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"You invited me on this little criminal mission."
"Uh, no. You invited your damn self."
I flip him off. "Cut off her escape route. If you're in her face all the time and her back is against the wall, sooner or later, she'll have to stop running and face whatever the fuck is going on between the two of you."
It's all we can do. Force them to face us and the way they feel about us. When they can't run from it, eventually, they have to deal with it.
Christ, I hope that's true.
If it isn't, Zayne isn't the only brother that's going to end up with a broken heart. I am too. Because my girl hasn't stopped running from her feelings either.
I'm a little afraid she might not ever stop.
Chapter Ten
Kenna
"Okay, I've had enough of this shit," Kane growls, slapping the contract down on his antique desk to glare at me. "What the fuck is going on with you?"
"What? Nothing. Why?"
"Don't lie to me, Kenna. You've been in a totally different dimension since you walked through the door. What happened?"
I drop my pen, pressing the heels of my hands to my eyes. "Gideon told me that he loves me," I whisper.
"You didn't already know?"
"I knew." I exhale a shaking breath. "But I didn't say it back, Kane."
"Shit. You don't feel the same way."
"No, I do. I love him so freaking much," I whisper, my throat tight. "But he said it and I freaked out instead of telling him how I feel. What if it's too late to fix it?"
Kane holds up a finger. "We'll get to that in a minute. What do you mean you freaked out?"
"I mean he said it and I panicked, and I ended up crying all over him."
"Why'd you panic?"
"Because when he said it, I thought about…" I lick my lips.
"You thought about losing him like we lost Dad," Kane says quietly, understanding in his obsidian eyes.
"No." I laugh through a groan. "All this time, that's what I've been running from. So you'd think that's what I'd have thought about, right? But no, that's not it. He said it, and for the first time, I realized that I had the power to break him too. And the thought that I could break someone like him was overwhelming." I stare at Kane with wide eyes. "He's so freaking good to me. He deserves everything. And I'm afraid that all of this is going to come crashing down and he's going to be the one who gets hurt."
I'm being hunted by a madman. Someone who wants to kill me. It's not Gideon who might leave a crater in my life. I'm afraid I'll leave a crater in his. The hunter in the shadows will snatch me from his grip, and nothing we do will be enough to stop it.
I didn't really let myself consider that possibility until it smacked me in the face today. I've simply refused to think about what lies on the other side of that what if. But it's monumental. Today, I faced it. It scared the hell out of me. And I fell apart. I feel horrible because there were a thousand things I wanted to say, and I didn't say any of them.
I crashed and burned when Gideon needed me to fly.
"You aren't going to break him, Kenna. You aren't going to leave him. Nothing is going to happen to you," Kane growls, his expression as fierce as his tone. I think if anyone could bend the universe to his will to ensure the outcome he expects, it'd be my brother. "Hell will freeze over before I allow anything to happen to you."
"I love you. You know that?"
"I love you too, baby sister. But I mean it. Nothing is going to happen to you. You're afraid because you feel like you have no control. That's what this fucker wants you to feel. He wants you to fear him. He wants you to know he's in control. But he's just a fucking coward hiding in the shadows. You're in control of your life. You decide what has power over you. And I'm not going to allow you to let this motherfucker have that control over you."
"You sound like Gideon."
