“Why?” I said in a more incredulous tone than I’d intended.
Jared took another bite, considering my question. I couldn’t wait for him to decide the best answer.
“Your father was in the security business?” I prompted.
“More along the lines of security detail.”
“Bodyguard stuff,” I nodded.
Jared chuckled. “Yes, bodyguard stuff.”
“So Claire went through the same training?” I imagined tiny Claire training with the Navy Seals and shuddered. I wasn’t sure if it was because I feared for her safety, or because she was even more dangerous than I had previously thought.
“We were separated a lot. When she proved to be accelerated in most things we trained together.” His face twisted with irritation.
“Accelerated?”
“She could hit a target from fifteen-hundred yards by the time she was eleven. She’s probably the best sniper the military has ever seen,” he waited for my reaction. After seeing the deliberate smooth features of my face, he continued, “You can imagine how many elite branches of government and private sectors are fal ing over themselves for her, counting down the days until her eighteenth birthday.” He said the words with a hint of the tone a protective father might have when discussing his daughter’s first date.
“Are you close?” I asked, remembering the way they had reacted to each other in the pub.
Jared frowned. “I love her. She’s my sister.” The crease between his eyebrows grew deeper, “She’s also very obstinate and, like most teenage girls, she’s very self-absorbed. But in a lethal-type of way because of her training.” He was suddenly very far away. “Claire’s been through a lot. She didn’t get to have a normal childhood because of the way we were raised, and she’s angry about a lot of things.”
“Are you angry about the way you were raised?”
“No,” he said the word softly, but with firm conviction. There was no pause between my question and his answer. He scanned my face with such affection that I felt myself fidgeting with unease.
“Why is that?” I bit my lip, stil apprehensive about the intensity in his eyes.
“We’l get to that later. Dessert?” he asked, squeezing my hand before letting go.
I noticed the absence of his touch instantly when my hand turned cold. He took my nearly empty plate and returned with the perfect-sized slice of Angel Food cake. No icing, no layers. Just the way I liked it.
Taking a bite, I closed my eyes. “You have more than one talent, Mr. Ryel,” I said after swal owing the moist, spongy goodness. “Tel me more about you. I want to hear the little things, too. You know al of my favorites; it’s only fair that I know yours.”
Jared laughed once. “Okay.” He wiped his mouth with his napkin and leaned against his chair. “The little things….I was born in Providence on May ninth. I’m twenty-three,” he explained. “Breakfast is my favorite meal. Summer is my favorite season. I don’t have a favorite color, but I’ve always been partial to that crazy green-honey brown color of your eyes. I have this addiction to sweet potato fries.”
“Wel . There you go…I knew something about you after al ,” I grinned.
“See? I’m an open book.”
I rol ed my eyes. “Go on….”
“I think best when on my motorcycle; I don’t real y have time for hobbies. I have a sister, whom you’ve met,” I nodded, “and a little brother, Bex, who’s eleven. They both live with my mother, but Claire spends a lot of time here…sometimes too much,” he grimaced.
I giggled. “And you have your own security business?”
As soon as I asked, I wished I hadn’t. Jared’s eyes instantly clouded over into familiar twin storms.
“I brought you here tonight to be honest with you, Nina.”
“I know,” I said, trying to sound braver than I felt. Whatever it was I would listen, believe, and figure out a way to live with it. I had no other option versus the alternative. Now that I’d met him my life would never be the same again. It would be something too peculiar for anyone else to accept, but I had seen enough in the past months to know anything was possible. “I want you to tel me everything.”
Jared looked away. “You may feel differently before the night is over.”
I tilted my head to draw his eyes to mine. “After everything that’s happened, you don’t think I know there is something abnormal going on? I’m here, aren’t I?”
Jared leaned over and touched my cheek with the palm of his hand. I couldn’t help but lean into it, his skin was always so warm that it radiated into my bones.
“Okay, then. The truth.” He took a deep breath, “My father has been…close to your father for a long time.” He watched my expression, but that part I was somewhat prepared for. He continued, “My father served as protection for your father and, as you can imagine, Jack was a ful time job. He made a lot of the wrong people very angry on a regular basis.”
I winced. I had come to this conclusion after reading the Port of Providence file, but hearing it from Jared rubbed salt in the wound.
“I’m sorry, Nina. I don’t like tel ing you this; it goes against the very principle I was raised on.” Jared reached his hand across the table to mine.
“What do you mean?”
“That’s what my family does, Nina. We protect your father. And your mother…and you.”