As much as he wanted to see Becca, he didn’t want to wake her. After the grueling few days she’d had, she needed to rest and reset before facing the demanding day ahead. A quiet reprieve before the chaos of the JTT in full go mode.
Despite his own need to bask in her mere presence, the best thing he could do for her right now would be to give her some space and a little time to decompress. To breathe. To heal. She was here now. He didn’t need to rush her or force the situation.
Nope. She needed to find her own way, building trust with each member of the household on her own terms, in her own time. Did he still want her with every piece of his heart and soul? Yes. More than ever. More than their years apart, the distance between them, and the tragedy of their shared past could diminish.
But Eve was right—he had to put Becca’s wants and needs ahead of his own.
Starting now.
His stomach grumbled its agreement, and change of plans approved, he executed a quick ninety-degree turn and aimed his feet toward the kitchen. Fridge. Milk. Bowl. Spoon. He collected the necessities one-handed and set them on the counter.
The hard part? Picking a cereal. He didn’t have the energy for his favorite. Captain Crunch required full faculties to eat, or the little squares were either too hard or too soft to enjoy properly.
Rice Krispies? Too much snap, crackle, and pop for a late-night snack. And forget about chasing those little puffs around with a shaky spoon; he’d be lucky to catch half a bite with every attempt.
Chocolate Cheerios? Bingo. He reached for the box. The perfect combination of easy to eat and not too sweet. Plus, the bonus of turning any remaining milk into a chocolatey elixir worth drinking.
Not that he ever did. He was here for the sugar. Not the calcium.
He poured a heaping bowl of oat-based rings, added the milk, grabbed his spoon, and ate the first round one-handed after jamming the bowl between his fancy neoprene sling and his chest.
The second round was as satisfying as the first, and the third accompanied him after he put shit away and went on tour. He didn’t encounter anyone in the grand hall, and the great room was empty as he walked on through to the back corridor leading to the large boardroom the JTT used as their base of operations.
“Hey, dumbass,” Cody said, looking up from the screens he’d been monitoring when Jay entered the dimly lit room through the open double-wide doors. “How’re you feeling?”
“Like a steaming pile of dog crap left on a Mexican sidewalk in the middle of a summer heatwave.”
Cody snorted. “Good. You deserve it after the bullshit you pulled.” He did a quick scan of the screens, and the light they emitted showcased three rows of scratches on his cheek. “But I’m glad you’re not dead.”
Jay’s turn to snort, he made it a good one as he set his half-eaten bowl of cereal down on the desk. “That makes two of us.”
“It’s a hell of a lot more than two, shit for brains. You have any idea what you put us through? What you put Becca through? Jesus Christ, if she hadn’t been strapped to her seat, she would’ve pushed Grant out of the way to jump out of the helo headfirst.”
Jay grinned because he knew the truth with a certainty that left no room for debate. “No way you would’ve let her take a swan dive. She’s the key to saving the world, and you’re a mission-first kinda guy. It’s why I left her with you in the courtyard to begin with. There’s no one I trusted more to get her out alive and back here in one piece.”
“Damn it, Jay, we could’ve found another?—”
“No,” he said, shaking his head and interrupting Cody’s pointless lecture. “You know as well as I do, there was no other way. Volkov’s soldiers wanted me, and they would’ve gunned down every single one of you, including Becca, to get to me. She was and always will be my priority. You did what I asked you to do, and I can’t thank you enough for risking your life to save hers.”
“Shit.” Cody crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. “You’re impossible to stay mad at, but what the fuck? You didn’t have to sixty-mile an hour yourself off a cliff.” He flung his arm out in frustration. “We were right there.”
“Yeah, and so was Tak. An inch to the left, and the warning shot he fired would’ve taken Grant’s head clean off.”
“You saw that, huh?”
“Yeah, I fucking saw it.”
“So what do you think? Did he miss on purpose?”
“He may be chipped, but he’s not stupid. Killing Grant would’ve landed him in a body bag, so he was definitely on a recovery mission, not a suicide mission.”
“You think he was there for you?”
Jay shrugged his non-injured shoulder. “No idea, but whether he’s working for Volkov, Johnson, or some other dickhead on the Imperium Council, I was better off taking my chances with the Bering Sea. If I’d been captured, it would’ve been game over. For all of us. With me dead and Becca with the JTT, you still had a fighting chance.”
“Yeah, but fucking hell, Jay, I’m not saying one is better than the other, but Grant almost died saving your ass.”
“I know.” Guilt punched him hard in the solar plexus.
