Change of Heart by T. J. Kline Read Free Book Online Page B

would gain brief glimpses of genuineness, especially when she talked about her past, and he could see remorse break through.
    There were little comments that caused Leah’s eyes to shutter, her face to become shadowed and bleak, like a dark cloud passed overhead, but at least it was a real emotion. It wasn’t difficult to tell that something had happened to her, something that had shaped her as much as his own bleak past had shaped him and the choices he’d made, as well as the mistakes.
    Gage had seen far more in her expression than she’d want to believe she revealed, and maybe it was only because of his own past that he could see it. After growing up with a father who was in a drunken stupor more than he was sober, then watching his mother waste away as cancer ravaged her body, he recognized her ability to hide the trials and to try to minimize what had forced her to become the cynical person he’d met. He also didn’t miss the pain that flickered in her whiskey-colored eyes when she’d mentioned others trying to break through to her.
    She might deny the possibility, but he saw the brokenness inside. He’d seen it in his brother after he’d survived his last tour, the one that had returned him home from Afghanistan with physical and emotional wounds, some of which were still healing.
    He saw the same haunted pain in Leah’s eyes. She had fought a war of her own and was trying to hide it. It explained so many of her reactions, and overreactions. Gage slumped into the leather couch in the center of the cabin living space and rubbed a hand over his eyes. Or he was reading far too much into things and she was just a bitch.
    But he didn’t think so.
    His cell phone rang from the kitchen counter where he’d left it, and Gage rose with a sigh. Glancing at the screen, he saw his partner’s number, dragging him back to his own problems and his own dire circumstances. He thought about declining the call again, but ignoring the issue wasn’t making it any better. It was simply making his partners more adamant about reaching him. He couldn’t continue to avoid them forever.
    Before he could change his mind, Gage swiped his finger across the screen. “Hey, Georgie.”
    “Gage, where the hell are you?”
    “I told you I was coming to visit my brother and his family for a while.”
    “You screwed up and then left us to deal with the media frenzy that followed, not to mention the lawsuits coming in right and left. You’re the face of this company, you should be the one doing these news conferences.”
    The pulse in his temple pounded, and Gage felt the tension build in his shoulders. George wasn’t wrong. The two of them had built this company from scratch, starting with a few small software programs in college and expanding until they’d practically formed a security software empire. Until last year.
    “George, we both know you’re not doing the news conferences either, so don’t try to bullshit me. That’s why we hired good lawyers.” He sighed. “And now that two of the companies have settled out of court, they’re all going to follow suit.”
    “And what’s that going to cost us? Masters and Cooper are going nuts right now. They want your head, Gage, and I can only hold them off for so long. You can’t just skip out on this. This isn’t like you.” His voice sounded desperate, pleading.
    They’d known each other long enough for George to tell there was far more to this than just Gage running away. He was hiding like a coward, afraid to admit to this mistake, let alone confess it to the world. As long as he remained out of sight, Gage could let someone else remedy the situation, and once the worst blew over, he could return to face the reality, or not.
    “I’m sure they do, but they’re going to have to wait until I get back.”
    “And when will that be?”
    “A few weeks.”
    “Weeks?” George cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, it sounded like you said a few weeks. I know that can’t be