“Are you still giving him information?” Creighton’s tone would make an infantry quake with fear.
“Yes.”
My brother’s jaw muscle ticks while he absorbs the answer. “You’re fired.”
Cannon’s face drains of color. “Crey—”
“I can’t have a leak in my own house. Not from you. Not to him.”
Cannon’s nostrils flare as he crosses his arms. “I’m not going to apologize. I did the right thing. He has connections you can’t imagine. We never would’ve gotten this far without—”
The words of doom. No one should ever intimate that my brother didn’t get to where he is on his own. I think Creighton believes he could part the Red Sea à la Moses through sheer force of will.
“I don’t want to hear it. Get out.”
Cannon’s mouth clamps shut. “If that’s what you want.” The words are spoken low from between gritted teeth.
Creighton nods, and Cannon turns to head for the door. He pauses before he leaves the room. “Don’t be as shortsighted as your brother.”
Right then, I know he’s aware of what Cav did to protect me. He probably relayed the information. My mind races with the possibilities.
What the hell am I going to do now?
We all hear the door shut, and Creighton looks like he’s going to crack molars with how hard his jaw is clenched. Holly, who had already dropped her pen, crosses the room to wrap her arms around him. “I’m so sorry.”
Clutching my bag tighter to my side, I head for the door. “I’m going to go work this out. I’m sorry too, Crey. I wish . . .”
I want to say I wish I’d never met Cav, but I can’t make the words come out. Because they’re not true. Because I love him.
But can I forgive him?
I’ve searched the city for her. Every place I think she might go. I don’t even know why I thought she might come here, but I got a ticket before they closed and rode the elevator up.
The Top of the Rock.
The place she waited for me for hours before giving up on me showing. What she doesn’t know is that I did come. I came to tell her good-bye, but I couldn’t say the words to her face. I was a coward.
I can still picture her . . .
The skirt of Greer’s black dress flapped in the wind. It was May, but still cold. She’d asked to meet me here, and I knew she wanted to use tonight to forget everything that had happened these last few days.
She stared out over the city, the city she might as well be a princess of. I knew before that I had no business being part of her life, other than as the man who watched over her and kept her out of harm’s way. Somehow, in those long hours of keeping watch, I felt like I knew her. But I was wrong. I didn’t know Greer until the day she sat down at my table and threw my world off-balance. I didn’t fall in love with her until she stole my heart out from under my guard.
I would lie, cheat, and kill for this woman. And I had. I would do anything to protect her.
Even cut myself out of her life.
My meeting with Dom this afternoon had sealed it. I was banished from the family for carrying out a hit without sanction. He gave me a deadline—be out of the city by midnight. As much as I wanted to ask Greer to run with me, I couldn’t do it. The future ahead of her was too bright for her to be dragged down into my mess of a life. But somehow, I would become a better man for her. One that would deserve her. I would find a way.
I knew tonight was good-bye. I also knew if I stood in front of her, I wouldn’t be able to get the words out. I knew from watching her that she’d reserved a room at a hotel a few blocks away. She was a woman on a mission—she wanted to erase her sorrow with passion.
On any other day, I would have let her use me any way she needed, but I had blood on my hands, and I couldn’t taint her with that.
So, tonight I was proving I was a better man than I’d thought. I was letting her go.
“Good-bye, Greer.”
My words were lost on the wind, and she didn’t turn around until I was already out of sight.
Today I’m standing in the same place, staring at the same woman, but my intent is completely different. I’m not leaving without her. She’s mine, and I’ll fight heaven and hell to keep her. The sins of the past may not stay buried where they belong, but I refuse to let them rule our future.
No man will ever love her as much as I do.
“Greer.” I say her name but it’s lost on the wind, just like my good-bye three years ago.
I cross the roof, the noise of the city dying away as my focus narrows to her. She turns, pushes off the railing, and freezes when she sees me. Her dark eyes go wide as I stride toward her, stopping a foot away.
“What are you—”
I wrap my arms around her and haul her against me. “I can’t let you go this time.”
She tugs her arms free from where they’re trapped between us, and for the length of a heartbeat, I fear she’s going to push me away.
But she doesn’t.