Honor Unraveled Read Online Free PDF Page A

the bunker with the other dependents when the WKB had hit Blade’s house. “That was a pleasant outing for them. They wouldn’t hesitate to take you and Casey and use you to get to me. You’ve probably heard what happened when they kidnapped Mandy. Perhaps you’ve also heard what they did to Eden’s friends?” He held her gaze, watching her reaction to be certain she understood what he was saying. “You would not survive them.”
    Her lips thinned. “So we’re stuck here.”
    “You are.”
    “For how long?”
    Kit shook his head. “I wish I knew.”
    Ivy sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “Why did I have to pick this town? Of all the places I could have chosen, why did I come here?”
    A question he’d been wondering as well. “Why did you?”
    She looked at him, tilting her head as she considered him. “Because I thought it was the one place you’d never come.”
    Kit arched a brow. “That’s it? That was your plan? Avoid me?”
    She nodded. Kit shifted his gaze to the wall behind her as the impact of her words leaked into his soul. He’d been unable to communicate with her when he first entered the service, except by letters, all of which were returned unopened. After boot camp, he had a long weekend before his orders took effect, so he’d hopped a bus and made the trip from Kentucky to Wyoming, only to find she was gone. Her family had moved to avoid the dishonor of her teenage pregnancy. Thanks to the help of his high school social studies teacher, who had a soft spot for them, he’d learned where they’d moved to in Michigan. He’d gone AWOL at that point, catching a bus out to see her instead of returning to his base. He’d failed in that mission—her dad wouldn’t let him see her. The bastard had put a restraining order on him. He’d had no choice but to let her go.  
    Maybe he had been something of a stalker. Jesus, he’d just wanted to lay eyes on her once. Just once. Hear from her own mouth that she wanted nothing to do with him.
    He was away in Afghanistan with Blade and Rocco when the restraining order expired. By then, he’d put her out of his mind and had forced himself to move on with his life. She resurfaced—with Casey—when their daughter was six. Kit hadn’t known anything about what had happened to her—if she’d miscarried, as her dad had told him, kept the baby, or given it up for adoption. He didn’t even know the baby’s gender. It wasn’t until she’d reached out to Mandy that he learned she’d kept the baby. Kit had had his lawyer get in touch with her to make arrangements for supporting Casey—help she’d resisted at first, until it became clear that she didn’t have to work directly with Kit and he wasn’t going to fight for custody.  
    He’d often wondered if her feelings for him, all those years ago, had been real or if they’d just been some teenage infatuation, if she regretted being stuck with him forever because of their daughter. And wasn’t that another kick in the teeth?
    He still adored her and she resented the hell out of him.  
    Not unlike everyone else in his family. His mother. His father. His grandparents. Shit, the whole fucking town hated him. But not Mandy. No, his sister had been his only relative who truly seemed to care about him.  
    And now, maybe Casey did as well. Maybe.  
    In the arrangements that his lawyer set up, Ivy was required to share Casey’s school performance records with him. He and Ivy had begun communicating by exchanging cordial emails quarterly when her grades came in. Then when Casey was sick, or the time she’d broken her arm, Ivy had written to him. She started sending pictures when special events happened. School performances. Smiles with missing teeth. Gradually, Ivy became open to suggestions, like signing Casey up for swimming and karate lessons.  
    He’d been involved with their lives for years now, but always from a safe distance. Thirty-thousand feet high. It was a coward’s way out. His