Free The Becoming: Redemption (The Becoming Series Book 5) by Jessica Meigs Page B

figured she should take the time to clean it all
and get familiar with it.” She paused, brushing her fingers over
Olivia’s sparse, curly, dark hair. “Do you think I’m doing the
right thing?”
    “Do you feel like you are?”
    “I like to think so, but…” Cade chewed on her
bottom lip, trying to figure out the best way to phrase what was on
her mind. “I don’t have a problem with going myself. I can handle
anything that comes at me. I’m just worried that I’m dragging
everyone else into something they might not actually be willing to
do. Maybe they feel obligated to help and don’t really want
to.”
    “What do you think Brandt would do?”
    Cade shrugged and stood, moving around the
bed to lay Olivia near the center of the mattress where she
wouldn’t have to worry about the infant managing to wiggle herself
off the bed. “I think, considering there’s a baby involved, Brandt
wouldn’t come after me,” she admitted. “He would see Olivia as the
priority over me, because she can’t defend herself. But I can’t do
it,” Cade said. “I feel like…like I owe him. He risked everything to come after me in Atlanta. I wouldn’t be
standing here if it wasn’t for him.”
    “No, you’d just be standing somewhere else,”
Dominic commented. “Look, Cade, I don’t presume to speak for all of
us, but me? I’m going with you because I have a hell of a lot to
make up for, both to you and to the people who died in Woodside.
That and I have a lot of respect for you and for Brandt. The least
I can do is go with you and help you find him. I think Rem is going
out of a sense of loyalty and friendship, and that’s not something
you should spit on.”
    “What about the others who are going?” Cade
asked. She was thinking about Sadie and Jude, who were so young and
so willing to risk their lives to help her, and Keith, who was
always so levelheaded and mellow. They didn’t seem like the types
to want to help someone they didn’t know well.
    “I’m sure they have their reasons, and I’m
not going to presume to know what those reasons are,” he said.
“However, we’re here, and we’re willing to help. I know you don’t
like asking for help, but we’re at a point that you don’t have to
ask. We’d offer anyway.”
    Cade tried to swallow the lump in her throat.
“Thanks, Dominic. I think I really needed to hear that.”
    Dominic smiled reassuringly and straightened.
“Keith and Jude have gotten together all the weapons that we’re
taking with us, and they’ve sorted out some that they’re going to
leave here for Derek and Isaac. The vast majority of the medical
supplies are staying here too, since Olivia will be here. Remy and
I decided to leave most of the food here for those staying behind,
since we figure they’ll need it more than us.”
    “We can always hunt down some more while
we’re on the road,” Cade said.
    “Now we’re at the point where I need to know
if there’s anything you have to handle before we leave,” Dominic
said.
    “Nothing I can’t do myself,” Cade said. She
hesitated, then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him in
a tight hug. “Thank you,” she whispered, hoping her voice had as
much gratitude in it as she felt. She wasn’t much of a hugging
person, and she hoped he realized what it had taken for her to be
willing to hug him like this. He returned the hug gently,
surprised, afraid to hurt her if he squeezed too hard.
    “You’re welcome,” he said warmly.

Chapter 11
     
    “For the
record, I think this is a terrible idea,” Lindsey Alton
said. She stood in front of Major Bradford’s desk with her arms
folded over her chest. She adjusted her grip on the folder tucked
underneath her arm and did her best to not glare at the officer. “I
don’t know if he’s mentally stable or not, and you’re basically
asking me if it’s okay to deliver him the biggest shock of his
life.”
    “He can handle it,” Bradford said with a
dismissive