Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“And yet, he won’t get the fuck out of our lives.”
“I was trying to save Tic Tac.”
“How did you even know he was back in the States?” he demands.
“I didn’t. I took a chance.”
“And you still had his number?”
“My brain is really good at holding onto the bad stuff, Kane.” I wave off the topic. “Forget Rich. We need to talk about your father.”
He just looks at me, his dark eyes a black hole of condemnation. “We don’t need to talk about anything right now,” he says tightly. “I have meetings.”
He starts to turn.
“Kane,” I bite out.
He’s already walking away when he never walks away, but the angry part of me that defines most of my life wants to just let him go, although that is not all of who I am where Kane is concerned. What he feels matters to me. What he needs is necessary for me. And we just talked about how I left him and went to LA, where I met Rich. In Kane’s mind, Rich was part of me shutting him out and blaming him for everything, when Kane did nothing but try to protect me from me. Considering Kane was ready to turn the table on me and shut me out last night, Rich is once again a master of bad timing and ridiculous demands.
I whirl around and head for the hallway through the opposite kitchen exit, hoping to cut Kane off before he can leave. He’s already at the first security door, his back to me, when I say, “Kane, wait.”
He pauses but he doesn’t turn.
“I was in damage control-mode. I had a half dozen people to protect immediately, or they could have died.”
Now he turns to face me. “And your first thought was him, not me, Lilah. I would have gotten someone to Tic Tac to help.”
“My first thought was you. I called you. I texted you. I talked to your men. You, Kane. Rich means nothing to me. He was right when he said I used him then and I used him now. I was never okay without you. I will never be okay without you.”
He stares at me, and I can feel all the things he wants to say but does not. “I need to go.” He opens the door and then he’s gone.
Damn it, he’s shutting me out and it has nothing to do with Rich and everything to do with his father. We need to talk. Really talk. I follow him and by the time I’m at the second door on the other side of our elaborate security system, Kane is in the hallway and Jay is in our doorway, blocking my path.
“Move,” I order, and he’s like a deer in headlights, moving in the same direction I try to pass him not once but twice.
By the time I’m in the hallway, Kane is gone, and that is not a good thing.
He’s in a bad state of mind without me there to ground him, and I think that’s exactly what he wants. Because when Kane is dark, he’s really dark, and by his own admission, he feels no guilt. Not until he has to look me in the eye, and I don’t like where my head is right now. It’s almost as if he’s accepted he has no choice but to become his father.
I punch his number into my phone and call him.
The line goes to voicemail.
Chapter Twenty
I walk back into the apartment and shut the door, scowling at Jay. “Why are you not with DD?”
“I work for you, and she doesn’t need protection. She’s off the case. And she’s too brainy. It’s intimidating.”
I laugh. “There are so many ways I could come at that, but I’ll murder you if I do, and you might not recover.” I start walking. “I know you just blocked my path on purpose,” I call over my shoulder. “Stay away if you want to live another day.”
Jay doesn’t follow me, which means he at least has a few brain cells rattling around in his head. I’m already dialing Rich, the king of drama, when I re-enter the kitchen. The call goes to voicemail, and I silently scream in my head, because the real deal would freak Jay out to the point he might cry.
“Call me back, Rich,” I order. “Unless you’re too chickenshit Kane will answer. I can’t operate with Tic Tac in the wilderness. I need him. I’ll send one of our men to pick him up.” I disconnect. “Jay!”
Jay eases into the room as if he’s been standing in the hallway. “Yes?”
“I need you to go pick up Tic Tac in LA. Actually, no. You’ll get killed. Figure it out. Get someone on a private plane to pick him up now. Or get someone we trust up there to retrieve him. Ask Kit. He’ll work it out.”