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“… were overseas.”
I nodded. “I hated you for a long time for leaving.” He gently pushed my hair back and kissed the top of my head. “I know it was stupid, but I think a part of me had hoped you’d … shit, I don’t know what I hoped. But I know now you had to go back to your team.”
“I would’ve stayed if I …” He sighed, linking his fingers with mine. “I don’t know if that’s true. If I’d been given the choice to leave the JTF2 at that time … babe, I wouldn’t have stayed. I couldn’t be near you. I needed time to try and forget you … but fuck, I had no idea.”
I nodded. Yeah, and I never blamed him for not saving me from Robbie. I blamed him for letting go of the something between us. “Robbie’s brothers were in deep with some motorcycle club. Kai was hired by them to get their money back or … ” We both knew what the ‘or’ was. “But when he saw what was happening to me, he said he’d do pro-bono work.” Deck’s body tensed. “Kai set up Robbie for the fall with the drugs at school.”
“So, he was arrested.”
“Yeah, and he’d just turned eighteen.”
“And the brothers?”
I shrugged. “Kai never said and I never asked.”
“Kai’s motive was to give you something that would make you trust him.”
Yes. I trusted him because he saved me from Robbie when I thought no one could. “And he offered me a way to get back what I lost.”
Deck didn’t say anything.
“I was pretty fucked up after that.” I’d felt like a cut-up piece of meat, bleeding and raw. “Kai helped me. I guess it was training of sorts. Mostly psychological. You know, learning how to hide your emotions, how people tick, reading movements, gestures, signs of weakness. He taught me self-defense and how to use a knife. And certain computer skills.”
“Not a gun?”
I shook my head. “No. Kai doesn’t like guns. He said they’re dangerous.” Deck scoffed at that. “And I’d never intended to have to use one.”
“And Robbie?”
“He disappeared when he was released from jail. I think he was scared of Kai and the MC his brothers stole money from.”
Deck took hold of my chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Why didn’t you tell me, Georgie? Why, after all these years, did you keep this from me? You know I would’ve helped you. Shit, I’d have found Robbie and made him suffer for what he did to you.”
“Kai. There was one condition. I could never tell anyone about him. He knew about you. About Connor dying. And he knew that … he knew you were my weakness.” Deck let go of my chin and looked away. “But if I told you …” I paused. “Deck, if I told you, what would you have done?”
“You know damn well what I would’ve done.”
I nodded, not saying anything. Deck would’ve tried to end it and Kai would’ve killed him. He still might.
“I did little jobs for him. Lionel was a job. I was to get into his computer and copy his hard drive.”
“Fuck.”
“I never know the details. Kai says it’s safer that way.”
“So, you went to some guy’s house to steal from him?”
I nodded.
“Jesus, Georgie. You know how dangerous that is? What if he’d found out? What if he caught you?” He pounded his fist into the mattress. “Fuck.”
“Lionel’s a pussy, Deck. I could’ve taken him.”
He snorted and then got out of bed and started pacing. “Kai was involved with the sex trafficking. I don’t know how deep, but it was enough to get him into the compound in Mexico. You fuckin’ know that.”
I really didn’t know the details of Kai’s involvement in that. Shit, Kai kept all of what he did from me. “He wouldn’t hurt—”
“He’s dangerous as hell.”
“And you’re not?”
He didn’t say anything.
“When you rescued London from that auction and brought her to my place …” Deck’s eyes shot to mine. “I called Kai. Told him she was with me, but he already knew. He was trying to get info on the sex-trade transporter, Jacob. The only way to get close to him was through Alfonzo, so he made a deal with Alfonzo, exchanged London for money.”
“Except he didn’t want London.”
I nodded. “He wanted to be led to the transporter.”
“Jesus Christ. You were nearly killed. They drugged you and—”
“Kai wouldn’t have let anything happen to me.”
“You seem pretty damn sure of a man who has been using you. Fuck. And he’s convinced you to keep it from me because he knows damn well I’d fuckin’ never let this shit happen.”
“I’m using him, too, Deck. I want Robbie stopped. I can’t let him hurt other girls, and he’s finding a way to get to him.”
“And it’s taken what … seven years?” Deck scoffed. “Bullshit. He’s using you and dangling Robbie over your head like a fuckin’ carrot. That’s what he does, Georgie. He uses people. That’s all he knows. You ever wonder what he’ll do to you once Robbie is dead?”
