He pressed his forehead against hers. “Me, too.” His sincerity saturated those words…and her heart.
“It’s odd how much we have in common,” she said. And how perfectly natural lying there sharing their bodies and souls felt. “My father also died under mysterious circumstances. We’ll never know why he ended up on Garza land, and why they felt compelled to shoot him.”
His expression darkened. “Did you ever doubt your father? Ever think he was up to something he shouldn’t have been?”
She shook her head emphatically. “My people have flaws, no doubt, but my dad wouldn’t have been up to no good.”
“I thought my father had fallen prey to human emotions. I didn’t know him, not on any deep level. I believed the rumors. I bought into the corruption of a man but never considered the corruption of the Guard.” Kade looked torn. “My father was a regimented, cold hard-ass, but he always backed me up. When I got into trouble for breaking the rules, he reminded my commanding officer that I went with my gut, just like he’d taught me. That I usually succeeded.”
“And you regret not believing in your father,” she said, reading his pained expression.
“Yes.”
She sighed, looking at her closet door. “My biggest regret is not wearing the dress my father bought me when I was nine. I was a tomboy, because that’s how I was raised. I knew Dad suspected that I wanted to be girly, at least at times. That dress meant a lot to me, but the only time I wore it, my brothers teased me and called me baby doll. I put the dress away. Dad never even saw me wear it.”
Kade pulled her closer against him. “Regrets suck. But I don’t regret this.”
13
Even in deep sleep, Kade heard his phone vibrate. Morning light spilled onto the bed, where he had made the most amazing love with a woman he was supposed to kill. He had no doubt that he’d made the right decision, but the consequences were going to be tricky as hell. Because keeping Violet alive was now the most important thing in his life.
Her dark hair spilled across her pillow, eyelashes fanning her cheeks as she slept. Her mouth curved in a slight smile, and her fingers twitched where they laid on the bed between them. He wanted to wake her and lose himself in her again. They had connected in a way he’d never done with anyone. And he had no idea what to do about it.
He rolled out of bed and grabbed his pants, then went into the bathroom. When he came out minutes later, she was still asleep. He stepped outside and squinted in the bright sunshine. Chumley followed him and wandered out to the yard, though the dog kept an eye on Kade. Maybe he wasn’t used to seeing strange men at Violet’s house. Kade liked that idea way too much.
Birds called to one another in the trees, and in the distance, he heard an engine. Kade couldn’t put off reading the text he’d heard come in earlier, assuming it was from Ferro. Kade had to buy time with some valid excuse. But it wasn’t a text from his boss; it was from Mia: CALL ME ASAP!
She never bothered him when she knew he was on a mission. Kade walked beyond the trees that bordered the house and called her.
She answered with, “Thank the gods. Kade, are you all right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Good, because I’m going to kill you. Ferro called me into his office this morning. I was freaking that something had happened to you, because why would he want to talk to me?”
Uh oh. “What did he want?” And please get to the point.
“First it was about Dad. Tell me, Kade, did he get involved with a woman in prison and die trying to break her out?”
Hell. “He told you that?” He smacked the trunk of a pine tree.
“Yes, and I wanted to tell him he was full of shit, but he’s a superior officer, so I had to sit there and stuff my shock and disgust. Which you know is very hard for me. So now I’m asking you: who’s the one full of shit?”
Damn, it wasn’t Ferro’s place to tell her that. “I fudged the truth.”
“Fudged!” She took a deep breath, and he knew her pain because he’d felt it, too.
“You were seven at the time and didn’t need to know all that. Later…I wanted you to consider him someone to look up to.”
“That’s why Mom killed herself, isn’t it? The scandal? The betrayal.”
“I’ve always thought so. But I don’t know the whole story about our father. We can’t be sure that he was romantically involved with this woman. I’m beginning to wonder?—”
“And now you! That’s why Ferro told me. He thinks you’re doing the same thing with this Violet. Are you in love with her?”
A flash of his hands on her body…
“You are!” Mia hissed. “Otherwise you would have denied it immediately.”
