Page 83 of Five Fingers of Death

His heavy sigh told me everything I needed to know. “She was in a bad place. Just be careful.”

“Like Sky should have been careful around you?”

“I never said it was right. No, she never should have been around me. We both know that. I was never any good for her, but I got myself clean.”

“And she got herself better,” I argued.

Dropping his eyes, he murmured, “Thirteen years brings a lot of damage. She might not ever come back from that.”

I gritted my teeth at his statement. I didn’t need to be told that Izzy might not be the woman she might have been once upon a time. Life had changed her just as it had me. But I wasn’t interested in that anyway. The only thing I was focused on was making sure she was okay and being there as a friend.

“Lock asked us to look out for her. I was too late last time. I won’t be ever again,” I hissed before stepping away.

I kept walking, doing everything in my power to clear my head before I reached her new house. The last thing she needed was for me to show up in a pissy mood. By the time I got to her steps, I felt somewhat better about the whole thing.

I knocked just a tad too hard, and cursed myself as she was opening the door.

“Jason. What are you doing here?”

She looked better. A hell of a lot better than yesterday. Her hair was much shorter and had some wave to it. And that lost look she sported yesterday was now replaced with something a little more hopeful.

“Hey, Izzy. I just came to see how you were.”

“Um…good.” She watched me curiously, her eyebrows furrowing as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Where’s Carli?”

“She’s with Tahlia.”

A small laugh escaped her lips as she glanced away.

“What? Why is that funny?”

“Look, I appreciate the concern, but you don’t need to come over and have the talk with me. I’ll leave your daughter alone.”

She started to slam the door in my face, but I stopped it with my boot, trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about.

“Do you want to say that again?”

“I get it. I’m the crazy person who landed in the psych ward and you don’t want me around your daughter. I don’t blame you for protecting your daughter.”

“What the hell gave you the impression that I don’t want her around you?”

“How about the fact that when I arrived yesterday, you were looking at me like I was going to break any second? Or that you pulled her away from me like I would hurt her?”

My teeth ground together as I realized she had mistaken me giving her space as something entirely different. “Let’s get one thing straight right the fuck now. If I didn’t want you around my daughter, I would tell you. Are we clear?”

Wide eyes stared back at me in fear and I cursed myself for being the ass that scared her just like her husband. Releasing the door, I took a step back, giving her the space she needed.

“I was watching you because I was the one who walked in on you that night. Do you remember that?”

She pulled her lip between her teeth, biting gently. “Yes.”

“I’ll never get that fucking image out of my head. I knew when I walked out of your house just minutes before that something was wrong, and I didn’t listen to my instincts. I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she said immediately. “And if you hadn’t walked in…who knows how long it might have continued.” She sighed heavily, rubbing her hand over her forehead. “You probably saved my life.”

“I don’t know about that,” I grumbled. “As for pulling Carli away, she was all over you and there were a lot of fucking people there. I just wanted to give you space before a four-year-old attached herself to your hip.”

“I don’t even know why she likes me,” Isabelle said. “I hardly know her.”

---