Harmless Revenge: A Harmless World Novel (Harmless #11)

Thanks to his little bombshell, they had eaten in relative silence. Randy was rarely quiet, but while she had picked at her food, neither man talked much. Of course, he had disappeared the moment they had returned, and Randy had gone to the beach to brood. They were both going to be a pain in the ass to control.

“Why the hell do I put up with two stubborn men?”

Of course, there was no one to answer. If her father had been there, he would have told her she deserved it. And there was a part of her that thought maybe she did. She hadn’t always been truthful with everyone in her life. She had always reasoned that it had been to protect herself. Growing up on the streets in London hadn’t been easy, and even worse when she had hit puberty. After escaping, it became more about protecting her privacy. She never felt she would be accepted if people knew she had been orphaned. Then…it became a habit. Walking away from Sean all those years ago had hurt, but she could not accept it as a total mistake. For, if she hadn’t, she would have never had Randy.

It was through him she had learned how to be more open. And because of that, both of them had realized they were missing an important person in their lives.

She sighed. Truth was, her father had been scarce for months, although that was nothing new. From the moment she found out Royce was her father, they had both been avoiding each other. They worked together, but she had made it clear she wanted no one else to know about it. Sean finding out was something very odd. Her father wasn’t always the best man to do business with, but he was respectful of her wishes. Or she thought she he had been.

“When were you going to tell me?”

She turned around and found Randy standing in the doorway. Damn SEAL. He was always sneaking up on her that way, but she couldn’t be mad at him. She could hear the anger in his voice, but there was a thread of hurt. It was the last thing she wanted to do to him.

“I don’t know if I would have ever. It’s not like he’s really a father to me.”

“He’s your father.”

She nodded. How did she explain something so buggered up?

Randy crossed his arms and waited. Gone was the teasing lover she was so accustomed to. This was the man she usually spent time with in the field. This man made demands, and if you didn’t live up to them, he left you.

“Yes.”

“Are you really going to make me interrogate you?”

He would do it too. Randy could be very gentle, but when he was hurt, he tended to lash out. Worse, he always regretted it. It was better to just give in and talk about it.

She sighed and walked to the door. “I was raised an orphan, you know that.”

“So, you were truthful about that.”

She hated the tone of his voice. Randy didn’t trust easily, especially after Sean and everything they had been through. It had taken her months just to gain his trust so they could work together. Accomplishing the same in their personal relationship had been almost impossible.

And now it could all be lost.

“I didn’t know Royce was my father. He didn’t know. He had known my mother, or who he thought was my mother. It’s why he hired me, trained me.” And she still owed him for that. He had given her a way out of the poverty she had been so accustomed to. “He didn’t put the two things together because…well, he’s Royce. You know he doesn’t deal with consequences well.”

He nodded. “How did you find out?”

“He found out. There was a situation…you know, the shooting.”

He nodded. “And you needed a blood transfusion. That was when Sean and I were on our first mission together.”

When the two men had become lovers. Of course, that had to be brought up. Today just kept getting better and better. “Yes. I almost died.”

There was a beat of silence. “You said it wasn’t that bad.”

“That’s just…I told you before I knew you well enough. I didn’t want to remember anything about that job.” She could sometimes still hear the noise of the explosion, knowing she had lost her target…and the man she was supposed to protect. There were times she could feel the bullet ripping through her body, tearing through her flesh.

“Even that you are Lassiter’s child?”

“Especially that. I have B negative blood and I needed some. I was working that job with Royce. When he found out we had the same blood type, he started to investigate. Then, he had our DNA tested.”

“He did this without telling you?”

She glanced over her shoulder at him. It still angered her that Royce had done all of it without her approval. The men in her life always seemed to be doing that. “Yes. You know the man.”

He sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”