Page 56 of Cruel Secrets

My heart plummets to my feet as I look at him. “What happened?”

He takes another draw of the cigarette before holding it out to me.

I stopped smoking a couple months before finding out I was pregnant with Bianca, but with all the stress happening right now, it’s calling my name.

With pinched fingers, I take it, my inhale long and slow before I hand it back to him. I blow out the smoke in rings, shaking my head when he offers it to me again.

“I still don’t smoke.” I look at the fire as the flames climb higher. “You know, whatever’s going on, you can talk to me about it. I know it’s been a long time since we last really got along with each other well.”

He snorts, eyeing me. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. I don’t think you gave up all hope on us, though. Not if I’m the one who gets Bianca in your will.”

The corner of my mouth twitches. “That’s what you’re out here thinking about?”

There’s no way I’m going to tell him that even when I hated him, I regretted some of the decisions I made.

Like not holding on to him tighter.

Or not chasing him down and making him see that we were the perfect match for each other, even if we did have our problems.

“Partially.”

“What else?” I shift closer to the fire, trying to get warmer as the wind picks up. “You wouldn’t be out here looking like this if there wasn’t something bothering you. So, either you tell me what’s going on, or I stand out here and ruin the rest of your night.”

“You’d get too cold, and you’d run back inside long before that ever happened.”

“Well now, that almost sounds like you want to spend time with me.” I lean closer to him, nudging him with my elbow. “Come on, what the hell is going on out here? You’re scaring me.”

He sighs, flicking the cigarette into the fire before running a hand down his groomed beard, making the light strands shine brighter. “There was a problem, and I took care of it.”

“What kind of problem?”

My pulse pounds in my ears as a muscle tics in his cheek. His eyes squeeze shut for a moment like he’s exhausted with me before he makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat.

“It would probably be better to let you know what’s been going on, but then you’re going to stand here and see me for everything I am, and once you get a good look, it’s going to ruin the progress we’ve made.”

“I knew who you were and what you did back when we were in love with each other. It didn’t deter me then.”

“We didn’t have a daughter to protect then.” He clears his throat. “We have to think about Bianca. If I tell you what happened, then we could both go to jail for it.”

“Simple solution, then. You’re not going to get caught.” I give him a crooked smile, nudging him again until he returns it. “Come on. I’m a big girl. I can handle hard things.”

“Two men got close to the house while you and Bianca were sleeping.” Royce clears his throat, glaring at the fire like the weight of his stare could extinguish it.

I shift and when I glance at the fire, I once again see the clothing burning. When Royce shifts, it’s easy to see that he’s not in the same clothing he wore earlier today.

No, that’s in the fire with blood all over it.

“You took care of them?” I ask, throat thick and words choked.

The thought of someone getting close enough to get inside has my stomach turning. There’s no way they should have been able to get close to the house without the alarms going off.

Royce nods. “They’re not going to be a problem anymore.”

“Who was it?”

“Look, that’s not important. They’re not going to be a threat to you or Bianca anymore.”

In that moment, I could rip his head from his shoulders and kick it to the other side of the country.

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