Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 254(@200wpm)___ 203(@250wpm)___ 169(@300wpm)
“I need to go,” he states, “and I’m not leaving you here with Ghost running around.”
“What’s going on?”
“You know what’s going on. Enrique can handle things here. I need to know you’re home and safe with Kit and Jay watching over you.”
“Unlike me, Ghost won’t hesitate to kill them, Kane, so stuff the false sense of security that gives you, but that said, I’ve made Pocher squirm by getting in between the power struggle he and my father are in right now. I’m ready to leave.”
He tugs me to him, one of his hands pressed to my lower back, our legs aligned, the other at my face as he tilts my gaze to his. “You will not play rebel with me on the topic of Ghost or my father. You do what I say. The end.”
I’d bristle if this was anyone else, or even him years ago, but I know him and the love and fear driving his actions. I cup his hand on my face. “Save the bossiness for when we have no clothes on, Kane.”
“Lilah, damn it,” he curses. “You need—”
I push to my toes and press my mouth to his, and when our lips part I say, “Let’s go home.”
His mouth slants over mine, his tongue licking deep before he says, “This isn’t over,” captures my hand again and starts walking, forcing me to double step to keep up with him. I’d say we’re headed home to fight, but Kane has bigger fish to fry tonight which involve his father. And that’s about as deadly a proposition as facing off with Ghost.
Chapter Four
Once we’re inside the SUV, in the backseat and momentarily alone, Kane catches my arm and drags me to him. “We have much to discuss.” He sounds foul, as if he’s scolding me, but a moment later, his hand is on the back on my head, and he’s kissing me again, a long stroke of tongue that has me moaning with the taste of him, but far from submissive, if that’s what he’s hoping for.
So not dumbed up.
Which is why I notice the possessiveness in him, and it stirs memories in me I do not like, of times when he tried to suppress who I am and pretended he’s not who, and what, his bloodline destined him to become. I rip my mouth from his, glowering up at him, a question in the act I don’t have time to force him to answer. It’s in that moment that the front doors open and Kit files in behind the steering wheel while Jay claims the passenger seat. I grit my teeth and point up at Kane. “We don’t live lies anymore,” I whisper roughly and when a flicker of surprises flashes in his eyes, I add, “And no. No to whatever you think is going to piss me off.” With that, I yank my arm free and sit back, my gaze straight ahead of me and away from Kane.
I can feel Kane’s stare bore into me, before he shifts forward and settles against the seat, my attention lowering to his long fingers where they rest on his leg, curling into a tight ball. He’s pissed. I’m pissed, too, and I don’t even own the luxury of knowing why. Only that whatever it is he has planned is related to his father and I know in my gut, he has every intention of telling me after the fact. At this point, I’ve forgotten Ghost and my father with focus on my husband, who only ended up in that role because we both made commitments, we both promised transparency, and that means him, despite his need to protect me. Now my fingers curl on my leg and I remind myself to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s in the SUV. He’s here with me, rather than trying to shove me in a vehicle on my own while he departed. Assumption of past behaviors repeating can be as smart as it is stupid.
In Kane’s case it better be stupid and I don’t like to be stupid.
The tension between me and Kane is palpable. Smartly, neither Jay nor Kit dare look back at us and I’m certain they do not want any part of the wrath they might find if they dared. But then these two are skilled practitioners of the Kane and Lilah ways, therefore savvy enough to know when to keep to themselves. Well, Kit does. I’m not sure how Jay is controlling himself. He needs words on his tongue, and yapping in my ears. Kit starts the engine and sets us in motion while the silence grows deafening, and considering the crush of vehicles attempting to exit the event parking lot, there’s no end in sight.
At the ten-minute mark, we’re still waiting for our turn to exit the secure area, when Kane shifts where he sits, uncharacteristic open agitation in the action, and I watch as he glances at his phone, wondering what he hopes to find, knowing he won’t discuss anything related to his father or the cartel on his personal line. Either way, I check my own messages and find everyone who knows me has been smart enough to avoid me on a night I can’t avoid my father. As if my pain in the ass brother has plucked that lie I’ve told myself right from my head, a text slides onto my screen: I’m coming by your place. I need to know what the heck is going on.