Melinda Di Lorenzo - Undercover Protector

“But it wasn’t. Of course.”

“No.”

Anderson looked down at his hands, recalling the confusion and misguided guilt. It wasn’t a memory he normally shared. Or one he even liked to think about. He got the feeling, though, that it was doing Nadine good to hear it. Her face was open and interested, her body leaning forward. She’d been through a hell of a lot over the last little while. Anderson might not have been there when her brother was killed, but he was more than happy to try to make things a little easier for her now.

And it feels good to get it off my chest, too, he admitted to himself.

That was a surprise. One he didn’t want to reason through right that second. Or even have time to think about. He had a case to concern himself with. A bad guy he needed to keep away from Nadine, a worse guy he needed to connect their current predicament to and fifteen years’ worth of justice to serve out.

He brought his gaze up again with the intention of saying as much. But his mouth had different ideas.

“My mom never told me directly,” he said, “but there were lots of whispers, and I heard them all. The day I came home and complained was the same day my dad left her a Dear John letter.”

“Your dad left the two of you behind?”

“For about six months. My grandparents only took us in on the condition that my mom never have contact with him again. I learned that from the whispers, too. They hated him. Thought he wasn’t good enough for her. So they weren’t very happy when he turned up on their doorstep.”

“But your mom took him back, just like that?”

Anderson laughed. “Not even close. It took my dad a month just to get her to talk to him again. He showed up every morning with a cup of coffee and a single rose.”

“Persistent,” Nadine stated.

“And apologetic. A lot.”

“So what was his excuse for leaving in the first place?”

“Turns out his opinion of himself coincided with the one my grandparents had.”

“He thought you and your mom would be better off without him.”

“Exactly. But it turned out he was more selfish than he thought.”

Nadine’s brows knit together. “What do you mean?”

Anderson smiled. “He hated being away from us more than he wanted to make things better for us, apparently. So he came up with a plan—become a cop.”

“I guess it would be hard for your grandparents to argue with that.”

“Yep. My mom, too. She loved him, and when he told her he’d enrolled in the training program already...”

“What? She was powerless to say no?” Her smile softened the question.

He met her eyes. “Isn’t that what true love is all about?”

“Powerlessness?”

“Yep.”

“I hope not.”

“You sure about that?”

“Why would anyone want to be powerless to say no?”

He leaned forward. “Because it’s two sides of the same coin when you’re really in love. All powerful and completely powerless at the same time.”

“Do you know that firsthand?”

Nadine’s face didn’t change as she spoke, but the air in the room was another story. It shifted. Warmed. And Anderson couldn’t help but wonder if the question held more meaning than a simple addition to the conversation.

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