Page 56 of Bound

“I know, honey,” I whisper. “And I know it went bad.”‘

Pain and anger in his eyes. “Bad?” he says quietly. “Bad, kitty cat? I nearly killed someone. I put them in the hospital for months and months.”

The middle of the street is far from the place for this conversation.

But…

I find I can’t let it go.

“You hurt them because they raped your girlfriend.”

His big body shudders.

“I know I shouldn’t have seen the files,” I murmur. “And I didn’t even mean to look. But I was helping the social worker who was on my case move offices?—”

“Of course you were.”

“And I saw your name in the files.” Guilt threads itself through my belly again. “I wish I could lie and say I dropped the box and the papers just happened to be right there, but that’s not what happened.” I sigh. “I saw your name. I snooped because I thought you might be hiding something that could hurt the team. And I found a painful part of your past you wanted to forget.” I suck in a breath, release it slowly. “I really am sorry.”

He smooths a hand over the back of my head, calloused palm catching on the strands of my hair. “I know you are.”

“But I’m also not,” I admit. “Because I know that deep dark secret of yours, know exactly why you keep beating yourself up over and over again for it. And I know that you’re not the bad person you think you are.”

“Claire, if this comes out, my position in the league?—”

“You think that Luc doesn’t know already?”

He rocks back on his toes, eyes going wide.

But I don’t miss the anger in them.

The hurt.

The panic.

“You told him?”

I shake my head. “Of course not. “But the news stories are out there and the social media posts and…if someone wanted to look, wanted to talk about it, they would.”

“Those records are sealed.” He shudders. “That can’t be right. I?—”

“I’m not saying that the guys or even Luc or Lexi know what happened—” Though I’d bet he does because Luc is…Luc. Heknows all, and he and his wife and team lawyer, Lexi, have ways to dig out all the skeletons that might come back to hurt the team. And my bet would be on Smitty knowing too, considering how gently he handles Jackson?—

Though who knows?

I’ve been wrong about so much.

“I’m just saying,” I go on, “that if it all came out, your friends would still be your friends. Your past wouldn’t change how they look at you, nor the respect they carry for you. They’d know that you protected a person you loved, that you accepted the consequences that came from that, and then you moved on and made something wonderful with your life.”

He’s quiet and statue-still for a long,longmoment. Then he drops his chin, settling it on the top of my head. “How can you be so sure?”

I inhale, hold it for a long moment.

Then exhale softly. “Because I knowyou.”

“The guy who was an asshole?”

I wrap both arms around his middle, press my body to his. “No. The man who felt something for me and did everything in his power to keep me away so I wouldn’t get hurt.”

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