Page 85 of Sin for You

“Because we hid it from you.”

“It wasn’t my business.”

I sat there, stunned. “Well, it’s too late now. I…fuck, I ended it. I thought—”

“I know what you thought, and you’re wrong. Maybe you should try and fix it.”

Someone said something in the background again. “I have to go. Talk soon, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“And, Bull? If you love her, if you think she feels the same way, find a way to make it right.” Then he disconnected.

I sat there for a long time after Mase hung up, the same words spinning around my scull.

If you think she feels the same way.

That was the kicker, because she didn’t.

She didn’t feel the same way.

There was a rap at the door a second before Dane walked in. He took one look at me and frowned. “Why so glum?” He took the seat across from me. “I’m the one who might still get locked up. You should be fucking beaming, not having to look out for my sorry ass for at least a year.”

“Don’t,” I growled.

Dane’s brown eyes shot to me.

“And you won’t. I told you, it’s sorted. And don’t joke about this shit. I know it’s your way of coping, but, fuck, Dane, do not bottle it up. Talk to me. I can help you.”

He sat forward, head dipped, and rubbed his hands over his head. “Seems all you’ve been doing since I came home is try and help me, you and Cal bailing me out of the shit I get myself into.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry for that. I don’t…I don’t give a fuck what happens to me a lot of the time, and I forget how it affects everyone around me.” He lifted his head, gaze coming to me, throat working. “Everly…she won’t talk to me. I’ve lost her.”

Shit. Sometimes I thought she was the only thing holding Dane down, stopping him from fucking floating away, self-destructing, from Cal and me losing him completely.

“She just needs some time, that’s all.”

“I scared her,” he said, voice wrecked. “She’s the most important person in my world, and now she’s afraid of me. I was supposed to protect her, all I wanted was to protect her, and now…” He shook his head. “I’ve lost her.”

I stood and rounded the desk, pulling my younger cousin from his chair and wrapping him in my arms. He let me. “You haven’t lost her. You’ll get through this. And then you’ll make it right.”

Dane pulled away. “Yeah,” he said unconvincingly, and then looked me in the eyes. “I think…Bull, I’m leaving Rocktown.”

“What?”

“It’s for the best.”

“Bullshit.”

Dane held my stare. “I need you to not fight me on this.”

He was as determined as I’d ever seen him. I sighed. “You want to go out to the bar, have a drink, talk about it?”

“Nah, we can get together with Cal tomorrow and fight about it then.” He winked, trying and failing to act like he was over it, that he was fine. “Cassy’s making my favorite tonight. Definitely not telling him at the ranch and risk ruining my last taste of Cassy’s cooking for a while.”

If he needed to let it go, for now anyway, I could do that.

He grinned, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You should come. Quinn will probably be there. She’s been there a lot lately.”

I shifted, wanting to ask a million questions and holding myself back—barely. “Has she?”