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“It’s not enough. My God, you haven’t even apologized to me.”
“I don’t apologize,” I said. “Never. Not to anyone.”
“Do you hear yourself? You hurt me. You have upended my life, only thinking of yourself. And you won’t even apologize for it!”
“Actions are what matter, Belle, not words.” After everything with her father, I’d think this was obvious.
She gave a brittle laugh. “The fact that you’re not even willing to say it tells me all I need to know.”
“Which is?”
“That your pride means more to you than I do.”
“Nothing means more to me than you do.”
“Except admitting you’re sorry, apparently.”
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. I wasn’t sorry. Dan Kelly didn’t deserve to be mayor. I would do anything to prevent it.
And I didn’t regret a single second of the time Belle and I spent together.
She went around me and headed toward the front entry. “Goodbye, Bax.”
I wanted to stop her, take her back to the Devil’s Hand and keep her with me forever. But I couldn’t kidnap her. I called, “This isn’t over.”
“I’m terriblysorry,” she drawled with a heavy dose of mockery. “But this is most definitely over.”
“Someone could still try to hurt you.”
She paused with her hand on the doorknob. “Did you handle the man responsible for my kidnapping attempt?”
“Yes, Walsh is dead.” We’d found Walsh in New Jersey. I’d killed him quickly, eager to get back to Manhattan. “But—”
“Then we needn’t worry. Besides, no one on earth could possibly hurt me more than you have, Billy Baxter.” She yanked open the door and disappeared outside.
Sucking in a ragged breath, I stared at the wood floor. The walls closed in as my stomach sank to my toes.
Shit. I’d lost her.
CHAPTER13
Baxter
Once again, I broke into Daniel Kelly’s office after dark.
While the breaking in part felt familiar, everything else was different.
It all changed after Belle’s departure, from the way I looked at myself to the way I saw the world.
And I didn’t like what I discovered. She was right. I’d let my pride and feelings for her father cloud my judgment. I took away her choices and backed her into an impossible corner.
I deserved to lose her.
And so, for the first time in my life, I was doing the right thing. The decent thing. It wouldn’t get her back, but not doing it would hurt her. And I would do everything in my power to keep Belle from hurting ever again.
Easing the window open, I threw a leg over the sill and climbed inside.
Daniel Kelly was at his desk, a lamp turned low in the corner. The soft glow illuminated the pistol in his hand.
