The Fall of East: Book 3 in the Hear No Evil Trilogy, Malone, Nana [inspiring books for teens txt] 📗

that. I could hear the sirens. "Help is coming. You just need to hang on and stop talking, Dad. Stop telling me these lies."

"It's true. We got together. After I got her sorted with paperwork, I needed to make it look like Leah Braddock had gotten on a plane to America. But when they refueled in Spain, she got off. She stayed there for three months then came back with a new passport and a new face. Nothing drastic, but enough so she didn’t look like herself. She wanted to hide so badly from her old life."

I stared at him. "Dad. Shhhh, conserve your strength."

He coughed. "For a year, we were happy. But then, I was working all the time, and it wasn't the kind of life she wanted. Not the kind of life she would have chosen for herself. And she left me for a brief time. Then she came back, and she was pregnant with you."

I could not do this. Everywhere around us, people were listening, watching, witnessing my private pain.

I felt strong arms around me, trying to pull me away, but I wouldn't leave. Not while he was talking.

"Nyla, I— She came back, and the timing could have been right, so I chose to believe you were mine. All the while, I suspected, but I loved you like my own. And then when she died, you needed to have your appendix taken out. They asked me your blood type, and I got it wrong. It proved that you were absolutely not mine biologically. But Nyla, you were always mine in my heart. And I’m ashamed of the things I've said, of the man that I was who couldn't love my daughter enough. I'm so sorry."

"Dad, if you're not my father, who is?"

He coughed more. "I— I never wanted to tell you."

"Dad, now is the time to tell me the truth."

He went still. He stopped moving.

All I heard was the high-pitched beeping of the equipment they’d attached to him to monitor his vitals.

And then East’s arms were around me, holding me tight. "Hey, I have you."

"H-h-he's not my father. Who's— Who's— Who am I?" Oh God. He was going to die and leave me.

"You're okay. You're Nyla Kincade, the woman I love. Badass Interpol agent. That's who you are. Right now, you don't have to be anyone else. Now step back and let them work."

I could hear his words, but I didn't believe them. My father wasn't going to make it. He was gone. The man I had tried to impress, to make proud for all of my life, the man I knew as my father, he was gone.

* * *

East

I'd had one bloody job, which was to protect Nyla, to keep her safe. One job, and I failed.

And now, she was in more pain than she had ever experienced in her life, and I was powerless to do a bloody thing about it.

Some protector you are. 

Just like AJ, I couldn't do anything.

You couldn't even protect the people you need to keep safe. What use are you?

I stood there frozen. Incapable of moving. Incapable of bringing the woman I loved any peace. Too numb from what I'd just witnessed.

But then something low and deep started to happen. It was like a reminder of how much I loved her. A reminder of her smile, her attitude when she didn't get her way, the frenzied wild pull of her. And then I moved. All I had to do was love her. It was like that thing that she kept trying to tell me all along. That to protect her was to love her. If I'd love her, that was protection enough from anything that she would ever have to face. For someone with supposedly such an intellect, it had taken me too damn long to figure that out.

When my muscles unlocked, I ran to her. I passed my sister as she held on to Margaux, clinging. Amelia was moving too as I moved. She was going for the suspect, and successfully tackled her, giving Krista no leeway for movement.

I was tempted to stop at first and help, but no. Nyla was my priority. In the end, she was all that I cared about. All that mattered to me was her. That smile that I would slay a thousand dragons to see. That mouth that I longed kiss. Whatever it took, I would fix this for her.

You aren't God. 

Fucking watch me.

I reached her and wrapped my arms around her. "Okay, Nyla, time to get up."

She shook her head. "No, I'm not leaving here."

The rest of the security team had finally arrived. It seemed Amelia had found the systems, unlocked the exterior doors into this part of the building and let them in. I urged Nyla to get up again. "Come on, sweetheart, time to go."

"No, I said I'm not leaving him."

She held on to her father, grasping tight.

"I know, love. I know. But it’s time to go.”

She yanked her hand away from my grasp and then clamped them on her father’s chest. I knew her heart was breaking, but she needed to get out of the way.

"Ny, listen to me sweetheart, you need to move."

She shook her head stubbornly then kept trying to stop the blood from leaking out of her father.

Eventually, she gave me no choice. I reached down, wrapped an arm around her waist and scooped her up easily.

She was dumbstruck for a moment, but then she started to fight.

"Let me go. Just let me go. My father, he needs me. My father."

"I'm sorry, love. I'm so sorry."

She kept fighting. "I hate you. Let me go. I've got to get to him. Let me go."

"Ny, listen to me. I know it hurts, but this has to be done."

Once the paramedics started working, I eased her down slowly, letting her body have contact with mine. Something to help bring her mind back online.

But it didn't help. She tried to circumvent me. Tried to roll around me.

"Hush. I have you." I tried to