32. Kane
THIRTY-TWO
KANE
“She’s fuckin’ cute, man,” River said where we were gathered around the barbecue, in a spot where we were able to keep an eye on Nolan and Maci who hadn’t stopped playing for a second.
Nolan had shown her about everything he called his own and had basically filled her in on every aspect of his life, mostly going on about how he’d finally gotten his dog that he’d named Rocky.
To say the kid was excited to have her there was an understatement.
Maci squealed as Rocky jumped up and licked her in the face, her joy so clear as she giggled and played.
A swell of devotion pummeled me.
A riptide.
The child so precious she had me on my knees.
“Know it,” I said.
“Good thing she doesn’t take after her dad because that would be some scary shit,” Otto razzed. He jostled me with an elbow before he took a swig of his beer.
“Pfft,” I told him with a shake of my head. “Kid’s a dead ringer.”
A hot gust of air puffed from Theo’s nose. “Honestly thought you’d lost your damned mind when you sent that text. Claiming her without any real proof. But I get it.”
I gave a slight nod. “One look and there was no question.”
Another wild giggle rolled out of Maci, that beautiful, tinkling sound riding on the breeze that weaved through the backyard as the day faded away. I looked that way to find her chasing Nolan up the steps to his fort.
The two of them were so damned sweet together, they might as well have known each other their whole lives.
But Maci’s laugh wasn’t the only one that was having an effect, though this effect was entirely different.
This was one that kept getting under my skin.
A laugh that kept coming from Emery.
Emery who’d sunk right in with Charleigh and Raven.
The three of them sat around a metal table on the far side of the porch sharing a pitcher of margaritas. Emery had been interacting with them as if she’d been a part of them all along.
My stomach fisted.
I couldn’t look away.
My gaze stuck on the woman who was wearing those fucking white shorts that were liable to drive me straight out of my mind. Red fitted tank that hugged her delicate curves and set my mouth watering.
Not that I couldn’t feel her misgivings. The way she was trying to guard herself. To keep herself separated from who we were because she was clearly terrified of getting too close.
Still buckled up in that armor I was pretty sure she thought was required for her survival.
But it kept slipping.
Jolts of surprised laughter ripping free from her while Raven and Charleigh would crack up at whatever story they were getting up to.
“Told you.” Theo’s laugh was filled with suggestion as his attention jumped between Otto and River.
“What?” Should have known the inquisition was coming. Might as well be done with it.
“Those hearts that are currently buggin’ out of your eyes. ”
“Fuck you, man,” I told Theo the way I normally would.
Casual and easy.
Pinning on a wayward grin.
Doubted it cut it.
Not with the way my guts were knotted. Twined in bolts of lust I couldn’t tamp down no matter how hard I tried. My cock twitched every time any noise got free of that lush, sexy mouth, extra keen whenever she shifted in that chair, drawing attention to those bare, smooth legs.
The woman was pure, utter temptation.
“Heart eyes, and he’s drooling, too,” Otto taunted.
“Drooling?” I cocked my head.
Emery giggled and leaned over, and that fall of shiny blonde swished around her shoulders.
The smallest swath of flesh was exposed at the center of her back.
Okay, I was totally drooling, and I was about five seconds from just owning it and stalking over to Emery so I could tell her all the ways I wanted to own her.
In precise detail.
A cataclysm of fantasies rolling through my brain.
Every delicious way I would have her.
Too bad the last was an image of the two of us sweaty and sated where we were snuggled up naked in the middle of my bed.
“Dude’s fucked,” River grunted with a laugh.
Jolted by it, I realized I’d been staring, and I whipped my attention back to the three of them gawking at me.
Yup.
I was completely and utterly fucked.
“Weird she’s your kid’s aunt?” River arched a brow, the question true.
Agitation stirred through my spirit.
“Should it be?” Mine was just as earnest.
River shook his head as he took a swig of his beer. “Nah, man. You said you didn’t even know her sister. ”
Unease slithered through me, hit by the same disturbance when I thought about how something with Emmalee had been off.
Wasn’t like it mattered now, anyway, except for the way it affected Emery.
“Think that might be what bothers Emery most,” I admitted.
“That you and Maci’s mom weren’t together?” Theo asked.
“Just the fact that we were together at all.”
“Since when do you have a problem with banging sisters?” This from Otto, the bastard.
I sent him a scathing look.
In surrender, he held out his hands, attempting to hide his laugh. “Fine, fine. That crossed a line.”
I sighed because this was something that didn’t feel like a joke. It was something that bothered Emery and, fuck me, if I didn’t want to gouge my eyes out at the thought of hurting her in any way.
A trickle of Maci’s laughter flooded the air, and my focus drifted to the child.
She was beelining my way, her arms thrown over her head as Nolan chased her across the yard.
How could I regret it? That night with a stranger that had brought this little girl to me?
“Damn, brother…” All the teasing had drained out of Otto’s voice.
Throat thick, I looked back at Emery.
Otto reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “You really are fucked.”
“There’s just…something about her.”
Something I couldn’t shake.
Something I wanted to drown in.
“Then don’t be an idiot and squander it,” Otto urged below his breath.
“As far as I’m concerned, we’ve all wasted too much time thinking we didn’t deserve the best things in life.
Going after that temporary thrill that could never really satisfy since we thought we couldn’t have something that actually counted.
It’s bullshit, man, so fuckin’ make it count . ”
I stalled as all those uncertainties came at me full force .
“And I’ll be taking on next week’s job.” Theo dropped his voice to be sure we were the only ones who could hear it, though I could almost hear the undercurrent of a question. His words prompting me toward what had taken me away during the middle of the week.
The guy urging me to be careful.
To see what was right in front of me.
But all of this?
It was for them.
The innocent.
My head shook. “I’ve already been debriefed. I’m doing this one.”
“Kane, you can’t?—”
“Not up for discussion.” The faces of that family spiraled through my mind, and I was unable to stop the way it interchanged with my mother’s.
The same as how those haunted faces always filled my mind when I stepped out beyond the bounds of Sovereign Sanctum to enact the only justice that I could.
A bridging of my failures.
The promise that I would never let it happen again.
River blew out a sigh, and I knew he was going to say something to try to convince me otherwise, but Maci bounding up the porch steps with Nolan hot on her tail interrupted us.
The little girl came straight for me.
“Mr. Kane, save me!” she shouted.
Her angel face was filled with joy.
No trace of fear.
I swept her into my arms.
That was the way I was going to keep it.
This child safe and secure.
In my arms and without fear.
Without the fear I’d faced as a kid, the way so many of us had.
And I was going to do it surrounded by a shit ton of people who would do absolutely anything for her, the same way as we would do for the little boy who was suddenly attached to me, both his arms and his legs wrapped around my leg .
“You were right, Uncle Kane. Maci is really awesome, and she jumped right into my number one spot, lickity split.”
He tried to snap his fingers while holding on with one arm.
Maci squeezed my neck like mad, her chubby cheek pressed to mine. “I got a whole lotta number ones because I really love my auntie and my mommy and my grammy, and now my Nolan and my Mr. Kane, too.”
That love she was speaking of? It battered me. Full battle blows that railed from every side.
Nolan seemed to agree because he swayed back and forth where he was attached to my leg, grinning wide. “Well, I love you a whole lot, and you gotta stay with us here forever because family is who we love most.”
Maci giggled while my spirit thrashed.
Family.
Never thought I would get to have one.
Not like this.
And my foolish eyes were landing on Emery, drawn in a beat.
I was thinking the same way as hers were drawn to me.
She stared at me with that warm, toffee gaze that sparked beneath the twilight.
The first woman I’d ever met who might have the power to do me in.