Free Jude; The Fallen (The Fallen Series, Book 2) by Tara S. Wood, Lorecia Goings

always come home.”
    “Says the woman who plunders caves in the heart of the Iraqi insurgency,” he shot back.
    Coriander’s eyes flashed as she sneered, “At least I’m not the one trying to dick over the Sunnis and the Shiites at the same time.” It tugged at her heart to hear the hurt in his voice, but she couldn’t go on like this. “Look, we could argue about this from now until the end of time. I made my choice. You’re going to have to live with it.”
    “And that’s what you chose? What did you call him? Ah, yes, ‘a drunken pigeon’?” He took another gulp from the glass. “Sounds like a winner, dear. You sure know how to pick ‘em.”
    She leaped to her feet, thrusting a finger at him. The jerky movement sent scotch splashing out of the glass and over her hand. She paid it no mind and curled her lip at him. “Don’t,” she warned. “Don’t start something that you will regret. I meant what I said, I won’t keep you from Ash, but don’t make me let you go this way.”
    Alex pushed off the wall and moved to stand over her. He was more than a head taller, but his height had never fazed her. She glared up at him and met his narrowed gaze.
    “What did you expect me to say?” he growled. “Did you think I would just roll over and play dead for you while you fall into bed with someone else?”
    She poked a finger in his chest and he frowned, his hand coming up to rub the injured spot. “No. This is not about me and sex. I’ve been with others since we split up, and so have you. This is about Jude and whatever you think is going on. Your problem isn’t with me. It’s with him.”
    Alex grunted and stepped back, his features twisting into a mask of emotion she had only seen twice in their years together. His hand came up and she saw his knuckles tighten around the glass.
    “You throw that glass, and I swear on Zeus’ flaming balls I will kick your lanky Greek ass from here to Crete and drown you in the Mediterranean.” Her voice held an undercurrent of violence she knew he would understand.
    They both went stiff, each waiting for the other to breathe, when finally Alex blinked and handed her the glass without a word. He turned away from her face and mumbled under his breath.
    “What was that?” she asked.
    Alex’s dark curls hung over his face as he looked back over his shoulder. “He will not replace me.”
    Coriander’s breath came out in a rush. That’s what this was about? She never imagined that Alex could see it that way. “You’re her father. You will always be her father. No one can replace you in her heart.”
    He turned to face her, and she could see every emotion within him plastered on the smooth, tanned skin of his face. His eyes burned with want, love, need, and fear.
    His voice registered barely above a whisper. “What about yours?”
    There was so much she wanted to say to him. After all, they shared a child and a past, and were looking down the long road of a future of some sort. She wanted to tell him that things would work out the way they should, give him every insipid platitude she learned from Persephone. Some hope of…something. In the end, all she could manage was a broken, “I’m sorry.”
    “No, you’re not.” His voice was like ice, cold and cutting, straight to her heart.
    “I am,” she replied. “But if you keep this shit up, you’ll never get to understand how much I mean it. And that’s your loss, Alex.” She pushed past him and set both glasses on the dresser by the door. She faced him one last time as she yanked open the bedroom door. “You can either make your peace or burn your bridges. Whatever you decide is on your head, not mine.”

    Jude looked up from the book he was reading as Coriander high-tailed it down the stairs and across the living room to her office, slamming the door behind her so hard it rattled. A sigh filtered down from above, and his gaze looked up to see Alex’s drawn face staring down at him. The dark-haired man