Defensive Action by Jenna Kernan

Author:Jenna Kernan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-04-11T19:37:53+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Haley blinked at him.

He’d told her he’d joined the Agency because he wanted to protect this country, or something of the like. It was how he always answered, a knee-jerk response as if she’d asked a police officer why he’d joined the force and was told, To protect and serve.

But there were as many reasons to join a law enforcement agency as there were to join an organization whose main purpose was to protect the sovereignty of the United States of America. He did want to serve his country, but if that was an answer, it was not the complete answer.

“Then what was the reason you became an agent?” she asked.

“Did I tell you anything about my dad?”

“You said he was older when you were born and that he died of liver cancer when you were twelve.”

Thinking of his parents always made him sad. “He also worked a job he hated, paid his bills on time and did exactly what was expected of him at work, at home, in life. But he had all these plans, you know? My dad had plans for retirement. Plans for a big anniversary trip with my mom. Plans to fix the kitchen up and plans to buy a little fishing cabin in the Catskills. He never did any of them.”

“Maybe they were just dreams or a way for him to get through what was ahead of him,” she said. “An incentive to get up every morning.”

“Trouble was, he moved from one thing to the next until he was diagnosed with the cancer.” Ryan slapped his hand on the roof. “Even then he wouldn’t take my mom to Quebec City like she wanted or himself on that fishing trip while he was still able. He was saving, not for his dreams anymore but to take care of my mom after he was gone. He never went anywhere or did anything that he said he wanted to do. And then he was gone. He only ever took his one-week vacation in Maine every year.”

“Seashore?”

“Camping. It’s cheaper. We stayed on public lands in a canvas tent that was older than he was. We’d paddle around in a battered old aluminum canoe. He’d fish and I’d swat mosquitoes.”

“Did you like it?” she asked.

“He liked it there and that was plenty for me. Heading out he always looked so happy. But coming back he looked like someone had drained all the air out of him.”

Ryan didn’t know when he had wrapped his arms around his knees or when she had curled up beside him to rub his back.

She made a humming sound in her throat.

“My father worked all his life for the city of Albany. He drove a plow in Albany in the winter and supervised road repair the rest of the year. Do you have any idea how many potholes come up after the frost heave? He used to tease that there were only two seasons, winter and road construction. Anyway, he never took my mom on that trip to Quebec City that she wanted.

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