Page 23 of Tice's Kind of Trouble
She takes a bite, mulls this over. Finally says, “But you didn’t know this was going to happen.”
“Still,” I reply roughly. “I take responsibility.”
“Tice!” She spins around to face me. “There is no way?—”
I catch her face between my hands and plant a kiss on her forehead, torn the fuck up about what I need to tell her. But it has to come from me. No one else.
When I pull back, I keep my hands on her face, keeping us eye-to-eye. “My guy has a lead. We have evidence.”
She blinks. Twice. “Oh thank goodness, that’s great news.”
“There’s more.” I close my eyes, breathe, count a few rounds, and then brush my thumb over her cheek. “He’s been around your place before last night.”
Paling, she stares at me. Her lips part, whispering something, but too low for me to hear. “When?”
“I don’t know, but he had some of your personal items.”
Bethany’s breathing goes from relaxed to panicked. “What did he have?”
“At this point I don’t think you need to know, it’s just going to be upsetting.”
She pulls away, tears gathering, brightening the moss-green of her eyes. “No, Tice. I need to know, this feels…important.”
There’s no way I’d let her go now when she’s upset, scared. I snag her, drawing her into a tight embrace. “Sweetheart, let me take care of this.”
Shaking in my arms, she tries to push against me, a half-hearted attempt to make space between our bodies. Distance I won’t allow right now. I need to feel her safe in my embrace as much as she needs my protection right now.
Finally she drops her head to my sternum, making my heart trip over. “Take care of what?”
“Everything.”
She laughs humorlessly. “Just like that, you’re going to take care of all my problems?”
Stroking my fingers through her hair, I brush kisses along her cheek, down to her ear, where I drop my voice low.
“Exactly. That’s what I’ll do from now on.”
At the worst fucking moment the doorbell rings. “Goddamned,Kane.”
It has to be him. Chase is working the case. He would have called first, but Bethany’s brother…nope. Definitely the kind to roll up to check on his sister.
Bethany perks up, the excitement in her expression solidifying that this is another thing I’ll be giving Bethany—unobstructedtime with her brother, as much as that idea annoys me.
I want all her time to myself. Not in a sick, destructive way like some men demand. No, I just want to be with her. Night and day.
But if it makes her happy to see Kane, then so-fucking-be-it. She gets it.
“My brother? You really think he’s here?”
“Course he’s here. He would never leave you without checking on you. He and Chase are the only two people I know who could get around my security system.”
Grabbing my hand, Bethany pulls me toward the front door where her brother’s large shadow fills the adjacent window. If I didn’t recognize his outline, I’d be secreting Bethany away to the safe room.
“Hold on, hotshot. I open the door. I want to keep you safe.”
“From Kane?”
“From the world.”
