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But no.
It was a temporary reprieve at most.
And my father fucking knew it the entire time.
I reach toward the nightstand to find a tissue to wipe my eyes and sniffling nose, but there’s nothing there.
Seriously? No tissues? They must be here somewhere.
In the meantime, I scramble out of bed, head to the bathroom, and use toilet paper to wipe my face, blow my nose.
“Vannah?” Falcon’s voice.
I leave the bathroom. “I’m here.”
“You okay?”
I rub my eyes, hoping he won’t know I was crying. “Yeah. Just a bad dream.”
“About what?”
“My brother’s death. The day I started to see my father for who he truly is.”
“Come here.”
I crawl into his arms. “I’m all right.”
“You’ve been through so much. Almost being raped by that piece of shit.”
“Thank God for puke.” I force out a chuckle.
He takes my face in his hands. “I don’t want you to worry about him anymore, Vannah. You’re my responsibility now.”
I pull away from him then. “I don’t want to be your responsibility.”
He furrows his brow. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“I don’t mean anything bad. I just don’t want to be anyone’s responsibility.” I look away from him. “I’m tired of being treated like a thing.”
“I would never treat you that way.”
“I know that. I know you wouldn’t on purpose, anyway. But for God’s sake, I can’t be your responsibility or anyone else’s. I have to be responsible for myself.”
He chuckles then.
“I don’t see what’s so funny about that.”
“You don’t want to be my responsibility,” he says, “but what did you do? You made a deal with the devil himself to keep me out of prison. You made me your responsibility, Savannah. And I don’t want to be your responsibility either.”
I draw in a breath, and then I smile. “You’re right.”
“Damned right I’m right.” He draws me closer and puts an arm around my waist. “But I’ll never stop protecting you.”
“Then I’ll never stop protecting you. If we love each other, Falcon, we have equal responsibility to each other.”
“But I’m the—” He stops abruptly.
“You’re the what? You’re the man? Well, here’s news for you. I’m the woman.”
