Page 10

Jay is waiting on me on the other side of the yellow tape Andrew’s team has placed around the perimeter of the property, which some fool placed with a wide as fuck girth. I had to walk a freaking mile to duck under the tape.

“Why are you bundled up like an Eskimo?” I ask, referencing the huge-ass puffer jacket he’s presently wearing. “And why is it orange and shiny?”

“Easier for you to find me, which we both know is always your priority. Some guy gave it to me. He wouldn’t give me an official jacket. Just you.” He hands me a black jacket that I can tell has some sort of police logo on it, and it’s actually cold enough despite my joking that I accept. “Aren’t you a smartass tonight?” I ask, not wanting an answer, as I slide into the jacket.

“You heard?” he asks, and, of course, I know what he means.

“I heard,” I say, and I start moving toward the gate. “Where is he?”

“Just outside the gate,” he says, confirming I’m headed the right direction. “And it’s not good, Lilah. He’s not good. He looks like stone that’s somehow caught fire.”

“That’s normal for Kane, Jay.”

“There’s nothing normal about that man on a good day. Today makes normal levels of ‘not normal’ look normal. Is this about his father? Is war brewing?”

I halt and face him, lifting a finger as I do. “Calm down. Kane can handle his father.”

“Can he? He showed up at the building, at your home . My job is to protect you. I need to know what the fuck is going on.”

My brow lifts. “Did you really say fuck?”

“I’m not the boy scout you act like I am.”

“Not anymore. You’ve been hanging out with me too much.”

“Maybe I haven’t been hanging out with you enough. I can handle the shit going on if I know how deep we’re going to stick our feet to get to the other side.” His voice is one octave above average, and I can all but feel his heart thundering in his chest.

Roberto’s return has everyone on our team rattled, and Jay’s showing it. No, I think, amending that thought. Enrique is as well. That’s why he’s overreacting to my normal fucked-up life. The operative word, as Jay has pointed out, being our version of ‘normal.’ “If Roberto wanted to kill me,” I reason, “he would have approached our encounter in a different way. That back there was a game of intimidation, and he lost the game. Now, set that bastard aside and make yourself useful. Go to a diner and get me another pie, then whip on over to the grocery store and grab chocolate and a bag of Lay’s potato chips. A girl can’t live on all sugar. And water. I need to do something healthy for my body tonight.”

“You’re sending me to the store, Lilah? Really? I’m not your housekeeper.”

“Which is why I am not asking you to scrub my toilet. That would be inappropriate and rude. And I never want to be those things to you, Jay.” I grab his arm and squeeze. “Go, please. You need to step back and breathe a minute. If you don’t want to run the errands, get in the truck and wait on me.”

“I’ll wait. I’ll DoorDash all your stuff while I’m in the truck.”

“Way to be resourceful,” I approve.

There’s a glint of suspicion in his eyes. “What happened to the other pie?”

“Ghost took it,” I say. “Which is why you should get in the truck.”

“Ghost was here?”

“Yes. Ghost was here.”

“And Kane knows?”

“Because my dumbass brother told him.”

For a Mexican, he’s really damn white right now. “Is he still here?”

“I doubt it, and I wouldn’t fret much either way. He knows I’ll kill him if he kills you.”

“Then I’d be dead, Lilah,” he points out.

“Maybe you should go get that pie.”

“I’m escorting you to Kane.”

“Okay, hero. Have it your way.” I start walking.

He falls into step with me, and for once, his lips are sealed while his hand is on his weapon, as if he’d ever get the chance to see Ghost before he killed him. But Jay’s focused, just the way I like him, and I won’t tease him out of the behavior I’m trying to train into him. Or beat. I’ll beat it into him before I let him die.

We reach the gate, and I spy a black SUV I’m certain to be Kane’s transportation. “Stay here,” I order, but even as I pull away from him, I can feel Jay at my back, lingering and watching, worried about me. I just can’t seem to scare that man off. I can scare him. Just not off.

I round the corner to find Kane leaning on the SUV, with Kit next to him. A splash of relief washes over me, just seeing him alive and well, but anger crushes tenderness, and my wrath will soon be his hell. Today has been about secrets. Defiant secrets that conflict with who we were supposed to be at this point in our relationship, in our marriage.

The minute Kit spies me, he pushes off the vehicle and walks toward the rear. Smart man, avoiding a death sentence, at least for the moment, depending on what role he played in whatever bullshit Kane’s not just plotted but acted on. The bullshit he knew I wouldn’t approve of. He took the ‘sin and ask for forgiveness later’ strategy, which is a good way to get divorced or dead.

Because there is no doubt he’s been busy creating new enemies when we’re already swimming in a sea of monsters.

I head his direction, and he stares at me, watching every step I take, doing so with the intensity of a man who can kill as easily as he can make passionate love to me. He’s unreadable and unbelievably bold for coming here tonight.

He’s also left the suit behind for black jeans and a black sweater, and despite the bitter cold, he hasn’t bothered with a coat. He looks wholly male and arrogantly in control. Good thing he has me to remind him he is not . I close the space between us, ready for battle, but the minute I’m in front of him, his hands are on my waist, and I’m pulled hard against him.

“What the fuck are you doing, woman ? My father and Ghost in one day?” His voice, his eyes, level me with his torment.

His love for me, his fear and worry, punch at me as surely as do his sins. Sometimes I’m reminded I’m human, and those times are always with Kane. I both love that about us and hate it, too. My body softens, and I relax against him, my hand on his hard chest, the beat of his heart thundering beneath my palm. “I didn’t come to them. They came to me.”

He catches my shoulders and eases me back to meet his stare. “Tell me.”

That soft command hardens me. Oh yes, it does. He dares demand answers when he gives me none, avoids me plenty, and knows damn well, just as I do, it’s for the wrong reasons. He knows he did something today I won’t approve of, now or ever. “Tell you what, Kane, you and your fucking secrets today say you don’t have the right to do anything but apologize before and after you explain yourself.”

“I won’t apologize for doing what I need to do to protect you, Lilah.”

I shove out of his arms, and I’m back to pointing, this time at the man of my dreams and nightmares. “Do not even try that bullshit with me, Kane. I can protect myself, as you well know. And we talked about this. I won’t live in a world of secrets, no matter how hard the truth is.”

He just stares at me, the glint in his eyes just what Jay said—stone and fire. “What happened with Ghost?”

“Not here. None of this is happening here. I have to go back inside and manage the crime scene.”

He pushes off the vehicle and instantly closes the minute space I’ve placed between us, but he’s smart enough not to touch me, or he’d have a knee to bend him over right now. “What happened with Ghost?”

“He’s going after Mark Walker’s sister, who assassinated Murphy. It’s a game to him. Who gets there first.”

“Ghost doesn’t play games.”

“He must be bored. What did you do today, Kane?”

“What you suggested, bella. I found a way to control my father.”

Now it’s my turn to command him. “Tell me.”

And his turn to show his defiance. “No.”

“No?”

“No, Lilah.”

Fury bubbles inside me, and betrayal knives me from within. “That breaks our vows to each other.” I jerk hard on my arm and put my own wide girth between us before I say, “I won’t be home tonight.” With that, I turn and start walking.

“I’ll be wherever you are.”

I don’t turn. I don’t humor his arrogance. He can try to find me. He’ll fail. Just as he failed to keep his secret. He smells of cigars, exactly the brand the patriarch of the Italian mob smelled of when Kane tied him up in my garage.