Milo Sterling is making sense. Since he let Lexi go, I didn’t think I’d trust him on the romance front again.
“I’m scared,” Tex whispers. Her face is pale, and she looks about ready to pass out.
I turn to her, Milo forgotten. Lifting her chin, I kiss her. “Do you trust me?”
She nods her head. “Of course, but—”
“No. I hate the idea of him seeing that. It really doesn’t look good on our part, but I don’t regret a thing that’s happened between us.”
“I wouldn’t regret bus sex either,” Milo mutters.
I ignore him. “We’ll make Mark see what this is, okay?”
“He’s going to hate me.”
“He could never hate you, Tex. You’re his daughter.” I brush her hair behind her ear, letting my fingers linger over her skin. She’s so soft. “This will be okay. You have my word.”
She swallows. “Okay. What do we say? The truth about everything?”
“We have to. We’ll go back to the start.”
“I like the start.”
I smile. “So do I.”
“Mushy as fuck. I’m out.” Milo leaves the room and shuts the door.
I don’t take my eyes off Texas. She’s looking at me with so much hope that I feel like I’m suffocating. She believes I can fix this, and I’m not sure how Mark will react yet.
She believes you because you promised her, dick.
“Do you want me to do the talking, or do you think it’ll be better coming from you?” I ask.
My head is starting to throb, and I want to ignore that this is happening, but Texas has gone stiff with fear, and she doesn’t look good.
She’s mine, and it’s my job to make this okay. Somehow, I have to work this perfectly to convince Mark that we’re real. He will find out about us through our fucking sex tape. It’s going to take a miracle.
“What if he tries to send me away?”
“You’re nineteen, Texas. You can do what you want and go where you want.”
She drops her eyes and frowns, like she’s only just realising that’s true. “I don’t know how I can stay around him if he wants me gone.”
“Then, we’ll ditch the bus and travel to each city on our own.”
“What?” Her voice is breathless as her eyes whip up to meet mine. “You would do that?”
“Texas, there isn’t a single place on this planet that I wouldn’t follow you to. Whatever happens from today, we stick together. We show your dad how strong we are. We prove to him that I’m not messing around and that you’re safe with me.”
She sinks into my chest and wraps her arms around my neck. “I feel safe.”
“I love you,” I whisper, burying my head in her hair.
We won’t have long before he comes storming in, so we need to be out of my room and downstairs. Damn it, I wish Copenhagen was a hotel city, but our stay here is short.
“Come on, we need to head down.”
Pulling away enough for me to see her face, she says, “I love you, too, Kitt. Please let that be strong enough to not let my dad scare you off.”
“Not happening. I don’t scare easy, and if I want something, I’m going to have it. We promised each other forever, and that’s damn well what we’re getting. Now, downstairs. We have to talk to your dad about our sex tape. Think they’ll give me a copy of that?”
She swats my arm, but for the first time since Milo barged in, she has colour in her cheeks as she laughs.
TEXAS
FRIDAY, MAY 29
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
Kitt and I reach the bottom step when the door flies open and slams back on the metal wall outside.
My heart free-falls.
I don’t want to do this. My legs are preparing to turn and get me the hell out of here when Kitt takes my hand. I feel his strength and courage seeping through, willing me to stay calm and do this right. No one else is in here, and I think that’s purposely done. Ted or Hank probably rang ahead and made everyone leave.
“Texas!” Dad bellows. He rounds the corner and freezes when he sees us. His face is red, the tendons in his neck are protruding, and his fists are clenched by his sides.
Oh God.
He pins us both to the spot with a look of pure rage. “Sit. Down. Now.”
We take a seat on the sofas with the table between, safer with a buffer. Kitt puts his hands out on the wooden surface and holds eye contact with my dad. Kitt’s spine is straight, and he looks like a picture of calm.
How is he so composed? My back is hunched, and my arms are holding myself together.
On a sigh, Dad drops his arms on the table. “We need to have a chat.” His voice is eerily cool for the situation.
It’s the same voice he used on me when I accidentally put hair dye in this ho’s shampoo bottle. She was trying to be his groupie, and…well, we all know how that ends. He was anything but calm when we got back to the hotel suite. And just to clear things up, I was twelve at the time.
“I want to know what was going through your head?” Dad asks. His question is for me.
I gape at him. He wants to know what I was thinking about when Kitt was taking me against the tour bus?