Love, Tussles, and Takedowns (15 page)

“And teaching the dogs to do those goofy tricks.” Grace tilted her head affectionately. “It’s like you were the missing piece to make our family whole. I’ve always thought so.”

Hudson saw Lia’s eyes turn into rounded pools of emotion, her utter astonishment making her look like Alice on the other end of the rabbit hole…before a war between hope and hurt flashed across her expression.

He recognized that expression. Though it was rare and fleeting, he’d seen her with it a few times when she’d talk about her family.

And though none of them probably realized it, it was an expression he’d seen flit across every one of their faces throughout the night. So he took a stab in the dark and asked the one question no one at the table seemed willing to address.

“Then why didn’t you adopt Lia?”

* * * * *

LIA FLINCHED AND SANK her nails into Hudson’s thigh in panic. She couldn’t
believe
he just did that.

“You guys don’t have to answer that,” she assured them quickly.

Meanwhile, every cell in her body was screaming at her to shut up and let them reply.

Grace exchanged a look with Jack and at his nod, she leaned forward and took Lia’s hands in hers. “My dear, practically from the first day Caine brought you home, you’ve always been a part of our family.”

Foster
family, Lia heard her mind respond automatically—in self-preservation—as it always did. She didn’t realize, however, that she’d whispered her little self-preservation tactic aloud until she heard Caine sigh.

“Lia,” he said patiently, using his ‘cop’ voice, “I don’t know if you had noticed, but within a few months of you moving in with us, all of us stopped using the word ‘foster’ when it came to you.”

She’d noticed.

“You’re the only one who ever still says it,” pointed out Max.

Yeah, she’d noticed that, too.

“But only when you talk about mom and dad,” finished Gabe gently.

That
reminder, she could’ve done without hearing. Especially when she saw the flicker of hurt cross the faces of the two people who’d been parents to her for nearly half her life now.

Jack and Grace Spencer always called her their daughter, no preceding ‘foster’ before the term, while she never referenced them without it.

And she didn’t need Grace’s many psych degrees to explain why she only did it with Grace and Jack, but not the guys. It was simple. She’d never had any biological siblings before she met the Spencers.

But she’d had biological parents.

“I…” she began, unsure of how to begin. They were right.
She
was the one who’d cemented them as foster family members in her head, regardless of what her heart felt.

Out of loyalty to the parents who were taken from her.

However, in her efforts to honor her biological parents, to keep remembering them especially when the images she’d held of them in her head started fading, she’d unintentionally hurt the two parents she’d come to love just as fiercely with
out
any blood ties or official legal papers.

Tears flooded her eyes in regret.

“Don’t you cry over this, young lady,” ordered Grace sternly. “We understand. We always did. That’s why we never pushed. You went through a terrible loss that none of us could even begin to imagine, let alone overcome the way you have.”

“Of course, the guys and I totally disagreed with how they were handling it,” reported Caine in an I-still-think-we-were-right sort of way.

“Yeah,” chimed in Max. “We kept telling mom and dad that they should’ve at least
shown you
the adoption papers.”

Hold on.
What
?

Oxygen, her brain needed oxygen. Gulping a huge breath, she stared at her three brothers to see if they were just teasing.

Nope, they weren’t kidding at all.

This was perhaps the most serious she’d seen the three of them behave.

“Adoption papers?”

For me?

No way.

That automatic teen response by her brain was just a reminder of how long she’d wanted this.

Jack was now studying her more intently than them all. “Lia, the only reason we never pushed the issue was because you
very clearly
told us you didn’t need or want anything from us.”

Yes. She’d remembered the day like it was yesterday. “I was only trying to help,” she revealed softly.

“What do you mean, sweetie?” Grace looked utterly confused.

“I heard you two talking one night. I was midway through my junior year and the shop was going through some rough times, apparently. It was horrible timing because that was the year of the big stock market crash that wiped out all your investments. Plus, you’d both had a few medical scares, not to mention the new car you’d bought Max, and of course, Gabe’s braces.”

Gabe flashed his perfect pearly whites in an interjectory thanks.

“Since Max and Gabe and I were each only a year apart, you were worrying so much about college tuition. I specifically heard you say that funds would be really tight by the time Gabe’s turn came since you’d be paying for my tuition too.”

Staring hard at the lace edge of the tablecloth, she shrugged. “I didn’t think it was fair that your own biological kid would get less than I did for his education when I wasn’t even your real child.”

Grace looked up with dawning understanding. “That’s why you suddenly started talking about working part time to save up money to go to China and see if you could find your ‘real’ relatives first, and then
finally
get a place of your own somewhere ‘other than Phoenix
.
’”

Lia winced. She really had thought she was doing the right thing for the Spencers. “I didn’t want you to feel obligated to take care of me.”

“We thought you were trying to drop hints—of the giant fireball variety—that you didn’t
want
us to adopt you.”

“Honestly, I would’ve if it would’ve helped you with finances…but no, that wasn’t what I was trying to do. Because…” She took a deep breath. One of the bravest breaths she’d ever had to take. “I’ve
always
wanted you to adopt me. Always. Even before I’d started talking again, and probably even before I’d fully gotten over my parents’ death.” A single wayward tear slid down her cheek. “Every single one of my ‘first-star-of-the-night’ wishes throughout high school used to be that one day, you’d ask me to be a Spencer. For real. Forever.”

At Grace’s stunned look, Lia quickly shot her hand out. “But it’s okay. I get it now. And now I’ll always know that—”

“Jack!” Grace called out, in what sounded like alarm…but also, not.

“I’m on it!” he called back from the next room.

On what?

And when had he left the dining room?

“Sweetie, we had the adoption papers drawn up a month after you moved in with us and to this day, I have never ripped them up.” Grace gave her a fierce mama bear look. “I think in my heart, I always knew. Always believed.”

“I got his voicemail; trying his home phone next,” hollered Jack. “The old guy better not be asleep already.”

In wonder, Lia watched her foster dad pace back and forth. “Who is he calling?” She’d never seen him so on edge.

“Jack can get our lawyers to draw up the papers again in a snap. He’s probably trying to get them delivered here tonight.”

“
What?
No.” Lia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “You guys can’t adopt me now. I’m twenty-seven years old.”

“I wouldn’t care if you were fifty years old, young lady,” asserted Jack as he popped his head back in. “As far as I’m concerned, you’ve been our daughter since the minute Caine brought you to us and we’re damn well going to have the papers that make it official.”

She looked around to see her whole family grinning at her.

This couldn’t possibly be happening.

Then she turned to see Hudson gazing at her with such quiet, but deafeningly irrepressible alpha male happiness and suddenly, the reality of the situation hit her square in the heart.

Her ‘first-star-of-the-night’ wish was actually, finally coming true.

And the man she was quickly starting to see as the man of her dreams was holding her hand throughout it all.

CHAPTER TEN

THE NEXT MORNING, Hudson cracked his eyelids open to find post-dawn sunlight filtering through Lia’s apartment blinds.

He’d actually slept in late. For the first time in…he couldn’t recall when.

Feeling the warm, sexy body beside him in the bed, he remembered why he was only just now waking up. They’d been at it till nearly dawn, pushing the boundaries of second base in every unique way he’d been able to come up with.

In fact, the only reason he wasn’t still asleep was because his phone was ringing away.

With a yawn, he leaned over to grab his phone, careful not to wake Lia.

“H’lo?”

“Reyes? It’s Clint. Is now a good time?”

His former commanding officer’s voice always like a cracked whip.

And Hudson fell back to old habits at the same speed. “Yes, sir.”

“Good call on forwarding that info to us a few weeks ago. Turns out your informant’s intel was dead-on. We’ve found remains from Private Lawson’s missing unit.”

Clint’s words echoed in Hudson’s ears, his brain bouncing them back out as if unable to process them. But then he looked over and saw Lia pause and look at him in concern. Sweet, beautiful Lia tilting her head, silently asking if he was okay.

That’s all it took for his brain to start functioning again, for his gut to twist into knots, and for hope to build for her, despite everything. Because this was Lia’s past and future they were talking about here. Everything she’d lost, everything the universe had taken from her.

Now possibly
found
.

But he’d be lying to himself if he didn’t acknowledge that his heart was in his throat. Because now
he
was possibly going to lose everything, have everything he was starting to be unable to live without, get ripped from him in the process.

A win-lose situation.

Damn, the universe had a sick and twisted sense of entertainment.

“
Reyes.
You hearing me, man?”

He blinked and shook himself back to the phone conversation. “Sorry, sir. Negative. Please repeat.”

Distance. That’s what he needed. The soldier in him stepped up to claim that distance when the man in him faltered as he looked down and saw Lia’s hand gripping his.

Clint’s voice faded for a bit just as all the busy noise coming through with radio echo on the sat-phone muted away. “That better? Can you hear me now?”

Hudson reached for her with the hand that could feel. “Affirmative, sir. What did you find?”

“The intel your informant provided led us to triangulate our search down to four possible mountainous locations in the western region of Ghazni. He was right. The searches done for Private Lawson and the other four MIA soldiers and servicemen were nowhere near these sites.”

“Lieutenant,” interrupted Hudson, clearing his throat with loaded meaning, “I’m here with Lia, Private Lawson’s wife. If anything you’re about to tell me is classified, please advise.”

There was a brief pause on the other end. “Understood. Back to the intel. This kid you got in contact with us, Drew Lawson, what he managed to cull from his years of data finding is nothing short of amazing. He has records of local hospital reports, analyzed photos of the area, underground reportings, coded messages from local informants, and translated correspondences between individuals in the area that I don’t even want to know how he obtained.”

Hudson quietly repeated the highlights for Lia when Clint muffled out for a moment to talk to another officer. Lia whispered back the first thought in her mind.

“Lieutenant? Lia would like to know if you’ve contacted Private Lawson’s brother, Drew, about all this yet. She wants to be sure that after all his hard work, he’s also notified of these developments asap.”

At that, Clint barked out a laugh.

The absolute rarity of the sound made Hudson glance down at his phone to check the number one more time.

“No, please inform Lia that I did
not
contact the kid because
he
contacted me. These hackers on their computers nowadays, I tell you. My cell phone number is pretty brand new, too.”

Lia clearly overheard at least part of that through the receiver as she rolled her eyes immediately after and mouthed, “
I’m sorry!
”

Hudson smiled and summarized more of what Clint was relaying. “The guys are pretty sure that Drew has hacked into the JPAC—Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command—recovery team’s correspondence somehow. But apparently, he played the whole thing smart. Gave them intel that he obtained legally first. When they started finding evidence, they offered him immunity for the rest, which they do for their anonymous informants.” Hudson listened some more and shook his head in admiration. “Smart kid. Apparently, there were a few things Drew has done that they weren’t able to turn a blind eye to but he was already lawyered up with a ball-busting attorney who has—and I quote—’made their own lawyer her bitch’. End quote.”

His smile faded to seriousness when he listened to the rest of the findings. “The recovery team was granted entrance for a full sweep of the area and Clint took a few of his men to accompany the team as a part of the agreement,” Hudson paraphrased quickly. “Bad news is that each of the locations were hundreds of miles apart from each other.”

At her questioning look, he explained, “They’re worried that the scope of their search isn’t big enough given what they’ve already found. A recovery site of this magnitude increases not just the possibility of more scattered remains but also more possible scenarios involving any survivors.”

Lia paled slightly, but nodded in understanding.

“Reyes? I think you should hear the rest of this first and then tell Lia what she needs to know afterward.”