“Lake wants to stay behind for a few more days.”
“Doesn’t she have finals coming?”
“She does, but she’s worried about Willow.”
“Really?”
“Why are you surprised?”
“Her reception has been kind of cold.”
“Yeah, I asked her about that, and she nearly bit my head off.”
“Maybe you should check her purse for your balls.”
“Cute.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“We’re going. She needs to study, and I want her alone so I can fuck her properly. I can’t do that with a toddler insisting on a slumber party every night.”
“Get used to it. You and Lake have been going strong for four years now. Wedding bells are ringing. Baby comes next.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen fear in Keiran, but his complexion paled considerably, and he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “Do you think she’ll want that?”
“She’s a woman and she loves you. Of course, she will. Wait… don’t you?”
“I would love to make her mine on paper but a kid…”
I was pretty sure if Keiran weren’t already sitting, he would have fallen. “There’s no need to panic. There is still plenty of time.”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready for that. I can’t create a child knowing what’s out there ready to hurt them. I used to think it could be possible, that I could give her a family, but I can’t ignore that less than a year ago, I had a hit on my head. I’ll never know if there will be another and when it will come. I lay awake at night wondering how I’m going to protect her.”
“You can’t plan your life around what-if. The right thing to do is to give you both what you need. Lake trusts you to protect her, but she also trusts you to give her happiness. Don’t fuck it up. Trust is a hard thing to earn after it’s lost.”
I expected him to react. Instead, he went back to staring at the ceiling. Instinct and years of friendship told me he had more on his mind and judging by the hard set of his jaw I knew it was nothing good.
“There’s something else.” I watched him carefully, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Mitch is dead.”
Forget the shoe. Keiran had just laid an atomic bomb in my lap that would detonate at any moment. “Fuck man. When?” Already I was mentally preparing for the legal battle ahead if Keiran was caught. He had been in too much trouble with the law to walk away for the umpteenth time.
“About a week ago.”
“How? You weren’t in Nevada.” The lingering question was in my tone which he sensed. I watched his shoulders tense with frustration.
He cracked his knuckles and flexed his fist before settling perfectly still again. “It wasn’t me.”
“Come again?”
“I didn’t kill my father,” he spelled out slowly. “The police showed up on Keenan’s doorstep while they were out. I haven’t told him yet.” His frown deepened and his chest moved with harsh breaths.
I knew better than to think he mourned the motherfucker who almost succeeded in stealing his humanity, but the deep lines in his forehead told me his father’s death bothered him.
“This is good news. Mitch is dead and you get to keep your hands clean.”
“Do I?”
“So you’re saying you’d avenge him?”
“Fuck. No. I’m saying my back may have just become someone else’s target.”
“You know they say the enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?”
“Or just a bigger enemy.”
I stared at him at a loss for words knowing he could very well be right. Keiran trusted little and suspected everything. The worst part is he was always right. Except when it had come to Lake… It is clear that she had always been the rule rather than the exception. The day Keiran went against his better judgment could very well kill him.
“You have to tell Keenan and soon. Are you going to go after whoever killed him?”