Page 204 of At the Edge of Surrender

Kane’s expression dimmed, and he seemed to struggle to force out the words. “Why don’t we not think about you leaving right now until we take care of whoever came after you this afternoon?”

A trace of the terror I’d felt earlier trickled through.

Uncertainty and horror.

I truly had no clue who it could have been. No understanding of why.

But I swore, it was like the monster had known who I was. The vile words he’d hissed at my ear.

Nausea tumbled in my stomach when I thought of all the chaos that Emmalee had written in that journal. Her obsession with what had happened to us.

Why couldn’t I give it to him?

I guessed because I felt like I needed to protect her. I didn’t want him to see the way she seemed to have lost little pieces of reality.

Had become consumed and unbalanced.

I couldn’t help but fear that she’d lost herself in a way that I hadn’t understood. Fear that maybe she allowed what had happened to us to destroy her, so she destroyed herself.

How could I betray that? Give that to anyone else?

Kane ran the pad of his thumb along the hollow of my eye. “No one is getting close to you, Emery. You’re not going to be alone until we figure this out. Either me or one of my crew will be right next to you. Because you’re our family. All of ours.”

The impact of his statement punched through me, and my chin trembled as I gave him a slight nod, though old fear kept the words that threatened to escape trapped on my tongue.

The emotion that rose up from the places where I thought my hopes and dreams would exist.

All because of this man.

“You make me feel so different, Kane. So real and alive. Vibrant when I’d been living my life in grayscale.”

“That’s because you were meant to shine, Little Warrior. You just needed someone to help you stand in the light.”

He took my arm with the tattoo and tenderly ran his fingers over the inscription.

Find me in the darkness, bring me to the light.

That familiarity roiled between us. A humming connection that keened. Memories of that time flooded me. The reason I’d gotten it and what it represented.

And I guessed it had come to mean something brand new.

My hand was shaking as I let my fingertips trace over the images on his chest. The dueling demons on his pecs. His own ghosts that haunted him.

He stared down at me the entire time.

An understanding passed between us as we stood beneath the warmth of the shower, the fall dragging us into a dream.

Kane grabbed a loofah and doused it in soap, then he carefully dragged it over every inch of my body.

Nothing about it felt like he was cleaning me. It felt as if he were worshipping me.

The way he ran it in circles.

Softly.

Tenderly.

Over my shoulders and breasts.

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