Page 39 of Blake

Taking her first deep breath since her mother had called, Pax felt the shudder run through her as he held her tightly not letting her go or pulling back. He gave her what she needed kissing her hair. When she had gotten her emotions under control, she took a last calming breath and pulled back. “Did you find anything?”

Blake shook his head “No, whoever it was is long gone.” He stroked her cheek softly the pad of his fingers slightly rough. “You want to go to the hospital?” he asked as if he sensed the inner struggle she was having. Pax nodded not able to voice the words to explain her messed up feelings towards her father.

Blake nodded and kissed her head. “Get yourself ready then and let me talk to the guys.”

Pax frowned. “What about the investigation?”

“The guys can carry on as before and when we’ve visited your father, we can reassess and decide if we’re still going to visit Sally Nixon or Waggs goes to see her instead.”

That made sense to her. Once she knew her dad was okay—or not—then she could figure out this mess with Blake’s help. She didn’t allow herself to go down that path of her father dying, she didn’t even know how to feel about that. Yet she did. The pain in her chest told her how she would feel about him dying. Her hand flexed against Blake’s bicep and he looked at her as if he somehow knew how she was feeling. His smile was one of reassurance that left her incredibly grateful that he was here, but his eyes filled her with warmth and a sense of protection came over her she’d never felt.

She looked up at the serious men who were talking across the other side of the room near the sliding glass doors trying to compose herself. These men, all of them, were here for her and suddenly it hit her like a truck that she was not alone. For the first time in forever she was allowing people to help her and not pushing them away believing that she wasn’t good enough.

Blake ran his hand to the back of her neck and pulled her closer, so she stood hip to toe with his hard body. He gave the back of her neck a gentle squeeze as he dropped his voice low. “You good, baby?”

Pax took in the softness of his voice, the heat from his body and nodded. “Yeah. I am.” And she was because he was there, and he was reading her mood and giving her what she needed.

He didn’t pull away but dropped his forehead to hers. “That’s good, Gracie.” He let her hold him for a few moments before he gently pulled back and eyes locked to hers kissed her softly just a touch really but enough to ground her in a way she needed. “Go get yourself ready and then we can go.”

“Okay, Cal,” she returned.

She headed to the bedroom and closed the door behind her before quickly pulling on a pair of ripped skinny jeans, a sleeveless cream blouse, and shrugging on a khaki military style jacket. She put her hair in a messy top knot and kept her make-up light to save time. While getting ready she didn’t once think about what her mother might think. No, her only thoughts were about the man who was trying to fix this situation with her. Her feet slid into khaki stilettos that made her legs look ridiculously long, and she grabbed her oversized navy bag and shoved a few essentials into it before she stepped out.

Blake’s head snapped up as she closed the door and Pax saw him do a head to toe before a seriously sexy smile crossed his handsome face.

Not letting it show how much that pleased her she walked directly to him where he was now standing with the others. Wanting to show him how much his support meant she didn’t hesitate to slip under his arm that automatically came around her as if they had been doing it for a long time and not just a week.

That was the thing with them, it felt right in a way nothing else had. Not even her relationship with her family had been this way. She loved her parents, but she was coming to realise she didn’t like them. Her father had hurt her, breaking her heart in a way that it would never be the same yet that was okay. She knew that what she had now would never have come to be without that heartbreak, and for the first time, she saw that.

Her mother was different; they had never fallen out as such, but they had also never been close, not how a mother and daughter should be. Ever since she had become a teenager her mother had been jealous of her, making remarks that put her down or made her feel smaller than her and not worthy.

It hurt but she’d been able to handle that so much better than what her father had done. It hadn’t always been that way. When she was a child her mother had been wonderful. Never the cookie making kind but fun and sweet. Everything had changed when she had been around thirteen.

Pax shook off her thoughts as Blake and the others resumed their discussion. “I don’t want you guys anywhere near the hospital. It will slow shit up if we have to find a different way to interview everyone.”

Reid pushed back a hank of hair that had fallen over his eyes. “We should get Lopez doing background checks on everyone, including Benny’s biological father. See if anything pops.”

Blake nodded. “Good call. Can you do that, Decker?”

Pax found it odd that he’d asked Decker when Reid had been the one to suggest it. She was about to shove it off as how they did things when she saw Reid’s jaw tighten angrily. He kept quiet and so did everyone else.

“Yes, of course,” Decker replied hitting a speed dial button on his phone and walking a short distance away. It was close to midnight now, but in the UK, it was around eight in the morning.

Blake gave her a light squeeze to get her attention. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” she answered knowing that she had been stalling a little. She wanted to go see her father, but she was also terrified of what she would find.

Blake nodded and led her to the door with Waggs and Reid covering them. They made it to the car park, and she saw a shiny black Chrysler sedan waiting for them. Waggs clicked the locks and handed the keys to Blake. “Be in touch in a few hours or before if we have anything to tell.”

“Cheers, Waggs.”

Blake helped her in and crossed to the driver’s side and got in, clipping his belt before resting his arm on her headrest. He turned to look over his shoulder as he reversed out. Something about him doing that was incredibly sexy.

Pax had no idea what it was, but she found it turned her on more than it should. A smile curved her lips and she looked out the window to hide it, she needn’t have bothered though because Blake missed nothing.

“What was that smirk for?” His eyes slipped to hers before concentrating back on the road. It was just over an hour to St Vincent’s from where they were. Luckily, they would miss any traffic at this time so she figured they could make it in about forty-five minutes.

Pax continued to look out the window and decided to toy with him to distract them from the shitty situation she had gotten them in. “What smirk?”