Tiffany Snow - Point of No Return

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Morning had sunshine streaming in through the windows and I woke with a stretch. Amazingly enough, I wasn’t very sore. My ankles and wrists hurt, but other than that my body was okay. Surprisingly, I hadn’t had any nightmares. Maybe that had been because my subconscious knew James was dead and therefore no longer presented a threat, or maybe it was because I’d been with Kade, or maybe both, but my sleep had been peaceful.

I heard the low rumble of Kade’s voice and got out of bed. He’d nearly closed the French doors dividing the sitting room from the bedroom, leaving them open a scant inch. I realized he was talking to someone on the phone.

I brushed my teeth and used the bathroom, using my fingers to try and tame my hair, before I emerged from the bedroom. Kade glanced up from where he sat in an armchair, but kept talking.

“Yeah. It was close,” he said. “Too close. And you’re going to want to burn that bed. I never want to lay eyes on it again.”

I grimaced, then spotted the pot of coffee Kade must have ordered from room service. I poured myself a cup and listened to him talk.

“Chance took care of it,” Kade said. “And Gerard’s planning on fixing the door today.” He paused, listening. “Yeah, she’s right here. Hold on.” He held his cell phone out to me. “Blane wants to talk to you.”

I was suddenly nervous as I took the phone from him. Did Blane know everything that had happened the past few weeks? Had Kade told him we were married now?

“Hey,” I said softly.

“Kat,” Blane said, releasing a sigh, “Kade told me what happened. Jesus. I’m so sorry, Kat.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said. “Just like I told Kade. No one could have predicted he’d go so far off the deep end. I just want to forget it and move on.”

Blane was quiet for a moment. “Then I won’t mention it again, okay?”

“I’d appreciate that,” I replied. James was part of the past now.

Blane cleared his throat. “I hear congratulations are in order,” he said. “Kade told me you two made it official. Mrs. Kade Dennon.”

Hello, awkward. My stomach felt like I’d swallowed a ten-pound rock. “Um, yeah,” I said. “I . . . yeah, we did.”

“I’m really happy for you, Kat,” Blane said, and if I hadn’t known him so well, he might’ve fooled me.

“It’s okay not to be. You don’t have to lie,” I said, drifting to look out the window. “I understand.” After all, if things had worked out differently, I’d be Mrs. Blane Kirk instead. It was unspoken, but I could hear his thought as though he’d said it aloud.

We were both quiet for a moment.

“I, um, I hear you’ll probably replace the senator,” I said, changing the subject. “That’s really something. Congratulations.”

“Yes. Unexpected, but I think if it happens, I’ll accept the appointment.”

I wondered if he would have accepted it if he and I had still been together. “So you’ll be in Washington from now on,” I said, my heart sinking. “Not Indy.”

“For a while,” Blane said. “The session’s already begun, so it’ll probably be a few months before I make it home.”

“So by Christmas, you think?” I asked.

“Maybe,” he hedged. I didn’t push.

More silence, but I was loath to say goodbye. Finally, Blane spoke again.

“I love you,” he said, his voice roughened, “and I’m glad you’re okay, all three of you.”

“Me too,” I replied, my own voice hardly above a whisper.

Blane cleared his throat again. “Okay, well, tell Kade I’ll talk to him later.”

“Okay.”

“Take care of yourself. Take care of Kade.”

“I will. I promise.”

“Goodbye, Kat.”

“Bye, Blane.”

Then he was gone, the call ended. I stared blindly out the window and blinked back the tears.

I don’t even want to know how much you paid for these tickets,” I said.

Kade just winked at me. “It’s the least I could do. Especially since I’m the reason you missed your pop princess in Indy.”

We were in the front row of the Sprint Center in Kansas City, waiting for Britney to come onstage. The tickets and backstage passes Blane had given me last Christmas had been for her show in Indy, but Kade had gotten shot and I’d been at the hospital constantly, thus missing the concert. I hadn’t said anything at the time—as much as I loved Britney, Kade nearly dying had consumed all my thoughts and attention—but Kade had eventually figured it out.

So now, two months later, we were in Kansas City for her show and somehow Kade had scored front row center seats. He’d begged me to wear my Britney costume from last Halloween, but I’d put my foot down. Skimpy Catholic schoolgirl outfit would normally be sexy; pregnant Catholic schoolgirl was just not, no matter what Kade insisted to the contrary.

I was too excited to sit, so I stood, leaning against the tall fence that separated the front row from the stage. The show should start any minute now. The opening act had finished and the stage looked nearly set up for Britney.

The past couple of months had been a whirlwind. Kade and I had bought a house and begun, again, to decorate a room for the baby. I didn’t want to sell the house I’d bought in Rushville, though. That house had been something I’d done on my own when I’d realized I was strong enough to do what needed to be done to raise our child by myself. We still went there occasionally for the weekend.

Charlie hadn’t seemed to mind that I’d had to quit my job so quickly after I’d started, citing how I was pregnant and married and lived in Indy, but then again, it was hard to tell with him. I thought I’d seen him crack a tiny smile before he turned away.

Kade didn’t exactly love visiting Rushville, but he humored my desire to keep ties to my hometown. Though people were slow to warm up to him, eventually they seemed to accept his presence by my side.

My lease was up on my old apartment and I’d been a little sad to move out. So much had happened there, good and bad. The afterimage of Blane and our time together seemed to be burned into the place and that made my chest hurt if I thought about it, so I didn’t.

Lewis had proposed, and he and Alisha were getting married at Christmas. I was thrilled for her. As a gift, and an apology, I’d made Kade buy them tickets to Hawaii and he was also footing the bill for their honeymoon there. I felt it was the least he could do after shooting Lewis. But the wound had healed and there was no lasting damage, thank goodness, so I thought all was okay between the four of us. Though I didn’t think either of them would probably ever look at Kade the same way again.

Blane had gotten that senate appointment, to the surprise of no one. Kade and I had watched on television as he’d been sworn into office. Blane Kirk was now a name that was nationally recognized, and his handsome face had graced the covers of several news magazines. The press seemed to love him, though I was sure that wouldn’t last. The gossip pages once again had photos of Blane with beautiful women on his arm, though the same one never seemed to appear twice.

Blane had escorted Vivian to Keaston’s funeral. The story that had been circulated was that the senator had suffered from terminal cancer and had decided to spare himself and his family the pain of a long, drawn-out illness. I didn’t care what story was put out to explain his death. I was just glad he was out of all our lives, permanently.

Kade and I had gone to James’s sparsely attended funeral. We’d stood at the graveside and I’d sprinkled a handful of dirt over the coffin. Closure. It was good for my mental health.

Clarice had been dumbfounded to hear about Kade and me, but she’d recovered quickly, wishing us happiness. I thought she was hiding disappointment that Blane and I hadn’t worked out, which I understood. She was loyal to both Blane and Kade, but I knew she held a special place in her heart for Blane and wanted to see him happy. So did I.

Chance wasn’t nearly as quick to let the past go and I made sure it was just him and me when I told him the news. He’d been stunned.

“You’re married?” he’d asked, his eyes wide with disbelief. “To Kade Dennon, an assassin?” The utter outrage in his voice had made me cringe.

I didn’t know if Chance would ever believe that Kade had left his old life behind, so we just took it day by day. I had to hope that, eventually, he would see the good in Kade the same way I had.

Kade treated me like gold, and he had been true to his word about leaving his old career behind and focusing on work that was legal and had zero chance of him ending up either dead or in prison. Initially, I’d been somewhat worried that his old life might cause problems, but it seemed that being an assassin was a lonely and secretive profession. He’d asked Branna to help him put out some rumors that he’d been killed on a job and it seemed he was right—no one came seeking the truth.

“So how about Aidan?” he asked in my ear, his arms wrapping around me from behind.

I leaned my head back against his chest, turning my head to look up at him. I made a face. He rolled his eyes.

“You don’t know it’s going to be a boy,” I said. We’d decided not to find out the sex of the baby and picking a name was an ongoing discussion, especially since Kade was convinced it was a boy.

“Yes, I do,” he said. “Trust me. I know things.”

It always made me smile when he said stuff like that and I laced my fingers through his as they rested on my abdomen.

“How about Tripp?” he asked.

I didn’t even bother responding to that one. “If you’re so sure it’s a boy,” I said, “that means I’ll have two of you to handle, so I think I should get to name him.”

Kade looked at me skeptically. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t want my son to end up with some name that could be a girl or a boy, like Jordan or Tory.”

“You don’t trust me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ooh, now you’re reaching for the big guns,” he teased, making me laugh. “All right, fine. If we have a boy, like I know we will, then you get naming rights.”

“Deal.”

We sealed it with a kiss and I was just getting into it when the lights went out. I jerked my mouth away.

“It’s time!” I said excitedly.

“You know, most women would rather kiss me than watch Britney Spears,” Kade chided me.

“I’ll make it up to you later,” I promised with a laugh.

“I’ll hold you to it,” Kade said, “because I also got you this.” He held something up in front of me as the stage lights came on and the music started.

“Backstage passes?” I cried. I turned and threw my arms around his neck. “You’re amazing!” I pressed a hard kiss to his mouth.

When I pulled back, Kade’s expression was soft, his eyes tender as he looked at me.

“No,” he said, “you are.”

The pains began in the morning while I was drinking my coffee. Starting in my lower back and expanding around my abdomen, flaring in intensity, then fading. I knew what it was immediately and glanced at the clock. Another one came in ten minutes. I waited it out, breathing through my mouth and gripping the counter.

Once it passed, I took a shower. Kade was already in his office working and I knew he’d go apeshit the second I told him. He’d practically refused to leave the house the past couple of weeks, saying he just knew that the moment he left was when the baby would decide to come. The second I told him it was time, he’d have me hustled into the car and to the hospital. Well, I wanted to shower first and shave my legs.

I sat on the shower seat when another pain came, breathing through it, then finished rinsing my hair. I dressed in comfy clothes and blew my hair dry before pulling it back in a French braid. When I deemed myself ready and the contractions were about seven minutes apart, I went to find Kade.

He was typing away at the computer and the windows in the office were open, the warm spring air drifting in along with the scent of the daffodils and lilacs blooming outside. The first thing he’d done when we’d arrived back in Indy from our honeymoon was to buy me a beautiful two-story brick home surrounded by an expansive lawn dotted with trees. We weren’t in the country, like my little house in Rushville was, but there was enough space between us and neighbors that I didn’t feel boxed in.

“Good morning,” I said, sliding my arm across his shoulders.

Kade glanced up and smiled, turning his chair and tugging me down onto his lap. I wasn’t as dainty as I used to be, not with a nine-month pregnant tummy, but Kade seemed to love everything about it. His hand rested on top of my stomach. “‘Morning, princess,” he said, giving me a kiss. “How are you feeling today? Is the baby awake?”