Page 67 of The Betrayal You Serve

"I need to leave."

Pushing to stand, my legs don't feel as if they're going to support me, let alone get me to the door or my car.

"No, please. There's more. Please just hear me out."

I turn my back on him and walk around the chair on weak legs as he continues to beg.

"Why, Kane? Give me one good reason why I should listen to any of this. All you've done all my life is fuck me over. Again and again. And this is just another one of those—"

"Because I'm in love with you."

Thank fuck I'm near a wall because I swear to God, if I didn't reach for it in that moment then I'd be on the floor.

"No," I whisper, refusing to hear the words, let alone accept them. "You hate me and that's how it should be. We're a disaster, Kane. All we do is hurt each other. This isn't l-love, it's a fucking nightmare."

My chest aches more with every word that spills from my lips.

"You're lying," he breathes, his body heat beginning to warm my back.

His fingers gently stroke down my arm until he twists them with mine.

"You're lying, Let. This is more and you know it. I know you feel it too."

His hot breath tickles over my neck as he talks and it sends a shiver racing down my spine.

"Victor set her up to make me fall for her, to keep me. He knew I was going to walk and he tried to use her against me. That's why she said she was pregnant. She's not. I've seen copies of her medical records which prove she can't even conceive."

I swallow down the messy lump of emotion that's clogging my throat.

"H-he's not going to let you go, Kane."

"He will but it's going to cost me my future." His lips brush the shell of my ear as he talks. "Before the game, I called him. Told him it was over. Told him he could pull all his favors, football, college, a place to live. All of it."

I suck in a sharp breath at his confession.

"He won't."

"He will. I've got something important to one of his men. He lets me go or I'll deliver Alana back in parts."

My entire body tenses at his words. I don't want to believe he would, but the venom in his voice as he says it makes me believe him.

"How is she important? Her husband doesn't even sleep with her?" I know it's the least of my worries right now but I need to try to focus on something other than the feeling of his body pressed against mine.

"That's not for you to worry about. All you need to know is that she's important enough to set me free."

I drop my head for a second, letting his words register in my mind.

He allows me the silence just standing behind me with my hand firmly in his.

"But… but what will you do?" I ask, my head spinning with everything he's just told me.

"I don't know," he answers honestly, his fingers squeezing mine tighter. "I don't care as long as I have you."

My breathing falters as I hear his words.

"Kane," I breathe. "You can't give everything up."

"I'm not. I'm choosing."