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As much as he was pissed the fuck off with her right now, he was glad to hear that shit in her voice. Know she was smiling with real happiness in her eyes. It had taken her, and most of the team a while to get back to that. The war with Fernandez had been rough. The blood had seeped into all of them, even if they won against the notorious head of the flesh trade.
Wars against a man like that were never won easy, or without casualties. It had been messy. Painful. Even for him, someone who didn’t really feel pain, didn’t really have that attachment.
So yeah, part of him was glad Rosie was smiling and joking again, the rest of him was fucked off that it was at his expense.
He kept painting.
She didn’t make a move to leave.
“Of all the people who I thought would be the one to jerk you outta your shit, I didn’t think it’d be a single mom who liked to read tarot cards and a kid who is arguably one of the most awesome to exist,” she said. “I mean, they’re both fucking amazing human beings and I already adore the fuck out of them, but with your history, I would’ve thought they would be the last people to puncture that titanium outer.”
This, of course, made Lance snap his head upward. As Rosie had planned. And this time, no matter how well practiced he was, he couldn’t keep the surprise from his face.
He knew Rosie was good. He knew she was like a fucking dog with a bone when she got it in her head to find out shit, or kill someone who was hurting innocents. But he didn’t think, amidst everything going on in that bitch’s life, that she’d trouble herself to look into him. And even if she did, he’d been certain that she wouldn’t have been able to find shit.
This was Rosie.
It was on him for underestimating her.
When he met her eyes, they weren’t dancing with that smug happiness that had been injected into her tone before. They were saturated with pain. A knowing. Not pity, Rosie was smart enough not to look at a man like Lance with pity. Furthermore, she’d been through horrors of her own, she knew that well-meaning pity could do more damage than vicious words.
But there was a knowing that told him she knew everything, he hadn’t buried his shit deep enough.
“You tell anyone?” he barked at her.
She didn’t flinch at his tone. “Of course I didn’t tell anyone. Do I look new?”
He didn’t answer her, just clenched his jaw and started to think of new plans he would have to make to move away from Greenstone.
There was a pang to that.
He had told himself it was just a job.
He’d never been good at lying to himself. So he knew it was more than that. It was as close to a family as someone like him could ever get.
Or so he’d thought.
Now, as Rosie pointed out, he was in a back yard painting a fucking picket fence white. And the thought of leaving it behind, leaving them behind filled his stomach with acid.
But he’d have to. He’d made a promise to himself that if shit ever even came close to the surface, he’d be gone before the rancid truth polluted his life.
Rosie seemed to sense something in his expression. “I know that I’ve got beautiful full lips, but my proverbial mouth is very very tiny. I’ve got some understanding of why shit needs to stay locked down.” Her eyes shimmered. “Trust me.”
And fuck if he did. Him, the man who’d also promised himself that he’d never trust anyone again.
“I’m not going to hold this over your head, use it as blackmail for you to buy me an almond milk matcha every morning, in fact, I’m never going to mention it again,” Rosie continued. “You have my word on that. I’m only bringing it up right now because you’re painting a fence. And I am certain that Elena and Nathan are now part of my family, regardless of what happens between you all. I’m cheering for it all to turn up roses. For yet another Greenstone Security man to bite the dust. For another good woman to find her version of an ever after. But I needed you to know I know your history. I know how deep that’s cut you. Killed parts of you. Important parts. And as much as it pains me, and it does, there are no words for how sorry I am about what happened to you, I’m not going to insult you by trying to find them. I know it. So I know that people who’ve felt the kind of pain you have and survived, they’re people that deserve something beautiful.” She directed her gaze to the house.
