Not with my children.
“I need you to do this for me,” I whispered into the tension that bound us.
Cash’s eyes dimmed. Dimmed in shame and sorrow. “If you knew me, you would never ask that of me, Daisy.”
“I know you better than anyone.”
Pain lanced through his severe features. “Not anymore.”
Heartbreaker.
I’d never felt it as acute as right then.
I guess he had broken all of us.
I couldn’t help but bring up the past. To try to reach him in the pain he so clearly wore. “I’m so sorry, Cash. I’m so sorry about what happened to your family.”
It was such a horrible accident. I still couldn’t fathom it.
His teeth ground. “Don’t. Please don’t.”
“I—”
A big hand came to my cheek, cutting me off, so soft against the rage I could feel simmering beneath his skin.
He angled in close.
His proximity was overwhelming. The man smelled like the woods and the faintest vestiges of sweat. Unfortunately for me, there wasn’t a single thing unappealing about it.
“My Little Wallflower…”
My throat thickened.
I couldn’t believe he called me that. I hadn’t heard it in so long.
He caressed the apple of my cheek. “There’s one thing you can be certain of. You are safe here with me. You don’t have to be afraid.”
He let his hand slide down the side of my face before he curled his hand around my left wrist and lifted it. I didn’t realizehe’d noticed the tattoo I had inscribed on the inside of it until he ran the callused pad of his thumb over it.
In Silence We Must Endure.
“You were never meant to be left in the silence. You were supposed to bloom. Thrive. And I’m going to make sure that you do.”
“How was I supposed to thrive without you?” I shouldn’t let it escape, but I couldn’t help it. Not when I felt the most vulnerable I had in years. The old wounds raw and aching. The loss right there. Now whole and real and touching me.
“And I am afraid, Cash, and I know what I’m asking is?—”
He suddenly whipped away, clearly panicked and uncertain. With his back to me, he roughed a hand down his face. “I don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do here, Daisy. I’m the last fuckin’ person on Earth you’d want caring for your kids. What you’re asking of me is all wrong. But I promise you, I’m going to take care of this. End the problem. Then you’ll be free, the way you deserve to be.”
“Cash, I?—”
He turned back around.
Hostility vibrated him to the bone. Barely contained fury. His gravelly voice forever cut low.
“I have to go out tonight.”
I swore that the tattoo on the back of his left hand subconsciously flexed. The stacked Ss with the eye and dagger hardening into a fist. The flames from the torch lapped up his wrist as if at any moment his entire being would be consumed.
