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Shoving him, I allow myself to laugh too. I don’t know when I’ll have another chance. But the moment passes quickly because there’s no real happiness in it. Just a thing that struck us both as funny.
“I was close to my dad,” I tell him, sharing something I’m not sure he cares to hear. But I want to know more. “Are you close to yours?”
He remains quiet for a long while. “I used to be. Now it seems all I do is everything he doesn’t want me to. Even when it’s for his own good.”
“What do you mean?” I ask the question, not expecting an answer at all.
“With Gideon after him, I’ve had to take measures to hide him. He doesn’t like it.” He lets out a long breath. “He’s done bad things, just like your father. But I’m going to protect him anyway.”
“Only, I didn’t get to protect mine, did I?” I sigh in defeat. In utter disappointment. “I didn’t even get to mourn him. He was killed and left splayed out in the men’s bathroom to add insult to injury. Whoever did it wanted him humiliated. And while they plastered the picture all over the evening news…” as I say that, something begins to niggle at the back of my mind. “I ran.”
“You did what you had to do.”
I nod, but not to what he’s saying. My mind is going back, to another time where I thought something very similar. About a brutal murder and a body left on display for humiliation.
Kate Maxton.
18
ARRAN
Itrace the curve of Skye’s spine with my fingertips. She hugs the pillow tighter beneath her head and mewls.
“Skye,” I say. “It’s time to get up.”
Her lids flutter open and she turns sleepy gray eyes to me. A soft smile touches her lips. “You’re wearing the same suit?”
“Slipping into Luca’s pants doesn’t sit well with me.”
Wiping a palm over her face, she yawns. “I’m so tired.”
“You can sleep more in the car. Right now, I’m anxious to plan my next move.”
A crease forms between her brows. “Will you have to deal with Landon too?”
“No,” I say, sliding my hand over her hip, unable to keep myself from touching her. “He underwent surgery last night and should be on his way to Paris by the end of the day.”
“So he’s fine?”
“All he lost was a nut. He’ll be fine. Especially after Mother babies him the way she usually does. She might even buy him a bigger set of balls.”
She laughs, then covers her mouth. “Sorry. It’s not funny.”
I smile in return. “It kind of is.”
As if she can’t help herself either, she reaches for me, grasping my wrist gently. Grinning slyly, she asks, “Does your mother baby you too?”
“I’m not so sure she’s ever seen me as her child, much less a baby.”
Her smile fades and there’s something in her eyes, that haunting shadow that makes her seem so vulnerable. I stay like that for a moment, unable to move, captivated by her. But I know, if I remain too long in that vulnerability, she’ll gain more power over me than she already has.
So I lean in and kiss her, forcing her to shut her eyes and release me.
But when I attempt to pull away, she grips me tighter and keeps me by her side. “Arran.” She swallows hard. “What you did… You went against your brother to protect me.”
I touch the choker around her throat. “I told you I’d keep you safe.”
“Because you own me?”
