“To remind me of the bastard he was?” I nod. “Abso-fucking-lutely. The real question is who knew it was there in the first place, and what their connection to Briar is.”
“I’ll look into it. Want me to loop in Jean-Michel?”
I hate the idea of anyone else knowing about my fucked-up family and the horrible things they were responsible for, but if anyone can find out things I won’t be able to, it’s Jean-Michel.
“If he’s willing to help me on this, I’ll owe him.”
Jace’s mouth quirks. “I know he’ll take you up on that.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
He pauses…then his smirk fades, his gaze boring into mine. “I also need to make it explicitly clear that you willnothurt her again.”
I wave a hand at my temple, mutter flippantly, “I don’t think that’s a problem, man. Especially with air freshener in reach.”
She’d brought the can to the coffee table, setting it on the glass surface.
A reminder.
But also within arm’s reach.
Jace steps closer, still spearing me with his eyes. “Don’t make a fucking joke. Not now. Not about her.” He clamps his teeth together and looks away. “You didn’t see her that day, after you left. You didn’t have to get her off that mountain or set up her new life?—”
My temper starts to burn.Iwas there.Isaid the words and watched her heart break.
I left. I had to.
For her own good.
For her safety.
For—
“And what happened to that?” I snap. “She was supposed to have an apartment, money. She wassupposedto be safe and secure and?—”
“Supposed to be means fucking nothing and you know it,” he snaps back. “As far as I knew, she was using the money. It’s not like I had access to the account to check its balance and you sure as fuck weren’t sharing any details.”
No. I’d closed myself off to everything.
Everyone.
Sighing, he shoves his hand through his hair. “The last time I checked in on her was about six months after you broke it off. I tracked her down at work and she asked me—no, shebeggedme to stay away from her, said every time I came by it was setting her back, that it was like she was on that mountain again, watching you walk away from her.”
Fuck.
“That’s when she told me she was selling the apartment and moving. When she asked me to give her the space to do that, to have a fresh start.” He looks away, jaw clenching. “You didn’t see her, man. Not in the aftermath. Not as she tried to pull the pieces of her life together.” His gaze comes back to mine. “I had to let her go.”
And now we’re here.
I nod, chin dropping to my chest, my sigh forceful, regret sitting heavily in my chest. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”
He’s quiet for a long, long moment.
Then he murmurs, “I know you do.” He squeezes my shoulder. “I call Pascal, Jean-Michel, and we’ll figure this shit out, I promise. But right now, you need to get back inside. She needs…a doctor, a nutritionist, a fucking therapist. She needs to feel safe. And she needs to know the truth of why you left that day.”
I promised myself she would never be dragged into the nightmare of my family’s legacy.
I promised myself she would only have freedom and safety and as much care as I could provide.
