Wildfire (Hidden Legacy #3)(100)

"Call Rogan."

The car obediently dialed the number.

"Yes?" he answered.

"We have Olivia Charles' USB. We can meet their demands."

"What's on it?"

"It's encrypted. We're bringing it home, but Bern's uploading it to our home server as we speak."

"Good. Great."

"Okay, bye." I hesitated for a moment. Why not? "Love you."

There was a slight pause. "I love you too."

I hung up and grinned. The Scourge of Mexico just told me he loved me. I never got tired of hearing it.

"What's going to happen when this is over?" Bern asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What will happen with you and Rogan once this emergency is over?"

"Then we'll have to do the trials."

"You're avoiding the question."

"What exactly is the question, Bern?"

"Once all of these crises are over, what will happen with you and Rogan? Will you move with him into his house? Will you commute to work? Are you planning to marry him? Do you want to marry him?"

Well, that was unexpected. "You've been hanging out with Grandma Frida for too long. Are you worried I might take advantage of Rogan's virtue and shack up with him?"

"No, I'm worried that you have no plan. You're not thinking about any of these things, and you need to figure them out, not for us, but for yourself. What is it you want?"

That part was easy. I wanted to wake up next to Rogan every morning. Sometimes he would be Connor, sometimes he would be Mad Rogan, and I was good with that. I loved all of him.



       
         
       
        

"I don't know how it will turn out. I'm taking it one day at a time."

"We'll be fine," Bern said. "You don't need to worry about us."

"What do you mean?"

"I checked the accounts. We have enough money to survive on for about ten months. Maybe a year if we stretch. With no new cases coming in."

"I know that."

"You don't need to worry about money. We can wait on things like House security. Don't jump into something because you think that the family needs things, because we've become a House."

Thank you, Garen Shaffer. "It's not like that. I love him, Bern. I mean that."

"I was afraid of that," he said quietly. "I don't want you to be hurt."

"Thank you. Rogan won't hurt me."

"You weren't there when he was watching you with Garen. His face was flat. Cold. He stood there, without an expression on his face, and twisted solid metal into bows like it was Play-Doh."

"He didn't prevent me from going to that dinner. He never asked me not to go. When Garen walked into my office, he didn't storm over and try to throw him out. He put himself on a chain for my benefit, because as much as he wants to wrap me in bubble wrap and kidnap me to his lair, he knows I wouldn't stand for it. He's trying to make sure I see all choices available to us as an emerging House. As we were walking home, after he watched me and Garen, he told me one more time that from a genetic perspective, Garen was the better choice."

"Is Garen the better choice?"

"No. Because I don't love him. Even if love wasn't a factor, I would choose Rogan over him. When we were naked and freezing in David Howling's cistern, Rogan sacrificed himself for me. He fully expected to die. If Garen and I were in danger, and only one of us could make it, Garen would rationalize why he was the better choice to survive and leave me."

"Just be careful, Nevada."

It was too late for that. I was all in. "I will."

The phone rang. An unfamiliar number. I accepted. "You've reached Nevada Baylor."

"You wanted to talk," a cultured female voice said. "I will meet you at Takara in fifteen minutes. If you do not show, I'll know where we stand."

The call ended.

"Was that . . . ?" Bern blinked.

"That was Victoria Tremaine." When Linus Duncan made you a promise, he kept it. She'd picked Takara, the place where I often ate. It was a dig at me. See, I know where you eat and what you like to order. I have your whole life under surveillance. 

I locked my jaw and took the exit.

"You can't be serious," Bern said.

"She tried twice and failed both times. She wants to talk, I'll talk to her."

"This isn't wise."

"If we don't talk, she'll just keep trying and we can't afford that. Eventually the girls and Leon have to go to school. We have to live normal lives. Our House status will protect us, but she's determined. I don't want her throwing wrenches into it."