Liam’s hand goes to his gun as he watches Rafe’s reaction to my attack. I know, without a doubt, he’ll shoot Rafe if he tries to retaliate against me.
Tessa holds her hands up in front of her. “Is there any way I can get a hug instead? I don’t think my face could handle being hit. You know how whiny I get with even a small paper cut.”
I narrow my eyes at my friend. “You and I are overdue for a very long talk,” I tell her as I grab her and hug her tightly. Her arms wrap around me just as fiercely.
I believed Tessa when she told me she did what she did to protect me. I’ve also missed the hell out of her.
“I’ll come find you later, but right now, I need to speak to Rafe,” I say when our hug stops.
No one questions me or badgers me about why. Declan doesn’t insist that he or Liam stay. I’m being trusted to handle my own shit the way I see fit. It’s a breath of fresh fucking air to be treated like a competent adult and not shoved in a corner, ignored, and told to keep my mouth shut.
Declan kisses the top of my head as he passes. That’s the third time he’s done that. The guy really has taken to the role of father figure. I wonder how different my life would have been if my mother had told him the truth. Perhaps most things wouldn’t have changed. Declan would still be a man who controlled an empire and murdered or hurt people for a living. A life surrounded by organized crime and shady individuals. Or would I have turned out like Rita? Spoiled, pampered, coddled. An entitled mafia princess given every luxury and decadence I desired.
“So, what—you work for Declan now?” I ask Rafe as soon as we’re alone.
“In a way.” He brushes a thumb over his jaw where I punched him.
The area is slightly swollen, but of course, it doesn’t detract from his looks one bit. Rafe has always been too pretty for his own good. Tessa had a term for men like him. A walking orgasm. If she only knew how right she was. Rafe had a way of getting me off in seconds, as evidenced by what happened between us in the pantry. I pack those images in a box, then shove them inside another box, then padlock it in a place deep down. Rafe and I are over. We can never get back what we once had.Or maybe you can have something new, my traitorous mind suggests.
I plop down on the leather sectional and spread my arms out across the back to either side of me. “This is where you start spilling your guts and tell me everything.”
Rafe gives me a heated blue-eyed look, and I hate how much it still affects me. You can hate someone you still find insanely hot. At least, that’s what I’m going to tell myself.
Resigned, he sighs. “Where do you want me to begin?”
“Start atthatnight.” I don’t need to explain which one.
Losing some of his composure, he shouts, “Do you think I wanted that? To watch the girl I love being beaten like a dog! He would have killed you right then and there if I made any move to help you. And then after—” His breath stutters and his eyes become unfocused as if he’s lost in a memory. “You’re not the only one Max tortured in the cage. I was down there for days. When Kellan found out and released me, you were already gone.”
Oh, God. I didn’t know. I would have given my life to get him out of there. I understand the text message now. The words he used to break my heart. He was forced to do it. I knew Max was the reason Rafe broke up with me, I just never realized he tortured Rafe to make him do it. I made a mistake by ending Max’s life so quickly. I should have drawn it out, made him suffer. Rafe should have been there with me so we could have done it together.
“Why did you stay? Why didn’t you leave and come find me?” I hate how broken my voice sounds when I ask it.
Rafe hangs his head, a lock of black hair falling across his brow. He raises his eyes and the pain I see in them has my heart clenching.
“I had nowhere else to go, Andie. If I left Max’s protection, my father would have hunted me down and dragged me back home. At least with Max, I had my brothers.”
Kellan, Keane, and Jax. It was all beginning to make sense. Even his engagement to my cousin. By marrying her, Julio Ortiz couldn’t touch him. Rafe would be family, and any move made against family would guarantee swift retaliation.
“When did you approach Declan?” I have a hunch, but I want to hear him say it.
“As soon as I heard about the deal Max made to give you to Alejandro.”
That’s what I thought.
He did it for me. He even said as much at the house right before Declan’s men attacked.
“I would have done it regardless. I had to get you out of there. Then when Declan promised to help me destroy my father and brother, it was an easy decision.”
Rafe surprises me when he lifts me up off the couch, sits down, and settles me in a straddle in his lap. I grab onto his shoulders to keep my balance. His fingertips rake my hair behind my ears, and he cradles my face, not allowing me to look away from him.
“I’m so sorry,mi rosa. I should have been strong enough to protect you. I failed you in every way a man could fail his woman.”
Heat combusts like a wildfire between us. Those old feelings trying to escape from the box I just locked tight and shoved deep.
“You were seventeen, Rafael.”
He had no power. No place to go. He made a choice of what he perceived as the lesser of two evils. At least by staying, he still had Kellan, Keane, and Jax. As much as I want to, I can’t fault him for what he did. I would have done the same.
