Page 66 of In Spades

I planted a kiss on top of her head. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

I didn’t plan our date tonight to get her naked. It was obvious that Kristin needed to take things slow. But that didn’t mean I didn’t want to touch her as much as possible. My gaze lowered to her lips. Maybe I’d get a taste. Just a taste.

Kristin shook her head. “I’m barely surviving at this point. I keep thinking they’d be better off without me, but I wanted to keep them together. The foster care system would have likely split them up. There aren’t many families who could take on four kids at once.”

Her words sent a shockwave through me.

I was well acquainted with the foster system—having to pack my meager belongings into garbage bags like I was disposable. I was lucky to be placed with a good family, but I knew so many others who weren’t. I made sure that a large percentage of my money was donated every year to organizations that helped support caregivers and kids in the system. Kids aren’t disposable.

Her comment made a protective streak flare deep in my chest. My mind raced with the possibilities of what I could do to fix everything. I wanted to take all the pain away.

“When did your parents pass?” I grazed her bare arm with my fingertips, repeatedly reassuring her that she wasn’t alone.

Kristin stiffened and a darkness clouded her face. Her nostrils flared, and the corner of her lips tightened with contempt. “Unfortunately, they’re alive and mostly well.”

And just like that, sunshine was eclipsed by hatred.

“You don’t have to talk about them?—”

“They’re in prison.” Kristin didn’t sugarcoat it. Her jaw was clenched, and her fists were balled up so tight I worried she might break her fingers. “Drug trafficking and homicide.” Another tear slid down her cheek, and she began to shake. “I had no idea,” she whispered through gritted teeth. “All my life… I had no fucking clue.”

I turned to lay on my side and cradled her against my chest, stroking the back of her hair—trying my best to ease the pain.

She swallowed and tried to compose herself, but it was no use. The floodgates had opened, and tears flowed freely down her cheeks. “A kid died. He was in Logan’s class at school. Whatever fucking drug they sold to him killed him. They were selling to kids. It could have been Logan or Ky in that casket.” Kristin’s voice broke. She cupped her hands over her mouth as gut-wrenching sobs wracked her body.

“Hey,” I murmured, pulling her into my chest and tucking her under my chin. “I’ve got you, Kris.”

Kristin stammered through a half-coherent apology as she wiped her tear-stained cheeks. “Steve and Chase were part of the arrest. I was away at college, living on campus. I got a call in the middle of the night, and it ended up being the first time I ever talked to Steve. They needed the next of kin to come get the kids, or they would have to place them with social services.”

There was a growing damp spot in the middle of my shirt from her tears, but I didn’t care. I wanted to cradle her. Hold her. Comfort her.

I also wanted to beat the hell out of Kristin’s piece of shit parents. That was a new feeling for me. I was usually as calm as they came—something that bothered Elena. She seemed to think it meant I lacked passion.

“They kept their stash under Zoey’s crib, Will,” Kristin said, shaking her head. She cupped her hands over her mouth and sobbed.

Rage blistered my hands. I kept a tight hold on Kristin. Not because she needed me, but because she kept me grounded. I was two seconds from calling in every favor ever owed to me by some private military contractors I knew. Prison bars wouldn’t protect Bill and Cheryl Boyd. The guys I knew were the types who could make someone disappear, but only after they suffered.

And I wanted those dirtbags to suffer.

“So, Chase thought those were the people that sent me when I asked about you at the bar,” I said.

She sniffed and lifted her hands to wipe away her tears, but I beat her to it. Gently, I swiped my thumb across her cheek before burying my fingers in her hair.

“Probably,” she whispered. “Steve and Chase have always worried that my parents were working for someone bigger. They worry that eventually, the big fish will want money or leverage, and they’ll come after the kids and me. I don’t think so, but they’re protective to a fault.”

We rocked in the hammock for a while, tangled up in each other, not saying much of anything at all. Kristin’s legs were draped over mine, and my arms were wrapped around her.

The curve of her ass hung out of the bottom of her flimsy cotton shorts. I tried to focus on anything except how much I wanted to squeeze it. She had just bared her soul to me and all I could think of was how much I wanted to get her naked and fuck her senseless.

She had her arm wrapped around my stomach, clinging to me like a koala. Kristin’s breathing had evened out. She wasn’t sobbing, but occasionally, a tear would slip out of the corner of her eye. Knowing how bruised and battered her heart was broke me.

“Can I ask you something?” I murmured against her forehead.

Kristin nodded.

“Do you avoid talking about your siblings and what happened because it hurts or because you’re afraid for your safety?”

“Neither…”

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