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“Can I ask you something?”
I glanced up from the pan. “Anything.”
“Why did you ask Bane to train you?”
“Oh, I...” I trailed off. I was expecting him to ask a lot of things ranging from caring to sexual, but this didn’t make the list. “He offered to train me,” I finally said. “A while ago, he said he could teach me to fight and protect what’s mine. I don’t know why I didn’t take the offer seriously. Maybe if I had—”
“It wouldn’t have hardened your head to the point you’re impervious to blows,” Liam sliced in. “Coates was a gutless coward who attacked you while your back was turned. If you’re beating yourself up—thinking taking Bane up on that training would’ve prevented what happened to you and Laurel, you can stop now. It could’ve happened to any one of us.”
Placing the bacon on a plate, I let what he said sink in. “That’s true, I guess. I couldn’t help some monster sneaking up on me while my back was turned. Still, it doesn’t change how useless I was to stop that woman from taking Laurel, or to keep myself out of those chains. Sienna said we’re strongest together, but not if I’m the weakest link.”
I studied him out of the corner of my eye. “Why did you bring this up? None of you are saying it, but I’ve got a feeling you don’t want Bane to train me. Tell me what you really think, Liam.”
He didn’t look up from the eggs. “What I think is those on the dark side of Cinco fall into this life for many reasons, but rarely by choice. For you, it will be a choice, Mackenzie. If you’re doing this out of the fear I will fail to protect the two of you twice, I swear to you on every drop of blood I have and will spill, that fear is unnecessary. No one will ever hurt you again.”
So many things to say in response, and they all stuck in my throat. Swallowing hard, I stood wishing he’d follow his dizzying promise with a touch, hug, kiss—anything.
Liam’s only move was to lean over and grab the bacon. His lips brushed my forehead, pulling back.
Gathering myself, I put a smile on for the girls and brought them to the table. Liam was putting our plates down when Laurel stood on my legs, holding her hands up to him. My eyes widened at her. Laurel wasn’t one for separation anxiety, but she only ever reached for me, Sienna, and recently, Sunny and Fuller.
Liam didn’t skip a beat. He scooped her up and went into the kitchen to start on Lizzie’s unicorn smoothie. Laurel rode his arms, watching the show and looking pleased with herself.
“We’ll make this a thing,” I said, melting as Laurel gave him kisses. “Breakfast together every other morning. At least a couple times a week. What do you think?”
“No.”
My heart popped, letting out a wheezing screech as it deflated.
“Mornings are tough for me,” Liam continued. “I work most nights and prefer to sleep in—with Elizabeth’s permission.” The six-year-old grinned around a mouthful of avocado. “How about dinner?”
I bit my lip to stop me cheesing too hard. “Dinner it is.”
Her smoothie made, we sat down to eat. Liam held Laurel, feeding her avocado and laughing when she swiped some and smeared it on his face. Tricky and I talked about the outfits she wanted me to design her. Liam told me about the trips his parents used to take them on. I shared funny stories from college. It was, in a word, perfect.
Hours later, Sunny and I tore through the streets of Cinco, heading for the one place I thought I’d never see the inside of again.
“You really think they’ll hire me back just because you tell them to?” My lips worried between my teeth, staining them with purple lipstick.
“I do.” Sunny slid onto the very expressway he was thrown off of. “People rarely like the consequences of refusing me.”
I studied him. “Do you hurt people who refuse you?” There was no judgment in the question. “Bane suggested as much when he was teaching me to play the part of mob boss. Is that the true and simple secret to instilling fear? Doling out pain for every no.”
Wind blew through his raven locks, sweeping them clear from his achingly handsome smirk and glinting silver pools. No. The truth is people don’t refuse you because you’re too damn beautiful to anger. Heaven forbid the sunlight is ever stolen from those eyes.
“Bane gave you the crash course, gorgeous. Quick and dirty tips,” he said. “It’s not as simple as violence, Mackenzie. There are plenty of violent, abusive fucks knocking around everyone that looks at them cross-eyed, but they’re damn well not respected, or even feared. They’re just despised.”
“That’s true,” I murmured, thinking of a few violent, abusive fucks that crossed my path.
