Page 312 of Innocent

“What if he marries you?”

“What?”

“What if Elliot marries you?”

It takes him forever to answer. “I don’t want to get my hopes, baby. If he ever decides to marry me, then it won’t matter what Stella tries, because that’s the only thing anyone will ever have on him. The pet’s honest. He’s never done anything he can be dinged for. Grace’s lie would’ve worked because of their family history, but there’s no one else with that kind of tie to him.”

He makes me look at him. “Don’t try to manipulate him into marrying me. If we can keep him safe for the next four to eight years, maybe he’ll finally de-ass his head on his own.”

“Promisemesomething, Daddy.”

“I’ll try.”

I sit up. “Promise me if you think it’s going to come down to…” I swallow. “Tellme. Give me a chance to move him off his fear and propose to youfirst. Let me try to make a change somewhere to make it unnecessary.Please?”

He sits up, too. “I told you, I won’t ever force him to marry me. Manipulating him’s the same thing. You and I both know we can ‘make’ him do anything we want. And you know I won’t do that to him.”

“Justpromiseme. Give me achance. Please?”

“I don’t think it’ll come to that. If it does…” His gaze drops. “Yes. I will.”

That’s the first time Leo’s ever outright lied to me, that I’m aware of.

I won’t call him on it, either, because I know his heart.

I know his love.

Weare his heart and his love, Elliot and I. We are his world. He will never sacrifice either of us.

He willalwayssacrifice himself to protect us. Because he always has in the past, even when I didn’t look at it in the proper context.

Now I know what I have to do.

I either need to coax Elliot into marrying Leo as soon as possible…

Or I need to figure out how to get rid of Elliot’s sister, so Leo doesn’t take the fall for it.

Because I’ve walked away from enough in my life.

I walked away from church and God.

I walked away from my parents and my home.

I walked away from Tallahassee and my master’s degree, and what had been my previous dream career.

I walked away from Leo once already, and the chance to take him from Elliot and marry him.

I walked away from any hope of ever having a “normal” life by choosing to accept Elliot’s offer to come back.

Like fuckinghellwill I allowanyoneto take this life, or the two men I love, away from me. Not without putting up a goddamned fight.

Because I refuse to go back. I wantthislife, and I wantthesetwo men.

I will gladly sashay my ass into the flames of Hell with a smile on my face every step of the way to protect the men I love. Even Satan himself won’t fucking know what to do with me.

They all think I’m innocent.

They’re wrong.

And if they think I’ll let anything happen to Elliot or Leo?

They ain’t seennothingyet.

The End