Duncan’s Honor (The Aegis Network: Jacksonville Division #7)

Chapter 14

14

C hastity couldn’t help but feel a little giddy inside when she heard Chuck call her Duncan’s girlfriend. But as she told him, she needed to put Duncan and the baby on the back burner, and she meant it.

“Over there,” Duncan pointed to a man sitting in a booth, drinking coffee and eating a piece of pie. “That’s Dylan.”

“He’s nice on the eyes.”

“Not only is he married, but I can be a jealous boyfriend.” He rested his hand on her hip and kissed her cheek. “I hope I’m nice on your eyes.”

“If you weren’t, I wouldn’t have slept with you,” she admitted, inhaling his rich pine scent. “For the record, you’re a hell of a lot sexier than that guy over there.”

“Flattery will get you whatever you want.” He led her through a maze of tables until they reached the diner's far end.

Dylan nodded. “Have a seat,” he said. “I’m going to skip the pleasantries and get right down to business.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Chastity swallowed. She took Duncan’s hand and squeezed.

“I wish I had better news,” Dylan said, leaning back and resting his arm on the back of the booth. “I don’t know if your sister is in that house, but we do know there are armed guards and at least a dozen girls there.”

“Shit,” Duncan said.

“Why are we sitting here and not down by the house?” Chastity asked as her leg bounced up and down, rattling the table.

“Two of my brothers, Ramey and Logan, are here.”

“When did they get here?” Duncan asked.

“I asked them to come in last night. I also contacted Buddy and Arthur, who contacted the rest of your crew. I'm not sure who is coming in, but we should have a good team assembled by nightfall, which will give us time to make a plan. We have to hope they don’t try to move the girls before then.”

“You called a bunch of firefighters?” Chastity asked, blinking. Sure, they were all ex-military, and some had even seen combat, but their role was to fight fires, whether on land, at sea, or even in the sky, not to carry out a sting operation.

“They’re also special operators with the Aegis Network,” Dylan said.

Duncan laughed. “You’ve heard all the stories about Arthur’s wife and what went down at their marina.”

“Yeah, and I helped fight that fire at Kaelie’s when Buddy got burned, so I get we’re all capable, but these men have families and?—”

“We’re about to have a family, and it’s not going to stop us from going in,” Duncan said with a tight jaw.

She kicked him under the table.

“Ouch. That hurt,” he said with a scowl. “What the hell did you do that for?”

“No one knows that yet and I don’t need anyone blabbing to the rest of our team.”

“My lips are sealed,” Dylan said.

“Thank you.” She leaned back. “I’m sorry. But I hate pulling everyone away from their wives and children.”

“It’s what we all do,” Dylan said, holding up his mug. “When one of our own needs a little helping hand.”

Her phone buzzed and so did Duncan’s.

She yanked hers from her purse and stared at a group text. “Arthur, Kent, Buddy, Hawke, and Garth are all less than two hours away.” She glanced at Duncan, catching his caring gaze. “None of them had to come.”

“No offense, ma’am, but they all also work for the Aegis Network, and we called them in,” Dylan said.

“If you got an SOS from any of them, what would you do?” Duncan asked.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’d be here in a heartbeat,” she said, setting her phone on the table. As the only woman on the team, she sometimes felt like the odd man out, even though none of her crew ever made her feel that way. The only one who had ever treated her differently had been Duncan.

Looking back on that now, she realized Duncan cared about her. That was the only thing that made sense in how he had treated her. One minute, the consummate gentleman; the next, just another one of the guys; and the next, flirting like there was no tomorrow. One thing she understood was the confusion of caring for someone whom you felt like you shouldn’t and worried they didn’t return the same feelings.

The waitress came by the table. “What can I get you folks?”

“I’ll have a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke,” Duncan said, nudging her. “You should eat. You need some extra calories now.”

Dylan coughed. “Dude. I have kids and my wife would have shot me if I ever said that to her while she was pregnant.”

“I’ll have the same,” she said, glaring. The last thing she needed was for the world to know she was pregnant and then treat her like she was some little woman who needed coddling.

“I’ll be right back with your drinks,” the perky brunette said as she bounced away.

“So what else do we know?” Chastity asked. The idea that her sister could be held captive, perhaps beaten or even raped, sent a cold shiver across her body.

Duncan put his arm around her, squeezing her shoulder.

He was such a sweet and kind man. Even when he acted weird in the last month, he still had a heart of gold. Their child was lucky to have him as a father.

“Ramey is still doing recon. Now that you two are here, I will head down to help him.” Dylan slid a small envelope with a plastic key card across the table. “I’ve got two rooms down the street at the local inn. You two can have one to yourself. The rest of us will make do.”

“You’re leaving?” Chastity stared at him, ignoring the idea that she’d have a hotel room with Duncan while half her team hung out in the room next to them. The only one she’d talked to about Duncan had been Buddy, but only because he’d walked in on a conversation she’d had with Buddy’s wife, Kaelie.

“We need to know exactly what we’re dealing with, so we can make the best plan. I’ll be back once we have more men here, so we can rotate eyes on the house while we develop a plan to get those girls out, and hopefully, your sister is one of them.”

She reached out and grabbed his hand. “I know you don’t know me from Adam but thank you.”

“My pleasure.” Dylan stood tall, tossing a twenty on the table, and strode out of the diner like he hadn’t a care in the world.

She scooted to the other side of the booth. When she moved, she hadn’t expected to be staring at Duncan, but now that she was, she couldn’t tear her gaze away.

The waitress came, setting their food and drinks in front of them. Her stomach growled, but still, her eyes remained locked with his.

“I’m not ready for anyone on our team to know I’m pregnant, so could you please stop with the extra calories and shit?”

“Sorry, I didn’t think.” He dipped a fry into a hunk of ketchup before plopping it in his mouth. “I just worry about you and also, well, if I haven’t told you, I do want to have this baby with you.”

She wished she hadn’t taken a sip of her soda as she coughed and gagged, and it ended up coming out of her nose.

“Shit,” he muttered, handing her a bunch of napkins, but that didn’t really help as she knocked over both their sodas, which landed right in her plate, and then her plate landed in her lap.

The waitress raced over with more towels.

Chastity’s cheeks heated with embarrassment as she continued to cough while trying to down a glass of water.

“Can you just get us two orders to go and the bill?” Duncan asked.

“Sure thing,” the waitress said.

Duncan made his way next to her, still cleaning up the mess she’d created.

Her coughing had subsided, but her mortification hadn’t. “And this is why my family calls me klutzbutt.”

“That was all me. My timing really sucked on that one.” He patted down her jeans. “But I meant what I said. I know you want to put off talking about this, but we will be parents together, and I want a second chance. You haven’t said no, but you haven’t said yes, and that’s shaking my confidence and honestly making me crazy.”

She jerked her head. “You’re incredibly overwhelming right now.”

“I know. But you needed to know how I felt when you told me about the baby last night. I need to know now how you feel about me.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she snapped it shut. Her mind went totally blank, but her heart fluttered and swelled with the kind of love a woman should share with her children's father.

“I like you,” she mumbled, unable to say the words she desperately wanted him to hear. “A lot and I want us to date too.”

“I want more than that.” He palmed her cheek, giving her a tender kiss on the lips. “A lot more.”

“Slow down, please,” she begged. While she wanted the world with him, her thoughts were somewhere else. “I promise, we can sit down and have this conversation after I get Serenity home.”

“All right,” he said, pressing his loving mouth against her cheek. “But I’m telling you now, I’m going to show you how much I care about you. That this isn’t just about the baby.”

“You don’t know when to quit, do you?”

“I won’t quit until you know just how much you mean to me. After that, if you don’t want to be with me, well, then okay. But until then, I’m going to keep pushing.”