I'm trying to work through a bad case of writer's block and I was trying to write a completely different story when this update wouldn't stay off the page. Go figure. Thanks in advance for continuing to follow along with these two. It makes me so happy that you seem to love them as much as I do.


When I came out of the bathroom, Zip was lying on his back with the crisp, white sheet pulled up only to his waist, leaving his ridged abs and bare chest exposed for my viewing pleasure. He was reading a book by the low light of the bedside lamp and I slipped in beside him and kissed his shoulder.

"What are you reading?"

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being."

That sounded a little pretentious for him so I peeked at a page and read a few lines. "That's Harry Potter," I said, calling him out on the lie. I'd read the book to Gracie more than once, or I should say Gracie read it to me, so I was very familiar with wizard and his friends.

Zip laughed. "Yeah alright, I couldn't get through the other book so I'm reading this one. Gracie said it would change my life."

Our daughter said things like that a lot. If she wasn't so smart I would say she didn't know what that even means but she understands more than I do most of the time. About everything.

"And has it?" I asked my husband.

"Not yet, but I do think I need some more practice wielding my magic wand." He turned his head and caught my lips with his in a slow kiss. My own wand morphed into a rigid length of solid oak at the touch of his tongue and Zip dropped the instantly forgotten book onto the mattress before rolling his muscled frame on top of mine.

He used his knees to push my thighs apart and fell snugly between them. "Practice does make perfect," I managed to say before his mouth was on mine again. Though he'd mastered that particular skill a long time ago, I was more than willing to be a guinea pig.

A small knock sounded, halting the practice session. "Did you lock the door?" He whispered against my lips. Even after the unfortunate incident where we learned it was best to make sure the door was locked and Gracie learned she should always knock before entering any room with a closed door, we still panicked slightly that she'd catch us in the act again.

"Yes, and she was asleep ten minutes ago."

Zip sighed and lifted his head. "What is it, Munchkin?" He called loudly so she could hear him through all the soundproofing. "You're supposed to be sleeping."

"Are you decent?" She called back wryly and Zip lifted an eyebrow.

"What a little smart-ass and we are definitely not decent enough for five-year-old eyes," he said and rolled off me, reaching for the pants draped over the chair next to the bed. We'd learned to keep clothes close by as soon as she was fully mobile and running around the house on her own.

We'd also learned pretty early on our daughter was not a normal kid. She was speaking in complete sentences before she was two and by the time she was three she was reading books and had decided she wanted to learn to play the piano. We got her one for her birthday and for her fourth birthday she asked for a library, which we added on to the living room down stairs and now that she was almost five, she announced she wanted to be a dancer so we are building her a dance studio in the back yard.

It's been a challenge having a kid smarter than both of us but we're managing. The special school for gifted children is obscenely expensive but worth every penny. Keeping the little genius from getting bored was more than we could handle on our own.

"Something's wrong," she replied back to Zip's question and the words had me up and getting dressed as well. Gracie had unbelievable instincts and while most parents would probably chalk up a statement like that to a bad dream or a ploy for attention, it didn't apply to us. When she said something was wrong, something was wrong.

Zip opened the door and swept her tiny frame into his arms. "What makes you say that?" He asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Uncle Michael is here," Gracie announced, meeting my eyes across the room.

A ball of dread dropped in my gut like a stone. "You sure?"

She nodded and added, "I saw him but he didn't see me." Zip was looking at me too and I could see everything I was thinking reflected in his piercing eyes.

"Go," I said, gesturing to the panel on the interior wall next to the master bath. Behind it was the panic room I'd had built soon after we brought Gracie home.

"Hector." I could tell by his voice Zip was torn between the desire to get our daughter to safety and the need to help me with whatever was happening but I needed them both locked behind those thick walls of steel.

"Go," I said again, adding some bite to the tone and it galvanized him into action without another word.

I didn't move an inch until I heard the door snick shut and the bolts engage. Nothing short of a plasma torch and a ton of explosives would be able to penetrate that room and I headed to the gun safe knowing the loves of my life were protected.

After slipping my switch blade into my pocket and grabbing an extra magazine for my Glock, I killed the lights and headed silently down to the first floor.

There was only one reason Michael would have breached security on the house without announcing his presence. I really hoped that part of my past was finally over but it kept coming back to haunt me over and over.

I found him in the mud room off the kitchen peering out the slits in the blinds of the small window in the top of the door. The moonlight shining through the small crevices made the multiple scars on his face seem even whiter than they were. It was a miracle Gracie wasn't terrified of him but the girl, like her Aunt Stephanie, had a way of seeing past the surface to what lay beneath and she adored the damaged man. Once, not long ago, I'd come home and found the two of them in the library. They weren't reading or doing anything at all, not even talking. They simply sat side by side on the huge couch, staring off into the distance. Zip said they'd been sitting that way for over an hour and he didn't want to interrupt whatever it was that was going on. I asked her later what they'd been doing and she said, with a tiny eye roll, "Communicating, Daddy," as if I'd just asked the dumbest question I could possible ask.

"Silently?" I'd replied incredulously and she bobbed her head.

"It's what I like most about him. He says a whole lot of stuff without any words at all."

And that was the truth. Though he'd definitely opened up more over the past couple of years, Michael kept most things buried inside and unless you knew how to read him, his thoughts often remained a mystery. Fortunately, Gracie knew how to look beyond his walls of defense, and so did I. Right now he was in protective mode and if it came to it, he'd die to keep me and my family safe.

"How'd you know I was here?" He asked without turning his sea blue eyes on me.

"Gracie," I replied and that brought his golden head around. An alarming grin spread his lips.

"That kid is quieter than you. I didn't even get a hint of her anywhere." His tone was full of pride and I couldn't help but grin back at him.

"I know. Wonder where she learned those ninja skills?"

"Is a mystery," he intoned with a single eyebrow wag.

Or a building full of very skilled men more than willing to teach her anything she asked. She had the whole lot of them wrapped around her beautiful fingers.

Michael turned back to his window watching without explaining his presence, but then he didn't have to. We both knew why he was there.

"How many?" I asked, fearing the answer.

"Four. Maybe five. Manny and Gabe are out there, double checking."

It didn't happen often, but they still came for me, even after all this time. I'd removed the scheduled surveillance on the house two years ago but Michael still took it upon himself to patrol and right now I was grateful. He'd been the first one to discover them the last effort they'd made as well. That time we'd called Morelli and gotten the police involved. Two of them were still in jail and I was guessing this had more to do with that than with what either I or my brother had done in the past.

I pulled my gun and flipped the safety. "Let's do this," I said, reaching for the switch that disengaged the floor bolt. Someday I would have to ask him how he breached those, though I doubted he'd reveal his secret. Not even Ranger had been able to get past the bolts.

Michael met my eyes and shook his head. "And then what? The police again? They aren't going to stop my friend, not ever. The grudge runs too long and too deep for them to give it up."

I knew he was right but I wasn't ready to contemplate what may be the only permanent solution. "What do you suggest?"

He smiled again, that awful, terrifying smile and said," I suggest you go upstairs, put your weapons away, lock yourself in that room with your gorgeous husband and your beautiful daughter and let me do what I do best."

It was tempting, very much so, but was completely against my nature. I didn't let other people fight my battles.

"It's too much to ask," I tried.

"You didn't ask," he pointed out.

"It's too dangerous."

Michael shook his head making a lock of corn silk hair fall over his forehead. "I don't think there's anything anyone could do that I haven't already endured, brother."

I opened my mouth again to protest further but he cut me off by planting his hands on top of my shoulders and saying more than I've ever heard him say at one time...out loud, anyway.

"There aren't many people I care about...or who care about me, but you and your family are on that list and I will do everything I can to make sure you stay there. I respect the hell out of you and your choices but this needs to be done and you know I can do it without leaving a single trace." He took a small, quiet breath before finishing with what I knew to be the truth.

"At some point I will stop asking."

He'd hinted at it before and I'd always shut him down but this time he was deliberate with his intentions and I knew I'd never be able to stop him when he decided to take control.

I tucked my gun into the small of my back and then with only a single nod of my head, Michael was out the door to begin his self-imposed mission. I wanted to say a hundred things to him but we both knew no words would change anything. Though he'd come a long way from the day we met on the roof of Rangeman, the day we'd almost killed each other, there were parts of his soul too mangled to repair...so I let him go and could only hope he'd return unharmed.

With a heavy heart I climbed the stairs and made my way to the room behind the wall where my entire life waited for me.

Gracie had fallen asleep curled against Zip's chest, her long dark hair spilling across his golden skin, in the small bed pushed into the corner of the room. It wasn't really big enough for three people but I crawled in anyway and wrapped my arms around them both.

"Hec?" Zip whispered, trying to keep Grace asleep. The questions burning in his eyes demanded answers but I shook my head. I would tell him later, of course, but for now this was enough, being here, warm and safe with my family in my arms.


AN: Thank you LilyGhost for the photo that prompted the first paragraph. :)