36. Kane #2
When I covered her, I reached up and framed her precious face in both my hands.
Gripping on tight. “I know, baby, I know. I won’t discount the pain and worry that you’re feeling.
And I might not have really known your sister, but I have a feeling that she would have wanted you to be happy. If that’s what I make you.”
I wanted to.
I wanted to make this woman happy.
A flicker of guilt buzzed through my being. I also knew that my life could bring suffering. That it was dangerous and wrought with peril.
But I couldn’t imagine changing it. Couldn’t imagine stopping what I did .
Not when I knew it made the world a better place for them.
“I’m afraid that you might,” Emery whispered.
I reached up and caught a tear that slipped from her eye.
“I don’t think you need to be afraid of that. Not when I’m pretty sure it was what I was made to do.”
“We hardly know each other…and…I have to leave.”
Pain tore through her when she said it.
“Do you?” It was a soft grunt.
Uncertainty passed through her delicate features, and I pushed up to standing, hoisting her into my arms.
With one arm looped around her waist, I dragged down the covers with the other hand and settled her in the middle, then I crawled in beside her.
That gaze turned cautious and excited. “What are you doing?”
“Holding you.”
I tucked her close to me. Her body alight while mine was afire.
I blew out a contented sigh at the feel of her against me.
“I’m not sure this is a good idea.” She breathed it at the base of my throat.
I ran my hand down her back. “I think it’s a great idea. After holding you last night, I think it’s exactly the way I want to spend every night of my life.”
Silence hovered between us. Her qualms fluttering in the space.
“You know I’m going back to Wisconsin in three weeks.”
Every molecule in my body revolted at the thought.
Of her leaving. Of her walking out of my life.
How had I known her for such a short amount of time and already it felt like she had become intrinsic to who I was?
But some people came into our lives and changed everything.
I hesitated, before I asked, “Is that what you want to do?”
I could feel her answer in her hesitation, though she murmured, “That store was my sister’s dream.”
I kept my voice soft. Cautious. “Her dream. But was it yours?”
A few seconds passed before she spoke again. Her words hushed and filled with the loss. “It was until?— ”
She clipped off like she’d almost revealed something she was supposed to keep secreted. Whatever it was too fucking painful for her to divulge.
I eased back so I could see her face. That stunning face that pierced through me like an arrow every time I looked at her.
This woman with a hook in me.
“What happened?” Didn’t mean for it to come out a demand, but there was no keeping the rage from my tone. The fury that ignited at the thought of someone doing her harm.
The thirst for wrath thumped in the dark recesses of my psyche. In that place that sought vengeance and found no guilt in the drawing of blood.
No shame in putting those in the ground who didn’t deserve to stand.
Emery flinched, her whole body going rigid in my arms.
I smoothed my palm down the back of her head and back, again and again, trying to assuage the fear that she held. My Little Warrior always going on lockdown the second her past was mentioned.
But I had a hunch we had to get to it in order for her to fully put her trust in me.
“You started to tell me last night…” I murmured it quietly, close to her ear.
Her heartbeat accelerated a fraction.
“I don’t talk about it.”
She overwhelmed my senses. Her spirit and her heat and her sweet morning glory scent.
It was standing at the brink of a sunrise, waiting for the first rays to shine.
Wading at the edge of surrender for the both of us to topple over the side.
I’d catch her.
I’d be sure of it.
“But the scars still gape. I can feel them,” I told her.
“And somehow you’re the first person who’s ever reached beyond them. ”
“Then maybe that means you can trust me with your pain.”
“I don’t think I’m ready yet. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be.” She wavered for the longest time, the two of us caught in the stillness, caught in each other, before she rushed on a breath, “I told you my sister fell off her roof…but…but I don’t know if I believe that.”
Disquiet tightened my insides, and I edged back so I could see her face better. “What do you mean?”
Uncertainty pulled through her expression. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m just reaching, grasping at straws. But she was always out on that roof, Kane. We’d done it our whole lives. What caused her to fall now?”
She looked like she was going to say more but stopped herself.
“You can tell me anything, Emery.”
Ironic considering I was hiding so much of myself.
“Maybe it’s just the way of grief. The unacceptance. No logical reason for it happening.” She seemed to settle on it, but I could tell that she didn’t believe it for a second.
“She have enemies?” My jaw clenched as I asked the question, unable to write it off so quickly. That disquiet turning to apprehension as I thought of Emmalee. This woman who I could barely remember but, of what I could, she had seemed completely carefree.
Until I found her snooping in my office.
That strange essence about her that had left me unsettled.
My guts clutched as I thought about how I’d cocked my head when I found her and told her, I think it’s time you leave .
It was the last I’d seen of her, and I’d pretty much never thought of her again.
Not until my little girl was standing in front of me.
“I don’t think so. Everyone loved her. She handled it so much better than I did. Didn’t let it stop her from enjoying her life. From meeting it head on and going after every experience.”
It.
Still, she kept me in the dark. A brick wall built between us where she kept herself protected.
My Little Warrior thinking she had to go it alone.
No more .
“Give me the details, and I’ll check into it.” I tried to form it as casual, but every word was grit.
A frown curled across her pretty face, and incredulity filled her question. “You’ll check into it?”
There was no stopping myself from giving her more of me than I should. Wanting to open that door but terrified of what she’d think if she really saw who I was.
“I have some connections.”
Cash who could crack anything.
Emery wavered for a moment before she shook her head. “No. I’m just being foolish. Conjuring something that isn’t there.” A self-deprecating smile pulled at one side of her mouth. “I’ve even convinced myself that someone is following me.”
I had her gathered up and straddling me in a flash.
Shock ripped out of her at the change of position. At the rage there was no doubt she could feel boiling out of me. “Someone’s been following you?”
She blinked. “No. I’ve never seen anyone. I?—”
“Won’t take the risk with you, Emery. If you think you’re in danger, in any way, I need to know.”
Fuck, I was shaking. Heart hemorrhaging in my chest. Felt like I was being cracked wide open.
Emery set one of those tender hands on my cheek. “There’s nothing for me to tell you.”
I pressed her hand tighter against my face. Relishing the burn of her palm. Knowing she could feel the intensity of mine where it covered hers.
Our gazes locked.
Energy crackled and lapped. This bond vibrating between us.
A gravity I’ve never experienced.
“I’ll hunt down anyone who’s ever hurt you. Will destroy anyone who wants to do you harm. I promise you, Emery. I won’t let anyone get near you. Not you or Maci. But you have to let me in for me to be able to do that.”
She should be afraid with the violence that dripped from my pores. With the brutal urges that pumped through my veins and poured like wrath from my tongue.
But she only looked at me in a way she’d never done before as she edged up on her knees and pressed her hand even closer.
As if she could sink all the way inside.
“My sweet, sweet dragon.” She whispered it like praise.
And the only fucking thing I could hear was mine .
The claim in her voice and the shouting of my soul.
Emotion twisted my insides. “I mean it, Emery.”
Her nod was juddering, and I was sure right then, she was seeing all the way to the depths of me.
To the wickedness and cruelty carved on my conscience. To the sins and the depravity.
Like maybe she could see the blood that stained my hands and she didn’t mind if it covered her.
Because I heard her acceptance when she gave a bumbling nod and murmured, “I know.”