Free Taking the Heat by Sylvia Day Page A

sign up for the most dangerous jobs, situations, whatever. I mean he couldn’t just be a deputy U.S. marshal, right? He couldn’t just be a sailor in the Navy. He had to go Special Forces all the way.”
    “It’s scary when they’re gone, I know.”
    “It’s scarier when they don’t come back.”
    Rachel paused, her gaze trained downward at the counter.
    Exhaling in a rush, Layla stopped chopping. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
    “It’s okay.” Rachel left the counter and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. She held one up for Layla, but Layla shook her head. “I had to think long and hard about that very possibility before I pursued Jack. I had to be sure I was truly committed, because I was risking putting Riley through losing a stepfather as well as his own dad.”
    Layla set the knife down. “What made up your mind for you?”
    “Jack. He deserves to be loved. He deserves to have someone to come home to. With all that he does for everyone else, he deserves something of his own.” Rachel took a long pull on her beer, then set it down and got back to work. “Jack was raised in foster care. It took me a while to understand it, but the men he works with are his family, the only one he’s ever had. I realized I have to look at his job the same way I would an unpleasant mother-in-law—it comes with the territory. I have to take him the way he is.”
    Gripping the counter, Layla forced herself to breathe in an even tempo while her heart lurched in her chest.
    Dear God.
    Families were supposed to be comprised of people who cared for you, people who would do anything for you . . . even die for you. She’d been blessed with that, but like Jack, Brian hadn’t been. His mother was engrossed in the men in her life, losers who used her and eventually left her when the novelty wore off. Brian had no idea who his father was and no siblings he knew of.
    So he’d chosen fields and jobs that would give him the support system of a family. Careers that provided him with people he trusted with his life. And hers.
    She’d demanded he give that up for her. Coming from a young woman he feared might leave him at any moment, it must have seemed like an impossible request. He’d already lost Jacob.
    Layla understood now why he hadn’t been able to let the job go. It wasn’t the job itself; it was the ties the job gave him. And she hadn’t offered him a dependable alternative to that loss.
    “Are you okay?” Rachel asked softly.
    “Sorry. I’m just wiped out.” Layla lifted her head. “I was already stressed about the trial. Then these last couple of days . . .”
    “It’ll be over soon, won’t it?”
    “It will never be over. Once I testify, I’ll go back into WITSEC and wait for the possibility that they might need me again.”
    “Will Brian be with you?”
    Layla shook her head. “He won’t even know where I am or what my last name is. Today and tomorrow is all we’ve got.”
    “Then why the fuck are you in the kitchen with me?” Rachel asked without heat. “I’ve got dinner covered. Go spend some time with your man.”
    “I think he’s talking with your man, actually.” Layla felt herself smiling despite herself. She liked Rachel. She wished this sort of life was possible—spending time with people who were important to Brian, grilling a meal on a lovely day, commiserating with fellow significant others who knew what it was like to wait and worry and hope for the best. The worst part was that she’d once had the life she was now coveting and she had thrown it away.
    “Then take a shower and a nap instead. It’ll be a few hours yet before the food’s ready.”
    “I’ll feel like a mooch if I don’t help.”
    “You can help me clean up later, how’s that? I enjoy the prep part. It’s the mess I don’t much care for.” Rachel rounded the island. “Let me show you to your room. The house has two masters, so you have your own bathroom.”
    “Thank you, Rachel.” Layla met