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“I’m the lynchpin. If I go, all of this crumbles.” She thought of the earth crumbling beneath her feet like it had in her nightmare.
“You can’t carry all of that on your shoulders. Trust me, when you make yourself personally responsible for everyone around you, it’s impossible to be everyone’s keeper. Life happens. It’s necessary to put yourself first sometimes.”
“I did that once already.”
“And it sounds like you had to. Maybe it’s time to consider that again. If not, you’ll lose yourself completely.”
“Too late,” she sighed, pressing her cheek to his chest. “I’m long gone already.”
King leaned back and looked down at her with a confident smile. “You’re not gone. I can see you perfectly.” His lips touched hers gently and the shock of it made her back go stiff. It took just a second of his tongue exploring her mouth for Bailey to melt like butter into his arms.
A sound rattled in the night outside. Likely just an animal scurrying away. But it was enough to halt the moment. She pulled away from him, her better judgment clamoring to the front of her brain.
“I should go check on my mom. She’s been having tough nights.” Her lips were just centimeters from his and part of her hoped he would ignore the attempt to sidetrack what they were doing.
Instead, he loosened his grip and reluctantly leaned back. “Of course. Just holler if you need me. And I’ll take a little of that muscle balm if you have it.”
“Right,” Bailey replied, feeling a sudden chill as she left his arms. “Turn around and tell me where it hurts.”
Grabbing the bottle off the small table in the corner of her room she watched as he pulled up his shirt and exposed his toned back.
“It’ll be cold,” she warned, her eyes locked on his muscled body.
“I could use a cool down.” He chuckled and she could feel the rumble of his laughter against her hand.
“I’m sorry if I’m sending mixed messages. I have a lot on my mind.” She felt suddenly self-conscious of the kiss and asking King in tonight. Surely a man like him could be anywhere with anyone if that’s what he wanted.
“You don’t need to apologize to me,” he replied as she slid his shirt back into place. “You’ve helped me more than you know. You don’t owe me anything. Don’t let me be one more thing you feel bad about. I can tell it’s already a long enough list. When you think about me, I want you to feel...” he trailed off as he seemed to search for the words.
“What?” she asked, licking her lips and tasting him there still.
“Everything.”
CHAPTERTEN
King
Mrs. Tully heaped a pile of scrambled eggs onto his plate and then wobbled uneasily back to the stove in her tiny kitchen. She now had a pile of wood in a small basket by it and King felt good to know he’d provided her with what she needed. Looking around at everyone he’d met at Cinderhill so far, he couldn’t imagine anyone else finding the task of chopping wood very easy.
“Ask what you’ve got to ask,” she said, flipping the bacon skillfully. The splattering noise against the skillet was loud but Mrs. Tully was louder.
“Ask what?” King questioned, pretending he hadn’t been dying to pick her brain since the last time they’d spoken.
“About her father. You want to know about Bailey’s father. It’s written all over your face.”
“I would like to know how things went down. It’s so foreign to me. I’ve never really understood the idea of some dude getting people to do crazy stuff just because he tells them. It sounds like he was a powerful man, but still. How does that happen?”
“You’ve never been a man to take orders from anyone?” She turned and looked at him skeptically. It stopped him in his tracks, the fork hovering in midair before it could reach his mouth. Mrs. Tully must have a damn good read on him.
“I guess I worked for someone before. But I didn’t think of him as a—”
“Did this boss of yours ever ask you to do something you knew was wrong?”
King thought of the hundreds of things he’d done for Lou that broke the law or landed in some moral gray area. “He did.”
“Why did you do those things for him?”
King thought on it for a moment. He’d been so closely inspecting everyone here at Cinderhill he’d been avoiding a look at himself. “I felt a sense of loyalty to him. Some obligation. He’d done a lot for me over the years. Saved my ass plenty of times. I thought the least I could do was work hard for him.”
