Defend.
His.
Family.
“It’ll be okay,” she reassured.
He hoped she was right.
“I’m being quiet because I’m raging inside. I heard what Reaper told you. I heard the hell Tommy has been raising here, and how he’s looking for me. I know he blames Ethan, and it’s not his fault. It’s mine. I shouldn’t have started something with him. In fact, I never should have left Ethan’s side all of those years ago. It was my worst mistake and biggest regret.”
Well, they all had them.
She certainly did.
Because he needed it now, she soothed him with her hand on his thigh, connecting them.
Gene kept talking, getting it off his chest.
“I should have seen the warning signs so much earlier,” Gene admitted. “The comments about Ethan. The way he twisted everything up. I would have never cheated on him. I’m monogamous.”
She laughed.
“Are you?”
He snorted.
“You don’t count. You have tits. I’m dick monogamous. I’m a one dick kind of a guy.”
She leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips. They had come a long way, and because of Ethan, lines were crossed.
Willingly.
Now, she had her‘come to Jesus talk’with him.
“Listen, don’t kill him,” she said. “He’s going to try and stir you up. We have to stay on focus here, and we’re going to be walking a thin line. If he pushes, don’t snap.”
That wasn’t going to be easy, but he trusted Elizabeth to know what needed to be done. This was her thing.
“I’ll be good. Just let me lean into you when I need it. I’ll never leave Ethan, but I’m so afraid I’m going to go insane if he says shit about the man I love, or my family.”
That she got.
Perfectly.
Because Gene didn’t want to think about this anymore, he changed the focus.
What he wanted right now was a distraction.
“Want to tell me what’s going on here with The Hunters? I’m sure it’s bad if you flew out this fast, and you alerted Reaper that you were coming. I know it won’t all be about Tommy.”
He was right.
It wasn’t all about Thomas Bernard and her family. It was about CIA bullshit, that was on US soil, so now her bullshit.
As for Reaper, he was going to have him find Thomas Bernard and‘borrow’him.
Temporarily.
