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“I was the one who had to tell her he was gone. She said it was my fault. She said he wouldn’t have even been there if I hadn’t thrown our marriage away. I guess he didn’t tell her the reason it was over. She said I didn’t deserve Emma and that she’d be better off with her.”
“So she took you to court?”
Dane nodded. “She said since I was planning on filing for divorce that I had no legal standing to keep Emma.”
“She had to have known the courts wouldn’t buy that argument,” Jax said.
“I think she was just trying to wear me down. The legal battle drained most of my savings and I ended up having to sell the house Isaac and I bought to make ends meet. By the time it was over I just needed to start over.”
“What made you pick Dare?”
Dane snuggled back against him even further. “Isaac’s aunt and uncle on his father’s side owned this place. They died about a year ago and left it to him. I liked the idea of bringing Emma up in a small town and I knew I wouldn’t have to spend too much to get my practice up and running because his aunt and uncle had built a small boarding facility which I could easily convert.”
“Smart,” Jax said.
“What if I can’t figure out what’s happening to me, Jax? If you hadn’t been here today…”
“But I was. The what-ifs don’t matter.”
Dane turned in his arms. “You have a whole other life that I can’t compete with.”
Jax shook his head slowly as he reached out to run his fingers through Dane’s hair. “Don’t you get it yet, Dane?” Jax leaned down and kissed him. “The life I had before you and Emma is what can’t compete.”
* * *
“Morning.”
Dane jumped at the strange voice and then remembered Jax’s friend. The man was sitting in the same exact spot at the kitchen table as the night before with yet another cup of coffee in front of him.
“Morning,” Dane returned. “It’s Cade, right?” The man nodded and his penetrating gaze had Dane shifting uncomfortably. “Jax is still asleep.”
“There’s coffee,” he said as he motioned to the pot. The last thing Dane wanted to do was try to have a friendly chat with the gorgeous stranger who’d witnessed his complete humiliation yesterday. The one who was even now judging him and likely finding him lacking.
“Thanks.” He had no idea why he was thanking the guy for the coffee from his own damn coffee maker but what else was he supposed to say? What he really wanted to know was what the man was doing here. And to his shame, he really wanted to know what the man was to Jax. Friends meant different things to different people. “Did Jax ask you to come?”
“Not in so many words,” Cade answered non-committedly.
What the hell did that mean? Dane forced a sip of coffee down and studied the other man. The guy was fucking huge, taller than Jax even and oozed confidence and power. A navy blue T-shirt hugged his ripped torso and his thick thighs bulged against his tight jeans. He saw a tattoo peeking out underneath one sleeve and another at the base of his neck.
“Jax said you work for the same security company in Seattle?” Dane said, hoping to get the conversation onto an easy topic – one that wouldn’t have Cade looking at him like he was a bug he wanted to stomp with his huge combat boot.
Cade nodded. “Barretti Security Group.”
“What kind of work do you do?”
“Personal protection mostly. Some PI stuff. The firm specializes in information security too but Jax and I focus on the protection side of things.” Cade took a long, slow sip of his coffee before saying, “It’s a good fit for Jax because he’s always had a thing for protecting those that were weaker than him.”
Dane didn’t miss the dig but he wasn’t about to take the bait. “How long have you known him?”
“A while. He and Ben and I served together in Iraq. It was their first deployment, my second. We connected again after I finished my third tour. Jax was doing some undercover work for the Bureau in South America.”
“What kind of work?”
“His unit focused mostly on human trafficking.”
Dane shuddered at the horrible things Jax must have witnessed. “Jesus,” he whispered.
“He was undercover for two years. Helped break up an entire syndicate that was worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Saved countless lives.”
