Capturing Peace

  That was almost laughable.

  I would never forget.

  A deep, searing pain pierced my chest as I came closer to the playground in the park, and my footsteps automatically slowed down. Even in the dark gray of the early day, I could see the times Reagan and I had brought Parker here. See the first time I’d accidentally run into her here. And each one made the ache in my body grow as it had every time I made it out this far.

  Three and a half weeks since I’d seen Reagan. Almost five since I’d seen Parker, and I hadn’t even told him I loved him that day. I’d been an asshole, and left. That was it, the last memory he had of me.

  Lying down on my back in the snow, I stared up at the lightening sky and tried to remember every moment with them.

  I hadn’t stopped calling Reagan, and she hadn’t started answering. But I hadn’t shown up at her work or apartment anymore—­to be honest, I was afraid of what I would find out if I did.

  That she had moved on. That she had hardened herself to men again. That she had meant her words about me being toxic, about not wanting someone like me in her son’s life. That she still believed I only wanted her so I wouldn’t have to deal with my demons . . . I would wake up the same way I had this morning every day for the rest of my life if it meant getting Reagan and Parker back.

  I wish I could say that because of Reagan shutting me out, I’d gone to get help—­well, tried to get help. But I hadn’t. I still believed talking to some random psychiatrist wouldn’t do shit, but every day I wished I would have opened up to Reagan when I’d had the chance. She understood me. She knew just by looking at pictures I’d taken of myself what I was doing, when I hadn’t even realized that I’d been doing it. She didn’t judge me. Hadn’t . . . hadn’t judged me. She would have listened; and my peace—­in the form of the most amazing girl I’d ever met—­would have helped me somehow.

  I lay there thinking about words that should have been said long ago . . . back when she’d first looked through all my pictures. But it was too late; I couldn’t turn back time to change what I had kept from her.

  Pictures. I sat up from the cold, wet ground and stared blankly in front of me. Not seeing the playground in front of me. Scrambling to my feet, I took off in a dead sprint for my condo, never once slowing down until I was back inside.

  Grabbing my laptop, I quickly found the folder with the pictures of me and scrolled through them before opening up another folder, and then another.

  I sat there staring at the pictures in front of me for long moments before running around my condo to find my phone, and calling Hudson.

  There was a grumbling noise, and it was only then that I realized I didn’t even know what time it was. But I didn’t fucking care.

  “Hudson, I need your help,” I said breathlessly.

  There was a rustling noise for a few seconds before: “Steele? What happened?”

  “I gotta get my family back, and I need your help.”

  Reagan—­December 16, 2010

  “KEEGAN,” I WHINED, and fumbled with the blindfold. “This is so dumb, why can’t you just tell me where we’re going?”

  Someone smacked my arm. “Stop trying to take it off, can’t you try to have fun just once?” Erica asked.

  Crossing my arms, I huffed as I sat back against the seat. “I have fun . . . I would just rather not be kidnapped by my brother and his girlfriend.”

  “But it’s for your birthday, so it’s allowed, and a surprise, and fun,” she argued. “So get over it.”

  “Seriously, Ray, just a few more minutes until we’re there.”

  I made a face at the direction of my brother’s voice. “I would have tried to guess where we were going if you hadn’t confused me by going up and down the fucking freeway.”

  “Are you really being a bitch on your birthday?” Keegan asked. “Because this is not a party and you cannot cry.”

  “Who said I’m crying? I’m not crying. I just want to know where I’m being hauled off to before you kill me. I would’ve liked to say good-­bye to my son. Speaking of! Why isn’t he in the car with us?”

  “Did you really want him to be bored while I drove up and down the freeway for an hour? Besides, you heard him, he asked to stay with Mom and Dad.”

  With a defeated sigh, I mumbled, “No.”

  But honestly? Even though I loved my family for whatever they had planned for my twenty-­third birthday, I just wanted to be in my apartment with Parker. It was nothing against my family . . . I just didn’t want to do much of anything lately. Each day seemed harder than the last to function. To get myself out of bed. To go to work. The only thing that drove me to do anything was Parker. Even with tonight, I’d known we would be going out to celebrate, but Erica had taken one look at me and shoved me back in my apartment before doing my hair and makeup, and making me change. Saying I had to at least look like I was excited to be celebrating. Its not like I’d been in sweats . . . actually, yeah, I had.

  All I wanted was to make it through another night so I could crawl into bed and finally give in to the ache of not having Coen there, not having his arms wrapped around me, and knowing he wouldn’t be there in the morning to wake up Parker with me.

  I tried telling myself I’d made the right decision in not letting him back into our lives, but when Austin had left me, I’d gotten stronger every day without him. I felt like I was slowly dying without Coen. After a month of constant calling, his calls had stopped a week and a half ago; and while a part of me was glad for it, the rest was terrified that I would never hear from him again. And I didn’t know what was making it worse. That it was my decision. That I knew it was still killing Parker to not have Coen there. Or that I’d purposefully hurt Coen to the point where I’d hoped he would want to stay away.

  So, no, I didn’t want to be kidnapped. I didn’t want to be separated from my son. I wanted to be home with him acting like there wasn’t a huge piece of us missing.

  The car stopped and I straightened when I heard the gears shift to park. “Are we here?” I grabbed for the blindfold, and my arms were smacked away again.

  “You have to keep it on until we’re inside,” Erica chastised.

  “Is that necessary?”

  “Yes!” they both hissed, and I jerked back.

  “Got it. Sorry.”

  I let Erica help me out of the car and waited until she grabbed my hand to lead me into the restaurant.

  “Parker’s already here?”

  “Your guy is waiting for you,” she said patiently. “There’s a tiny step up right in front of you.”

  I stepped up and my brow furrowed when the light behind the blindfold vanished. I knew we were inside. But it was completely silent, and it sure as hell didn’t smell like food.

  “Uh . . .”

  “I’ll be right back, let me help Keegan with your gift. Don’t move!”

  “Erica!” I complained, and reached out into the darkness, letting my arms drop when I heard a door shut. “Seriously?”

  Taking a deep breath, my body stilled and goose bumps rose on my arms as the faint scent of the building I was in registered in my mind. I knew this place. I knew that smell.

  Quick flashes tortured me. Skin against skin. Perfectly placed arms and lips. Fingers slowly pulling down the zipper on my jeans. A firm hand gripping my hair. A large bed. Slow movements as I fell in love with him.

  My lips barely parted and the goose bumps moved to my entire body as the flashes kept coming. Taking a step back, my hands moved to the blindfold, but stopped halfway when a song began playing throughout the space. As I ripped the blindfold off, my mouth dropped open and I hurried to cover it with my hand when I saw everything in front of me.

  I was in Coen’s studio, and hanging from the ceiling were large canvases. Dozens of them. They were low enough so the canvases hung directly in front of me in two rows set
across from each other at an angle.

  I walked past picture after picture of Coen. Every one I’d seen the day I looked through the folder of him. They still gripped at my heart when I saw his eyes or his face covered, knowing that he was hiding his demons from the world, but that never took away from how amazing each one was.

  My footsteps faltered when the pictures changed to the flashes I’d just been having. The photo shoot Coen and I had done right here in this studio was now in front of me. In each picture the chemistry between us was tangible. In each picture the passion and love that kept pulling us together was breaking my heart more and more. Tears filled my eyes before spilling over as I came upon pictures from the park of Coen and Parker, Parker and me, Coen and me together . . . and last, the three of us.

  I stopped walking and looked straight ahead at the only canvas on an easel, which was situated at the end, in between the two rows. Coen was leaning in to kiss me, both of his hands cupping my cheeks; one of my hands was resting on his chest while the other held Parker close to me. Parker’s head was tilted back, looking up at us with a large smile on his face—­and there, across our feet, were the words: My Peace.

  A jolt went through my body when Coen’s voice came from directly behind me, and I bit down on my lip to try to stop the fresh wave of tears.

  “Two and a half years ago, I was on a mission and my team was ambushed. I’d fallen through a trap and was knocked unconscious, and when I woke up, the five of us were in a small room.”

  I didn’t turn to face him as he spoke. I just shut my eyes and listened to each soft, haunted word he was sharing with me.

  “We were each chained to the ceiling and floor, and roughly an hour after I woke, four men came into the room with us. One by one they tortured my men for hours in ways I refuse to plague your world with, before finally giving them the relief of shooting them. They didn’t want information, and they never said anything to us. They tortured them just for the sake of torturing them. Saco’s team came in at the exact same moment they killed the last man on my team.”

  A silent sob worked its way through my body, and my shoulders jerked from the force of it. I shook my head and fought the craving to reach behind me to touch him, to be there for him while he relived this.

  “I’d promised their wives I would bring them home safe, and I didn’t keep that promise. I watched them die, and it was because I fell into a trap I know I should have seen.”

  “No,” I choked out.

  “I see that day whenever I fall asleep. I see it whenever a smell or sound triggers it,” he continued, his voice still slow and dark. “I didn’t think I deserved happiness, not after that, and not until I met you.”

  The tips of his fingers brushed up the arm that hung at my side, and my breath caught from the intimacy of the simple gesture.

  “You changed me so completely. I’ve tried to hide—­and hide from—­my demons. It wasn’t until you that I stopped hiding. I fell in love with you and your son, Reagan. I fell hard, and fast, and everything about the three of us together made sense. But I let a few words form doubt, and I know I shattered your trust—­I know I shattered the little trust you already had in men, and you will never know how sorry I am for ever walking away from the two of you.”

  Slowly wrapping an arm around my waist, he closed the little distance between us and rested his bent head against the side of mine so his nose brushed against the curve of my neck. My body slowly trembled from forcing myself to not grip his hand in mine, but I knew I was slowly losing the battle. He had no idea what his touch and words were doing to me, or maybe he did.

  “I am losing my mind without you. I would choose having flashbacks of that mission . . . every night for the rest of my life in a heartbeat if it meant I could have you two for the rest of our forever. A night of not remembering is heaven, but that”—­he pointed to the picture of the three of us—­“is my peace. You and Parker are my peace. You’re my life. My family. I can’t live without you, please don’t ask me to keep doing it.”

  I stood there trembling and staring at the picture in front of me for long minutes before I realized I couldn’t see it through the tears anymore. Dropping my head, I shook it back and forth as I fought with myself. I was terrified. He’d hurt us, he could do it again. But I was right there with him, I wasn’t sure we could live without him. I hadn’t felt this whole since the last time I’d set foot in this building, and everything in me was screaming to stop running from him.

  With a tortured breath out, his arm slowly left my waist. “I’m sorry, Reagan,” he whispered before I heard his footsteps retreat from me.

  The war with myself reached deafening levels as he got farther away from me, and it wasn’t until I heard the door shut to his studio, did I finally turn from the spot I’d been standing in. Before I could even run after him, I froze in place again and my eyes widened as I saw the backs of the canvases. Down the entire left row was a word on every canvas: IT’S BECAUSE OF YOU THAT I STOPPED HIDING FROM MY DEMONS THANK YOU.

  And it was then I understood all of it. Starting with the pictures of Coen hiding his eyes or face, changing into the ones of us together where there was no longer anything for him to hide behind, to him baring his soul to tell me more than I’d ever expected him to.

  I took off running for the front door, and flung it open. Keegan and Erica were standing against Keegan’s truck looking to my left; and when I followed their gazes, I found Coen walking away and running his hands over his face.

  I tried calling out his name, but nothing came out as I ran after him. He must have heard my approach, because he turned just in time for me to launch myself at him. He staggered back a step before steadying himself as I wrapped my legs around his waist and pressed my lips firmly to his.

  When I finally pulled back, I found his dark eyes filled with tears, and if he hadn’t been holding me, the sight would have brought me to my knees. “We can’t live without you. I’m sorry I tried to hurt you, I’m so sorry for everything I—­”

  He cut me off with a hard kiss. “Don’t apologize. God, please don’t.”

  “I love you, Coen; Parker loves you, we need you.”

  His dark eyes held mine as he promised, “I swear to you I’m not going anywhere again.”

  I nodded and spoke through the tightness in my throat. “I know.”

  He started walking back toward the studio with me still in his arms as he whispered, “I love you. I’m going to marry you, and adopt Parker. I’m going to give you that forever, Reagan.”

  As we reached the door, Erica spoke up. “Don’t worry about tonight. Parker’s spending the night with your parents, just have fun.”

  I sent her a grateful look, and just barely caught my brother’s horrified expression as Coen walked us inside.

  “Don’t have too much fun!”

  Coen just shut and locked the door behind us, before capturing my mouth again and walking us slowly through his studio. Letting me slide down his body, he helped me take off his shirt and pants without ever once stopping his advance. By the time we made it to the large bed, my bra was being dropped to the floor and he was pulling off my underwear as he gently pushed me down onto the bed.

  As I slid to the middle of the bed, my body heated and stomach tightened. He crawled on top of me and positioned himself between my legs. Grabbing one of my hands, he intertwined our fingers as he slid inside me, and I audibly exhaled at the feel of him again. I’d missed this connection. Missed the way his body felt against mine. Missed the way the muscles in his arms and back tensed and shuddered below my fingertips as he controlled our movements. Missed the way shivers ran up my spine as his lips ghosted over the most sensitive parts of my body. Missed the way his dark eyes conveyed more emotion than any words ever could.

  “I love you,” he whispered, the words sounding like a promise as my fingers tightened around his and a surge of heat r
ushed through my body seconds before he followed me into his own release.

  We stayed in each other’s arms, talking softly as our bodies relaxed over the next few minutes, and I wondered how I ever thought I could live without this man, and was so thankful that he never once gave up on me.

  “I want to stay here all night with you,” he admitted as he pulled me onto his chest. “But what would you think to getting dressed, picking up Parker, and going out to dinner as a family? We have to celebrate your birthday.”

  Somehow, more tears filled my eyes as a wide smile slowly crossed my face, and I kissed him roughly before sitting up, pulling him with me. “Thank you for understanding me.”

  His lips tilted up in a crooked smile and he shook his head before his dark eyes met mine. “If only you knew how backward that thank-­you was, Duchess.”

  Epilogue

  Reagan—­June 18, 2011

  LOOKING OVER AT Keegan’s fiancée, Erica, I winked and watched as she turned with a smile and began walking away from where I was standing.

  “You ready?” Dad asked as he held out his arm for me to take.

  With a wide smile, I put my arm through his, bounced up on my toes once, and nodded. “So ready.”

  “Here we go.”

  My eyes found Coen’s the second we walked into the chapel, and my heart began pounding as I looked at him standing there with Keegan and Parker. I knew I’d waited for this moment my entire life, and I knew I’d found the perfect partner, friend, and lover in Coen—­as well as father for Parker.

  We still argued instead of talking things out. It still worked perfectly for us; and not once had either of us walked away until everything was resolved since we got back together. Which usually meant Coen still had to pin me to a hard place when we argued, but in the end, I was thankful for it.

  Parker had been beyond excited the night of my birthday when we’d shown up to get him, and hadn’t let Coen out of his sight except to sleep and go to school for the next week. Even though he didn’t care about the whys of Coen’s disappearance, Coen had still sat him down and apologized to him while trying to explain all that Parker really needed to know. That Coen had made a mistake, he was back, and he was never leaving again. Three months later, Parker called Coen ‘Dad’ for the first time as he was falling asleep—­and Coen had sat on the end of Parker’s bed for ten minutes, fighting back tears.