Page 16 of Tripped By Love
“You don’t have to figure it out alone. I’ll be here.”
Her lips quirked. “Well, he does think you’re my boyfriend.”
I grunted in reply. It wasn’t my finest moment. I hadn’t really thought my words through, when I was known for doing just that. For being careful. Methodical. Planning everything to a T. Something feral and animalistic had taken over me when I’d seen her taut frame and heard his demands.
Her smile slipped away as if something else had crossed her mind. “Don’t tell Brady. Or my parents. God…can you imagine what they’d do?”
It stabbed at me even when I knew they’d be right to freak out. Cassidy O’Neil deserved someone much more than a dishonorably discharged corpsman who played at being a bodyguard.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I have no intention of telling Brady I pretended to be your boyfriend for all of two seconds. I’d like to keep my job…and my balls.”
Her mouth fell open. “Not that, you big lunk. I mean about Clayton being here and wanting to see Chevelle. Brady would probably hire a whole other detail just to surround the house and then drown me in lawyers.”
Knowing she hadn’t meant me pretending to be her boyfriend didn’t lessen the pinch to my heart, because I still knew the truth.She was an angel, and I was a flawed mortal.
“The lawyer thing doesn’t sound like such a bad idea,” I told her.
“There’s no dad listed on Chevelle’s birth certificate. He’d have to ask for a DNA test. I mean, Chevelle’s his…but…” She trailed off, uncertainty filling her, and I felt like a jerk for causing her to worry. But she probably did need to think about it if Chevelle’s father was trying to insert himself into the picture.
She raised her arm, tightening her ponytail, and it raised her breasts in a way that was hard to look away from. “I feel like I need to burn off twenty years of stress. Ready to get your ass kicked on the mats?”
She needed to burn off stress and worry, and I couldn’t be there for her. It twisted my stomach more than it had already been twisting since my phone had rung with Jonas’s face appearing on my screen.
“I can’t stay,” I told her. She looked crestfallen. “I have to go to Austin.”
“Austin? Texas?”
I nodded and spoke words I hadn’t breathed to anyone, not even Trevor. “My foster mom was hospitalized because of a heart condition.”
Cassidy’s face was full of surprise. “You…you were a foster kid?”
There was a stigma to those words that most people associated with them. Cassidy hated people judging her because of her Triple X and hypotonia. I hated people expecting me to have some sad, sob story about being in foster care. Sure, it hadn’t been great before I’d been placed with Maliyah, but no one had abused me. No one had stolen from me. I’d just moved around a lot until she’d opened her home and taken me in.
“Only for three years…after my parents died,” I told her.
“What…what happened to them?”
I swallowed the lump in my throat that would always be there when talking about the moment my world changed. “A truck driver fell asleep at the wheel. Crossed over the divide and hit us head-on.”
“God…I’m so sorry,” she said. “Us…you were in the car?”
I gave a curt nod. I didn’t want to talk about them or the accident, not when my emotions were already so raw and near the surface.
“I was lucky to haveTíaMaliyah,” I said and meant it.
“She’s your aunt?”
My lips twitched. “No. She’s no relation at all. It’s just what I call her. She doesn’t really have any family of her own either. She was a foster kid, too. But she’s surrounded by a group of people from her church and her community who act like she’s their family.”
I’d just told Cassidy more about my life in two minutes than anyone had known about me in years. I was one-hundred-percent certain Garner knew about my family from his background check when he’d hired me. I was sure Trevor had looked me up as much as I’d looked him up back when we’d been trying to figure out who the insider was giving Brady’s stalker intel, but I’d never openly mentioned my situation to either of them.
“I’m hoping to be back by Sunday or Monday at the latest,” I told her and headed toward the back door and the SUV I had parked, ready and waiting to take me to Albany.
“Marco, she had a heart attack. Take all the time you need. Brady won’t care. No one will. Be where you need to be for those that love you.”
I didn’t correct her words about being loved or about the heart attack. It hadn’t been one. It was takotsubo cardiomyopathy. A heart weakened?broken?by stress, and I’d been the first to break it. Still, Cassidy’s words struck a chord that was hard to shake off. After I’d stayed silent?after I’d been court-martialed?I’d sworn an oath to myself that I’d always be there to protect the people who needed it most, no matter what it cost me. It was the reason I’d gone to work for Garner. To be in the line of fire, shielding others. But I’d also promised myself I wouldn’t bring anxiety to Maliyah’s door again, which was why I’d stayed away as much as possible. In the process, I’d left Maliyah and Jonas unguarded. Alone. I’d failed her again while thinking I was doing the right thing.
As I stepped out the door, I looked back at Cassidy. The kitchen light was shining behind her, turning those golden strands into the halo that often surrounded her. She wouldn’t tell her family about the asshole showing up, but now that I knew, I’d have to keep a watch on her even more. I needed to make sure Clayton didn’t pull anything fast or shady. I had to come back as much as I needed to go.
