“Cane? What’s on your hand?” Jada leaned up and took my hand, turning it over. “Is this blood?”
I nodded hesitantly, closing my eyes and enjoying feeling her skin-on-skin. Being with her, touching her, feeling her—even if it was only our hands—made me feel differently than I ever had. It was like a part of me instantly quieted. A piece of me found the link it was looking for.
It was scary and stupid and amazing.
Her eyes were wide as she looked at me in disbelief. “Whose blood is it?”
“It’s Simon’s.”
“What did you do?”
“What do you think?”
She let her head fall back against the headboard. “Why did you do this? This was my problem, not yours!”
“The moment you agreed to go to dinner with Simon, you made it my problem.”
“And how is that, Cane? Are you a knight in shining armor now? I can take care of myself. That’s how I roll.”
I clenched my jaw, my eyes blazing. “That’s how you roll, huh? Well here’s how I roll, sweetheart. If someone fucks with you, they fuck with me. There is no grey area.”
“That’s asinine! It makes no sense!”
“Lots of shit doesn’t make sense. I’ll agree with that. But there’s one thing you need to get through your fucking head—do not fuck with Simon Powers, Jada. It is not negotiable. I’m not kidding.”
“You keep saying this shit! You keep warning me off, but you refuse to tell me why! It’s really impossible to tell if you have a valid reason or if you are just jealous.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you don’t need to know everything?”
Her eyes steeled. “No, actually. That logic sounds like someone trying to evade the question.”
I glared at her right back. “I’m not evading anything.”
“Then you either talk to me or you get the fuck out. Because that’s where I am right now. I am sick of this shit!” Her voice began to waiver and she looked away. Tears began to pour down her cheeks as her body heaved, sobs escaping her throat. “I am so sick of this. All of it.”
Instinctively, I gathered her in my arms. She pounded my chest for a few seconds before finally giving in and letting herself be comforted by me.
I held her against my chest, her head tucked under my chin as she expelled all of the anxiety she had been holding in. I wrapped an arm around her back, holding her tighter, gathering her hair out of her face.
My heart broke as she fell apart and I wished I could take the pain away. I would have done anything in the world to ensure she never felt like that again.
And that’s when I knew—there was no point in fighting it anymore. I needed to finish playing the hand that had already been started. It really wasn’t up to me anymore.
I looked at the ceiling and uttered a silent prayer that I was doing the right thing. I didn’t know the first damn thing about being a decent guy or how to take care of someone other than myself. But I knew if you wanted something to last, you had to treat it differently.
Here goes nothing …
“Simon and I knew each other a long time ago,” I began once she had quieted down a little. I moved so that my back was against the headboard and her head was on my chest. I expected a fight from her, but she didn’t struggle. She felt so small against me, such a perfect fit curled up into my side. It raised feelings that I had never felt before; something had changed deep inside me. If I thought about that long enough, I may have panicked. So I continued on with my story.
“His father is in prison right now for killing mine.”
Jada’s eyes went wide as my words sunk in.
“I was surprised to see him, with you, at Solomon Place. But it was just a weird coincidence, I guess.” I looked down, trying to figure out how much I had to tell her. “Simon’s family lost everything when his dad got arrested. I pushed for the investigation after Dad died, so he has always blamed me. I haven’t seen him in a long time, but when he showed back up, Max and I did a little digging. He’s bad news, Jada. He’s into some real bad stuff, which is why I kept telling you to stay away from him.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that?” She tentatively placed her arm around my waist. It laid on me for a few seconds before she started to withdraw it, but I wrapped her wrist with my hand and held it against me. She stilled before looking at my face, her smile mirroring mine. “I’m so sorry to hear about your dad, Cane. I won’t push you on it, but I’m here if you do want to talk about it. I can relate, in my own way.”
“Yeah, I really don’t want to talk about it.” I watched her delicate arm lay against my abdomen. I was usually against those types of demonstrations, but I wasn’t sure I had ever felt something as natural as that. It felt like her hand belonged around me, like she belonged next to me.