Page 23 of Keeping Kasey (Love and Blood #3)

She takes a bite and proceeds to talk through it in the most unladylike way, and I cannot possibly explain why I’m still so charmed by this woman. “Just your brothers?”

I nod. “Elise had a more sheltered upbringing than the rest of us.”

“Why? I mean, shouldn’t she have been raised as a mafia princess ? That’s a thing, right?”

I eat while I think about how I want to answer. I’ve only just learned some of this myself, and the idea of sharing it with Kasey feels a lot like making myself vulnerable.

I’m sure if she wanted to, she could find the answers for herself, but when she looks at me with those blue eyes shining with curiosity, I want to tell her.

“My dad was a stickler for tradition—except when it came to Elise. Growing up, I thought it was because she was a girl, and without our mom around, he didn’t know what to do with her. It wasn’t until after he died that I figured out the truth.”

I look up, expecting Kasey’s usual taunting expression, but there’s only a gentle interest.

It’s oddly reassuring, so I go on.

“What all do you know about my mother?” I ask.

Her expression remains neutral. “She was abducted… and murdered.”

“Turns out my father told them to do it. He let them kill his wife to avoid giving in to what he considered a weakness . He told everyone they did it unprovoked when, really, he just refused to trade his pride for her.”

It kills me that I spent most of my life believing the lies my father fed me.

I should’ve questioned why the Venturis would murder my mother without cause or reason.

I don’t regret many things in my life—I’m proud of who I am and what I do—but I regret, more than anything, that I took my father’s word as law.

The silence between Kasey and me is heavy, and I appreciate that she doesn’t bother with any words of comfort. They’d be wasted anyway.

“Looking back,” I continue, “I think my dad’s attempt at giving Elise a normal life was his way of atoning for what he did to our mom.”

“Seems like things turned out just fine for her,” Kasey notes, and the taunting edge returns to her smile. For once, I’m glad to see it there.

“Yet to be determined,” I grumble.

Kasey’s snort of laughter fills my chest with a feeling I can’t put words to, but I want more of it.

“What about you?” I ask.

She cocks her head to one side.

“I’ve never heard you talk about your family.”

“First, a romantic dinner, and now you want to meet my family? This is moving awfully fast.”

“Come on, beautiful. You know everything about my family. The least you can do is give me an overview of yours.”

Kasey’s cheeks redden, and her smile falls.

She sets the sliver of taco she hasn’t eaten down on the foil wrap and looks around, like maybe something will cut into our conversation so she won’t have to answer. But nothing does, and after several seconds, she sighs.

“I don’t talk about my family because I don’t have one.”

“Everyone has a family.”

Kasey picks at a jagged divot in the picnic table, and it’s the first time I’ve seen her fidget. It’s probably a sign that I should backtrack, but I don’t.

I want her vulnerability.

I get her fire, her fight, her snark, and even her body—but I want this, too.

“I’m an only child,” she finally says.

“Shocker,” I mutter, and her small smile makes my chest fill with that same euphoric feeling.

“My mom had a normal job at a law firm, but my dad was a cyber intelligence specialist for a government program that doesn’t technically ‘ exist ,’” she says, using air quotations for the last word.

“He loved what he did, and he loved watching me fall in love with it, too. He died when I was fifteen.”

Just two years older than I was when my mother was killed.

It’s something I wish we didn’t have in common.

“Whether he learned something he shouldn’t have or did something he shouldn’t, I still have no idea.

All I know for sure is that his death wasn’t an accident.

Mom got paranoid after that. She took every electronic device out of the house and banned me from doing any hacking whatsoever.

Now that I’m older, I can understand why she did it, but I was just a teenager.

All I knew was that my dad was dead, and my mom was smothering me. ”

Kasey takes a sip of her drink, and when nothing comes through the straw, I slide my drink toward her. She nods in thanks before continuing.

“At that point, hacking wasn’t just a hobby to me—it was me. So, I hid it from my mom, but she found me out a year later. I had already forged the documentation and stashed enough money to live on my own, so I threatened to leave if she didn’t let me keep doing it.”

Kasey swallows and looks past me, people-watching to avoid meeting my eye.

“She gave me her suitcase and told me to go. Said that she’d rather mourn me now than watch me follow in my dad’s footsteps.” She smiles, but it doesn’t touch her eyes. “So, I did. At sixteen, I got an apartment, started working as a contractor, adopted Kane, and I’ve been just fine on my own.”

Just fine.

I wonder if she actually believes that.

“Do you still talk to her?”

“Once or twice a year. She remarried a few years after I left to a man with three daughters, and she made them her whole world. Last I heard, they were moving into an RV and homeschooling the girls for a year to travel the country.” Kasey shrugs.

“The Mom I knew couldn’t place ten of the fifty states, and once said that homeschooling was a form of child abuse. I guess people change.”

Kasey still won’t meet my gaze, but that’s fine by me. I doubt I’m doing a very good job at disguising the contempt her words inspire.

Her mother—her only family—kicked her out and hit the reset button.

Kasey watched from afar as the one person who was supposed to love and protect her chose to start over with a new husband and finally be the devoted mother that she deserved.

It makes me think there’s more to her introversion than just not liking people. If her own mother could abandon her so easily, how could she trust anyone else to stay?

By the time we get to my hotel room—hand in hand—our usually playful mood is replaced by something heavier.

Something intimate.

When I lay Kasey on my bed, all our clothes scattered on the floor, she’s not only the fiery beauty that drives me insane every day.

She’s a daughter who learned to live in loneliness.

She’s a girl who fell in love with computers to avoid rejection.

She’s a woman who built walls of wit and sarcasm to protect herself from being hurt again.

But most importantly, she’s something I very much wish to keep.