He laughed.
“You don’t believe in fate. You say all the time we make our own. You know you have always loved me, and I’ve always loved you. Walking away was hard, but we have to figure this out. We put the cart before the horse by sleeping together, and there will be fallout. We’ll take it, and go from there.”
She needed to know.
“Do you still love me?” she asked.
He stared at her.
“You know I’ve always loved you, Axelle. You know that I’ve never stopped. I also know that you married the senator because I hurt you, and I don’t want to be your rebound guy again.”
She was honest.
“You won’t be my rebound guy because I don’t want to get married again,’ she admitted. “I’ll never do it. I will be with someone because I want to, not because I have to be.”
They were birds of a feather.
He liked having a girl. Just not a commitment.
“I can’t give you an answer until I talk to Elizabeth, and I face down the repercussions of this. I betrayed one of my friends, who also pays me to do a job. This might end badly. I can take a punch, and when Duke kicks my ass, I’m not even going to stop him, but I have to come clean. That’s my code.”
She understood.
“I can wait until you talk to them.”
He needed to know.
“Are you really filing for divorce?” he asked. “And I hadNOTHINGto do with it?”
She tossed him her phone.
“Look in my email.”
He did, and when he found the one reply, he opened it. In it, he found a message back from an attorney. She’d contacted one before he’d gotten there.
“I’m filing. I don’t cheat,” she admitted. “My marriage was over when I told Duke I didn’t want custody of the girls. I’m sure we’ll both file at the same time.”
Well, that helped.
Okay.
He didn’t feel like he’d destroyed a marriage.
Oh, he was still going to have to face Elizabeth, and he was going to have to take one hell of an ass kicking from Duke, but at least he wasn’t a cheater.
But still, this was going to go bad.
Elizabeth could get mean.
And it was going to go nuclear.
Bet on it.
* * *The Blackhawk Family* * *
The Hotel
Monday Ten P.M.
