Page 72 of Steel

“I’m listening.”

“I don’t just own the defense academy.”

“O-kay . . .”

“My father operates one of the wealthiest vigilante organizations in the country. We rescue people that are victims of kidnapping, abuse, and trafficking. That almost always results in fatalities on the abuser’s end.”

She stared at me, mouth open and eyes wide. “What?”

“My siblings, . . . the ones by my dad, . . . we’re part of the organization. There are several like ours, which is how my dad met my youngest sister’s mom. He has government contracts to keep things under the radar and keep us all out of jail. This city, . . . we own most of it. City officials, the police, . . . most of them work with us.”

“So . . . you’re like a crime family?”

“No. We protect those who can’t protect themselves and those the law refused to protect.”

“But you take lives.”

“I’ve never taken a life that wasn’t deserving of it. My family has taken down pedophile rings, human, and organ traffickers.We’ve saved thousands of men, women, and children from violent deaths and horrible abuse. I’m not ashamed of that, and I will never regret anything I’ve done during my time with the organization. That nigga that touched you at the party, . . . I handled that. Not just because of you, but because he had a history of assaulting women, and he needed to go.”

“You . . . you killed him?”

I nodded. She was quiet as she stared at me with an unreadable expression.

“How-how long have you been doing this?”

“I started officially training at eighteen, but my pops taught us shit my entire life. We can’t officially join until we’re twenty-one.” I looked away from her. “After we broke up, I begged my father to let me in early. I needed something to take my mind off the hurt. School was a distraction, but this was an outlet. I could channel my anger into doing something for a cause.”

She swallowed hard. “This is a lot to take in. I mean a whole lot.”

“I know. Honestly, I wanted to hold on to it until I found the right time to tell you, but there’s never a right time for something like this.”

“I guess we both kept secrets.”

“I guess so.”

There was an awkward silence between us. I didn’t know what to say, and I could tell she didn’t either. We’d finally bared it all. There weren’t any other secrets between us at this point, . . . at least not on my end.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” she said quietly. “Walking away from you was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I thought I was protecting myself and then our child from a fate like mine. I was operating in fear, and I should have talked to you.”

“Knowing what you know now, . . . are you gonna take her away from me again? I’m a dangerous man, but I’m no dangerto her. I love her, Neha. Now that she’s here, I can’t go the rest of my life without her. That would fucking kill me. I can’t live without my kids.”

She was quiet for a moment. “I don’t like it, but I won’t take her from you again. I know you love her, and it’s very clear that she loves you too. My intent was never to be selfish. It was only to protect her the way my mother couldn’t protect me or Dinah. She tried, but you don’t know what it was like in that house. I was in therapy for years following the abuse.”

“I just wish you’d talked to me. We used to talk about everything. I would have carried that pain with you, Neha. I was your man, and it was my job to make sure you were safe, . . . even from me.”

She hung her head and played with her nails. “I know.”

“What the hell are you doing here anyway?”

She sighed. “I lost my job back home. My supervisor recommended me for my current position. It paid more, and I still got to do what I loved, but I had to relocate. So I packed up, moved here with Nayelli and my sister, bought a house, and started over. I knew it was a risk knowing that this was your hometown, but I didn’t know if you were still here. Honestly, I needed this job, so I just told myself I’d deal with it if our paths crossed. When I didn’t see you, I thought I was in the clear.”

I chuckled. “Then you almost backed into me. You jumped out of that car like you were gonna do some shit.”

She giggled. “I was about to curse you out. You saw me back out and kept driving.”

“You saw me driving and kept backing out.”

We stared at each other for a moment before sharing a laugh. The tension between us felt like it was lifting.