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“How could I? You left me in the hospital! You called your baby brother to come get me! I never would’ve done that to you.” She blinked rapidly, tears gathering on her bottom lashes. Fuck. I didn’t want her to cry. She couldn’t cry. I couldn’t be blamed for what I did if she started crying. “You didn’t call, you didn’t text, you couldn’t even email for Christ’s sake! You walked out on me, remember? You left me when I needed you the most, so you don’t get to tell me that I don’t know what the last three years have been like! They’ve been hell, Killian! That’s what they were. And you walked away like the coward you are.”
Her hand flew up to slap me, but I was faster. I caught her wrist, latching on tight—tighter than needed. I yanked her tiny little body away from the door and dragged her until we were damn near nose-to-nose. That was the wrong move. A wave of cinnamon sugar and spice wafted over me, clouding my judgment. The thrumming of her pulse against her delicate neck taunted me. Oh, how I wanted to fucking sink my teeth into her. My dick raged against the zipper of my jeans. Fuck, how I wanted her.
“Don’t you dare hit me,” I growled.
“Or what?” Genevieve challenged. A deep growl reverberated through her slim frame—a sound that did nothing to quell just how fucking hard I was for this woman. “What’re you going to do, Killian? Hurt me? I think you’ve already done all the damage you can do.”
Tearing her arm free, she planted her hands on my chest and shoved. I didn’t move. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“You can rot in hell for all I care,” she snapped when I opened my mouth to say something. I stared at her, stunned. Fuck, that was worse than a slap to the face. I knew what those words meant coming from her. The God-fearing, church-going woman in front of me would never say something like that unless she truly meant it.
Taking the opening, Genevieve stormed away, and I let her because I didn’t have a damn thing else to say.
Chapter 13
Genevieve
Iknocked on Cade’s door. I didn’t know where else to go. Raven and Declan were doing things I didn’t want to think about. Nolan was… I didn’t know where Nolan was. Part of me didn’t care. The other part of me did—very much so. I’d apologize to him later.
But right now? Right now, I just wanted to cry.
“There’d better be a damn good reason for you to be knocking on my fucking door this goddamn late,” Cade growled from inside his room. I stiffened at his tone. This was a bad idea. I’d probably woken him up. Before I could sneak away, the door flew open. Cade stood there in all his disgruntled glory, his ashy blond hair awry and his blue eyes full of sleepy frustration.
And he was naked.
My gaze snapped to the ceiling instantly. I should’ve expected that. We were wolves. Nakedness was a thing. Still, it felt weird seeing him naked in a situation when shifting wasn’t involved.
“Fucking hell! Warn a guy before you knock, darling,” Cade snapped. He left the door open, hurrying away for what I hoped was clothes, while I remained exactly where I was. “Okay, pants acquired. You can come in unless you want to stay in the hall.”
“No,” I whispered rather pathetically. I shut the door behind me as he busied himself with moving shit around. Admittedly, Cade didn’t know the meaning of travel light. For a weekend he’d spend mostly in shorts—like the ones he’d put on—the man packed like he was on a month-long excursion. Even I didn’t bring this much stuff with me.
“You missed a hell of a fight night.” He kept the conversation flowing easily. Me? I stuck to the door and fussed with the hem of my sweatshirt. The urge to cry was at an all-time high as I began to crash after my fight with Killian. “After Cole got his ass kicked, that hot bounty hunter kicked at least seven people’s asses before they called it a night. Finn almost set his ass on fire. His literal ass. Lucas had a little too much fun smacking the shit out of him to help put out a fire that didn’t exist. Declan and Raven… we’re not talking about what I caught those two horny fucks doing. I’m about to sit her pretty little ass down and have a reminder conversation about consent when it comes to public play. Roan hit a fucking guy over some blonde girl looking young enough to be his daughter. However, the way she looked at him, that girl has Daddy issues. Alice is pissed I won’t throw down with her. I’m going out riding tomorrow with the Stones and Ironwoods, which is a safe bonding option. The risky injury clause in my contract makes all this shit way less fun. Darling, why the fuck do you look like you’re going to cry?”
Yeah, that was all it took. I burst into tears.
“Oh! Hey! No! Darling, I didn’t mean for you to actually start crying!” Cade exclaimed. He swept me up in a tight hug, which only made me cry harder. “What’s wrong?”
“The bounty hunter is my husband!” I wailed into his chest. Oh, I was pathetic. “And no one told me he’d be here. I haven’t seen him in three years. He doesn’t look like my husband. He doesn’t act like my husband. He doesn’t smell like my husband. And I hate fighting with Nolan!”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have connected your husband with that,” he faltered, pausing as he said it. I smacked him in the shoulder.
“Stop picturing him,” I growled. I wasn’t sure what Cade’s type was, but it seemed to fall into the category of oldest Byrnes if the joking comments he made about Declan and now Killian were any indication. “Picture my husband again and I’ll hit you. Harder.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Cade chuckled. Pulling back, his thumbs brushed over my cheeks. “Crying’s not a good look on you. You go from hot stuff to hot mess real fast, darling.”
He was trying to make me laugh, and it worked as I let out a sound that resembled a wet laugh. Yeah, I probably looked like a disaster.
“Can I stay here tonight?” I asked quietly. The last thing I wanted to be was alone.
“We can share this obscenely small thing they call a bed,” he said. He made his way around the room, moving bags and making a path to the tiny bed. “I swear, the PT beds we have in the locker rooms are bigger than this thing.”
“They put all the big beds in the family wing,” I told him.
“Dicks.”
“The trade-out is screaming children at night.”
“Yeah, not sure a big bed is worth that,” Cade replied honestly. “Don’t get me wrong, my own kids? Sure. My friends’ kids? Maybe. Depends on if their kids are little shits. Anyone else’s kids? Fuck that. Take those crotch goblins elsewhere.”
