Page 87 of Love Lies Bleeding

I see the vulnerability on his face, as he makes that one request, and realize that I’m not the only one afraid of what might happen when the truth is finally out in the open. I nod and settle against him.

“Tell me why?”

“I was being blackmailed.”

Shock prickles my skin, a sudden feeling of cold, heaviness expanding from my belly, as I try to pull away from his hold only to have him tighten his arms around me. I glare at him as I try to shove away and he closes his eyes and drops his head.

“Please, Blossom, I need to say this and I need you close when I do or I won’t get it all out, and I need to.”

“Fine, but only because I need answers.”

“Thank you.”

I’m caught between my natural reaction to fly off the handle and my need to soothe this man who has always managed to get the soft side of me to come out so easily.

“Who blackmailed you, Jake?”

Jake’s fingers tap out a distracted dance on my leg, the muscles in his neck corded so tight he looks like the slightest movement will cause him to snap. “An old acquaintance.”

He looks like he’s been thrown back in time, but these one-word answers are fraying my nerves.

“Who? Stop making me work for this, Jake. You owe me this and if you can’t give it to me you need to get out and leave me the hell alone.”

Jake gives a curt nod. “A man named Nick Kendrick. He and I got into some trouble when we were younger and I almost went to jail. He threatened to tell you everything if I didn’t steal the paper.”

“No.” My voice is barely a whisper as nausea swirls in my belly. Something stirs in my brain at the name, but I can’t quite place it.

Jake grips me tighter, his hand smoothing slow circles over the skin of my thigh.

“I said no, I would never have done that and risk you, Blossom. You were my whole world, you still are, but he set you up anyway. When I tried to intervene, he threatened to tell you about my past.”

My hand flutters to my throat as a heavy sense of dread sinks to the pit of my stomach. I know he never killed anyone or hurt someone because he already told me that and, despite everything, I believed him and still do.

“What did you do?”

“I stole a car with him.”

I rear back, confusion pulling at my brow. “A car? Is that it? You destroyed my life over a stolen car?”

“Well. There’s a little more, but that was the only crime I committed.”

I turned to him then, laying my hand on his chest. “And you didn’t think I would love you knowing that? You thought so little of me?” Hurt and anger color my words and I push off his lap to give myself some room to think and process his words. Jake sighs and hangs his hand between his knees in defeat unlike anything I’ve seen on him before, and I hate it. His head lifts and he holds my gaze with his own, anger, despair, fear, and regret swimming in those pools of green.

“I wasn’t the man I am now, Blossom. I owed the McKenzies everything and they did, and still do, treat me like family, but I never believed I deserved it or you, so I was terrified you’d hate me. I was a coward.”

“You’re lying. There’s more to this story.”

Jake hangs his head and blows out a breath. “Yes. After the Dean found the tape of you stealing the papers, I was going to go to him and tell him what really happened, but I got an email from Nick with a file attached.”

“He threatened you?”

Shame is a funny thing to see on such a proud man, and despite spending the majority of the last ten years wanting to see it, now I hate it more than anything.

“Tell me.” I move toward him and sink to my knees, my palm on his bristled cheek making him look up and I see so much love there that I don’t know what to do with it. I’m so angry still, and I know letting go of years of hatred won’t be easy.

“The file contained the name of the man whose car we stole. I never knew it and Hank said it was better not to know the details. I always went along with it, because by that point, I didn’t trust a single decision I made not to land me back in the shit.”

“Who was it?”

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