Page 29 of The Sinner’s Touch (Manwhore #2)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
He couldn’t just waltz back into her life—no, force himself back into her life—using his badge and her status as a witness and tell her everything she believed all these years wasn’t true. Did he expect her to forgive him and carry on where they left off like nothing had happened?
And to say he’d looked for her? Sure, he might not have been an FBI agent yet, but he had been a police officer. He could have found her if he really wanted to.
The real question was whether she would have listened to him back then. As raw and new as the pain of losing her baby and her brother within hours of each other was, she seriously doubted it. The honest truth was she would have spit in his face and walked away.
She wasn’t that same young girl. She’d grown up a lot, and she understood there were mitigating circumstances.
The cartel Peter worked for was vicious.
Everyone in Miami knew who they were. Angel had no doubt they would have come after her just to spite Peter and Kade.
Could she fault Kade for doing what he’d done?
Would she have done the same thing if their roles had been reversed?
To protect him? Yes. She’d have done exactly that.
But what she wouldn’t have done was give up on trying to find him once the danger passed. She’d have searched and used every resource available to her until she’d tracked him down. That was what she couldn’t reconcile herself with. He’d given up, stopped looking for her.
And now he expected her to forgive and forget? He was fucked if that was what he thought.
She scrubbed harder at the orange-red stain on Nikoli’s couch, taking her anger out on the poor cushion. How could he assume he could drop the bomb of the century in her lap, kiss her senseless, and then just disappear? This deserved a conversation, dammit.
Bastard.
The key turned in the lock, and she looked up to see Lily come through the door followed by Nikoli and who she could only assume was Dimitri. Kade said he was coming. Tall, dark, and broody, just like Kade. He had the Kincaids’ signature onyx eyes too. Why the hell did they all have to be gorgeous?
“Angel?” Nik took his jacket off and tossed it on the back of the couch. “What are you doing?”
“Cleaning up Kade’s mess,” she grouched and scrubbed harder.
Nikoli squatted beside her and put his hand over hers. “I think it’s as clean as it’s going to get.”
“He ruined it.” She let Nikoli take the sponge. “I was trying to fix it, but why should I fix what he ruined? He’s always screwing up, and then he expects me to forgive him.”
“Okay.” Nikoli glanced behind him. “I take it my brother did something to upset you?”
“When doesn’t he do something to upset me?” Angel stood and stalked over to the kitchen and found a dish towel to dry her hands.
“Where is Kade?” Nikoli’s voice was calm, almost soothing. Angel narrowed her eyes. She got the feeling Nikoli was trying to manage her, like she was some crazy person making no sense.
“In the office. He got a call from that detective last night, and he’s been in there ever since.”
“I’m going to go tell him Viktor’s here.”
“Viktor?” Angel frowned. “He said Dimitri was coming. He never said anything about Viktor.”
“Dimitri?” Nikoli sounded surprised. He probably didn’t know, but then Kade did seem to have a bad habit of forgetting to mention important details to people. She tossed the dish towel on the counter with more force than necessary. It went skidding across the island to land at Nikoli’s feet.
“Damn, girl, he’s really pissed you off, hasn’t he?” Viktor asked, coming to stand beside Nikoli. “I hope you didn’t let him get away with shit.”
Her lips pursed. “He’s hiding in the office.”
“Hiding?” Viktor quirked an eyebrow in question. “What makes you think he’s hiding?”
“He got the call from Bailey at one-ish last night. It’s now after ten in the morning. What would you call that?”
“Did you two have a fight or something?” Lily asked, coming into the kitchen.
“We talked.” Her tone grew darker. “Then he barricaded himself in the office under the guise of work.”
“I’m just gonna go get him, then.” Nikoli made a face and retreated to the hallway.
“I’m Viktor.” The man’s Russian accent was much thicker than Kade’s or Nikoli’s. She remembered he said something yesterday about having just returned from Russia. Maybe his accent thickened after spending time in the country where he grew up.
“I know.” The surly reply only made him laugh, which served to heighten Angel’s ire. She was not in the mood to deal with more than one Kincaid brother this morning.
“You are a prickly one, sestra .”
Lily poured herself a cup of coffee. “Do either of you want some coffee?”
Nikoli came back out, grinning. “He’s sound asleep.”
“Asleep?” Angel couldn’t believe it. He went in the office and went to sleep when she’d been up all night agonizing over his little bombshell. “He’s fucking sleeping?”
Nikoli’s eyes widened when she yanked open the fridge door and took out an ice cold bottle of water. He was on her heels when she marched down to the office where Kade was sprawled out in the desk chair, head hanging to the side, feet propped up on the desk. And snoring.
The fucker was snoring!
She opened the water then turned it upside down right over his face. He came awake spluttering, and she continued to pour it on him until every last bit was gone.
“What the hell, Angel?”
“Good morning, husband dearest.” She smiled her nastiest smile, the one she reserved for customers who thought she was a hooker back in her stripping days. “While you were in here sleeping, I had all the time in the word to think about everything.”
Kade stood, alarmed, completely ignoring the water dripping down his face. He knew that sugary sweet tone. It meant trouble for him. “Angel, I know you’re pissed…”
“Oh, no, darling husband, I’m not pissed.” She smiled, but it was nothing but teeth. “I’m so far beyond pissed, you’re lucky you still have your balls attached.”
Shit, she was mad. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep.
He’d been on the phone with Bailey. They’d found the girl who’d been taken.
The one who looked like Angel. They’d all agreed it was better for Jeremy to take the lead and for Kade to keep an eye on his wife.
They’d keep him updated and only call him in if it was necessary.
The unsub had sped up his timeline. It could only mean he was starting to unravel, that he’d make another mistake soon.
No one wanted that mistake to be at Angel’s expense.
After he hung up with Bailey, he’d closed his eyes for two seconds then woke up to a face full of ice water.
“I’m sorry I fell asleep.” He wiped the water out of his eyes. “I didn’t mean to…”
“But you never mean to, do you, Kincaid?” Her green eyes were spitting fire.
“You didn’t mean to make me love you, you didn’t mean to knock me up, you didn’t mean for the baby to die, you didn’t mean for Peter to die, you didn’t mean any of it, did you?
Well, how about not looking for me? Did you mean to look harder, to track me down?
No, you went on about your fucking life and forgot all about me.
That’s what you told Barney, wasn’t it? You forgot you were married. ”
“Bailey,” he corrected her.
She shot him a glare. “Whatever.”
“Angel, if you just calm down…”
“Oh, I am calm.” She tossed the empty bottle on the desk. “And right now, if I have to look at you a second longer, I am going to do you serious physical harm.” She turned and pushed past Nikoli and Viktor, who were staring at them, open-mouthed.
“You’re fucked,” Viktor said as he watched her disappear down the hall toward the main room.
Kade sank back down in the desk chair. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“She’s a firecracker.” Viktor sat in one of the chairs facing the desk, and Nik took the other. “So, you want to tell us what’s going on?”
Kade snorted at Viktor’s mild tone. The man was dying of curiosity and trying to conceal it to weasel information out of Kade. He knew his tricks.
“Met a girl. Knocked her up. Married the girl. Busted her brother on drug charges, and it all went downhill from there.”
“She lost the baby?” Kade’s attention swiveled to Nikoli. Kade didn’t quite know how to describe the expression on his brother’s face. It worried him a little.
“Yes. I thought she’d be out of the house by the time the police arrived, but she hadn’t left yet.
When they broke down the door, she got startled and fell down the stairs.
The doctors did what they could, but it was too late.
She was only twenty weeks along. The baby was too little to survive a torn placenta.
” His voice broke at the end, and he sucked in a breath, doing his damnedest not to cry.
The loss of his son still crippled him to this day.
It was why he tried not to think of Matthew.
“I’m sorry, brat .” Viktor shifted in his seat. “Why didn’t you tell us? We could have helped you.”
“It’s a long story.”
Nikoli snarled low. “Long story? You just told us we had a nephew who we would have loved from the second we found out about him. Then you tell us he died, and you didn’t even bother to allow us to grieve with you, let alone for him. Trust me, Kade, we’ve got the time for this story.”
His little brother sounded as pissed off as his wife. Damn, but he’d fucked everything up.
“I’m sorry, Nik. I’m so sorry for everything.” His shoulders slumped, and tears he’d been holding in for so long spilled over. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
“Hey, now, don’t do that.” Nik got up and came to squat beside him.
“I’m angry, man, so fucking angry, but not pissed enough to not understand how much you’re hurting right now.
That’s why I’m mad too. You went through this without us, without your brothers.
We could have helped you. We’d have mourned with you.
I love you, Kade, and I would have loved your son too. ”