It had struck him just how alone she’d been while he was away. He could relate to that lost look in her eyes, lost because she didn’t know what to say to him as he stood there in the flesh while she handled whatever needed fixing. Daniel had started off in life alone, orphaned. He’d always been a loner and figured he always would be alone.
As strong as Naomi had become—and he admired her for her strength—she didn’t have a tool in her box capable of fixing him.
“Ruthie’s waiting up. She said you would call tonight,” Naomi said, breaking through the silence.
“Put the little bug on.” His little girl had instincts that could rival a green beret. Her blue eyes were too serious for a face so round and angelic.
“This is her favorite part of the day. You know that, right?” Naomi said and her voice was one of the few tethers to reality Daniel had to hold onto. She might not be able to heal him but she always seemed to know the right words to say to make him smile, even after the hell he’d been through overseas before being sent home. Knowing innocent people had been massacred, including children, because his unit had acted on bad intelligence—intelligence from the mole—twisted the knife in his chest again.
His career had gone to hell in a handbasket and fast. Casualties were part of war, he understood that going in. But how could he look in his daughter’s eyes without seeing the ones he’d taken.
Daniel heard a shuffling noise, probably Naomi climbing the stairs, and then came his little angel’s sweet voice, “Daddy!”
“Hey, bug, are you listening to your mom while I’m gone?” Naomi was doing an amazing job with their daughter. His kid was great but it had nothing to do with him. Before joining ManTech two years ago he’d served in the military. There’d been very little leave where he’d been deployed. And then there was the shock of suddenly having Daddy home and him being thrust into a routine Naomi and Ruthie had down pat. One that didn’t include him. His time at ManTech was no different. He’d been on assignment fifty-one weeks out of the year.
And now he was home with no clear direction in life. Or, was home until Naomi hatched the Haiti plan.
In some ways he thought Naomi helped organize the mission trip to get some sense of a normalcy back for her and their daughter. Or maybe that was just his fear talking. There wasn’t much that scared Daniel. He was a highly trained, highly skilled operative who was in the best shape of his life. He was more than capable of handling whatever—and that covered a wide range—was thrown at him.
And yet Ruthie had him in the palm of her hand. He chuckled.
“What’s so funny, Daddy?”
“Nothing, bug.” He smiled. It might not reach his eyes but she couldn’t see that over the phone. “You in bed?”
“Yup.” It was late in Dallas where they’d settled after four moves in five years. Naomi had a cousin who lived nearby, the last of her family. Daniel never had one to begin with. At least, not until Naomi and Ruthie and that might explain why he was so damn bad at it.
The brotherhood he’d experienced serving in the military with men like Jaden Orchard, Gabriel Cooper and the others had been the reason he followed Orchard to ManTech in the first place.
“Good girl. Pull your covers up real high, all the way up to your neck,” he said, imagining those long curly locks and that toothless smile. She’d lost both of her front teeth in the last month and it had made that round angelic-cheeked smile even cuter.
Daniel had been on assignment during her first day of kindergarten, so he’d missed it. He’d missed a lot. Looked like he was going to have plenty of time on his hands to make it up to her once he returned home. Ruthie and Naomi were strong reasons to get his head on straight.
“Okay.” He heard ruffling noises as Ruthie let out a little squeal.
The image of her toothless smile brought a sense of rightness back to the world. He’d seen too much senseless violence, done too many things to other people that had caused re-entry into a normal life and the real world—a world where he had a loving wife and a beautiful daughter—to not come easy. He prayed that he wouldn’t screw it up. Naomi had been distant in the last couple of months. Not her fault. He’d pushed her away so hard she finally caved in just a little. It hurt. Part of him wanted her to keep fighting until he got rid of his demons. That was selfish as hell and he knew it.
A couple of his buddies that he’d known since his military days had come home to empty houses or received Dear Jaden letters as soon as they notified wives and girlfriends that ManTech was being dissolved and they were being sent home.
“Close your eyes now,” he said softly to Ruthie, imagining her bright smile and holding on to the one positive thought, her.
“Already did it.”
“Then put the phone up to your forehead, bug.”
“Okay, Daddy.” The sound of her voice was like bubbles being carried in a breeze. He heard her giggle as he pressed a kiss to the mouthpiece.
“Did you feel it?”
“Yup, Daddy.” She made a kissing noise in response.
“Time for sleep.”
“When are you coming home, Daddy?”
“Soon, bug.”
“Tell Daddy goodnight,” Naomi said, her voice near the phone so that he could tell she sat next to their daughter on the bed.
If divinity existed, they were his proof. God, he wanted to come back to them.
“Love you, Daddy.”
“You
