Page 67 of Deal with the Devil

Kane appears like an angel of vengeance in the kitchen, chest rising and falling hard as he takes me in where I sit at the kitchen table, one foot tucked under my bum, my other heel resting on the seat of the chair. His blue eyes are somehow both wild and sharp as he quickly looks me over, takes in the scene of the kitchen, including Mama standing in alarm with two freshly made mochas topped with whip, before looking back to me.

I’ve already been through one hot cocoa, and the evidence is in the calm that’s settled over me. I call it sugar therapy. I’ve now moved onto sugared caffeine therapy, the next phase of my plan to put myself backtogether again after I broke apart in the aftermath of seeing Antonio, reliving the attack, and accepting the fact that Mama knew what happened to me.

My therapy approach isn’t psych approved, but whatever. All that’s overrated, anyway.

“Hi,” I breathe, feeling suddenly breathless as his eyes take me in inch by inch, slower this time.

“Did he touch you?”

Never, not in all the moments I’ve spent with Kane, have I heard that pitch to his tone. It’s capable of things. Dark and dangerous things. Depraved things—for me.

Is that a quiver I feel between my legs at the thought of my husband being capable of bad things in my name? God, something is wrong with me. Very, very wrong with me.

Can I blame it on mafia romance books?

I reach for the open jar of gummy bears, popping a yellow one between my teeth and sucking it into my mouth.

I’m pretty sure I see his pupils dilate before they retract.

I swallow. Hard.

Then I shake my head. “No.”

His eyes close slowly and reopen as Tav shifts behind him, calling both our attention to his presence. Mama takes that moment to resume walking to the table as Dad flushes the toilet from upstairswhere he’d excused himself nearly fifteen minutes prior. Dad can’t handle sugar like me and Mama. He calls it ‘rent a treat’ because he never gets to keep it long.

Gross.

“Who’s this?” Mama gestures with a cup to Tav.

“Tav,” Kane grunts with a chin nod. “Drummer.”

“Ah.” Mama smiles over Kane’s shoulder at Tav. “Come in. Sit. Can I get you a mocha?”

“Just coffee, if you have it. No sugar, black.” Tav takes a seat at the little table, spreading massive legs that brush the underside of the table, wide. Just like Kane, Tav is huge. He might be an inch, maybe even two, taller.

“Not a fan of the sweets?” Dad asks as he rejoins, taking his seat next to Mama.

“Nope.” Tav shakes his head. “Never did take a like to em.”

Kane lifts me from my seat, sitting his ass in my spot before depositing me in his lap. The only one not staring in stupefied shock is Tav. My parents look like they’ve just witnessed a risqué burlesque show starringMoi.

My face is on fire. I reach for another gummy bear, wiggling in Kane’s lap in a way that has the man grunting softly, leaning forward and hooking the lip of the jar to bring it closer.

My face burns hotter. I nab a red one this time—fitting considering I look like a lobster—and pop it onto my tongue.

Tav chuckles, shaking his head in amusement as my parents just stare straight at us in—well, shock.

“About that coffee,” Tav reminds Mama.

Mama jumps. “Of course.” But it’s as she’s fixing a black coffee no cream or milk as Tav ordered, that she says over her shoulder, “I think I’m starting to see why you married the man,Mija.”

“Mama.” I don’t reach for one gummy bear this time. This time, I just lift the whole damn jar.

Tav follows us home in my 4Runner. The entire time we’d been at my parents, Kane hadn’t allowed me to get up from his lap. His hands had held me in place, fingers pressing into the flesh of my hips as though in warning every time I even shifted in his lap. Even now, one big hand rested on my thigh, thick fingers spread as thoughtryingto take up space there—on me.

He's been weird and quiet, too. Kane is normally on the more charming side. Even during that first family meeting where we’d let the cat out of the bag that we’d been married in secret, and everyone had been livid, offended,hurt—he’d still managed to charm every woman in my family, regardless. My cousin had even muttered, that for a man like him,she’d have done the same before she’d had to hurry to break up some argument between the kids. Again.

Still, the Kane beside me is more like the Kane I first met. The silent, in-his-head Kane that first brought me home from the hospital. Then, I hadn’t known it was off character for him. Now, I know.

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