “You did?”
He had to swallow. “Yeah.”
She smoothed her hands down her thighs a few times and then got to her feet, pacing along the couch. Then sat again with a deep exhale. “Sorry. I just…” She gestured toward her chest.
