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I sigh. “In other words, I’m going to be the strict parent, and you’ll be the fun one.”
Carter huffs a laugh. “You could put it like that. But we’ll both protect him, no matter what it takes. Any enemies you have will have to deal with me, and I’ll make them kneel before you.”
Ice settles in my veins as I sit up straighter. “I don’t think you should joke about that.”
Carter shifts and lifts his gaze to mine. “I wasn’t joking.”
I fold my arms over my chest, a shiver of fear and unease racing up my spine. “That’s the problem. I think we’ve had enough violence in this family, Carter. I don’t want our kid to be around that.”
Carter’s earlier good mood vanishes as he stands up and twists to face me. “He’s going to face violence whether he likes it or not. That’s the way the world works.”
“Not every aspect of it,” I retort, my voice rising toward the end. “Whatever he faces in the real world, we won’t be able to control it, but we can at least try and provide him with a safe environment.”
Carter’s expression darkens. “Are you trying to tell me that I’m going to endanger my son? Because that’s a fucking low blow.”
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand up. “I never said that, but we both have to look at facts, Carter. Like it or not, we both have blood on our hands.”
Carter makes a low noise in the back of his throat. “It isn’t the same for you, dove.”
My stomach dips. “Yes, it is. I—”
Carter bridges the distance between us and grips my shoulders. “Listen to me, you didn’t kill Rich Donahue. I took care of it.”
A long moment passes.
“What? What do you mean you took care of it? The body wasn’t there, and… I’m the one who shot him.”
Carter is still holding me in a tight grip. “You might have been the one to shoot him, and you seriously injured him, but you didn’t kill him.”
“I stepped over his body,” I refute, a bubble of disbelief and hysteria rising up within me. “I took the keys, and I… I—”
Carter holds my gaze. “Did you check for a pulse?”
I start to nod and then stop. “I… uh, I don’t know.”
“Exactly.” Carter releases my shoulders. “Not that it matters much. That weaselly piece of shit deserved to bleed to death, but at least it wasn’t by your hands.”
Something low unfurls in the center of my stomach, and a faint niggling sensation starts in the back of my skull.
It couldn’t be.
“You hunted down Rich?”
Carter runs a hand through his hair. “I was hunting down Lilian. I paid our dear mayor a visit, and let’s just say that he isn’t going to be a problem anymore.”
The world spins as I sink against the nearest surface and end up perched on the edge of the bed.
Carter spins around to face me, his bare chest still glistening with water and silhouetted by the warm glow of the early morning sun. “I don’t understand.”
He kneels in front of me, and only then do I realize how cold my hands are. “The mayor isn’t going to be a problem anymore. Neither is Lilian.”
I taste bile in the back of my throat. “What does Rich have to do with Lilian?”
“They’ve been working together, apparently since Lilian and I were involved. The two of them have been playing us all along.”
My lips part, and a gasp falls from my lips.
I know Rich has been playing me like a fiddle, but I didn’t stop to consider the bigger ramifications. While a part of me is disappointed that everything I’ve shared with him, every last secret and smile, was a lie, another part of me is angry.
