“Well, he liked to keep a record of precisely how much…and all the unsavory ways he was creating our family’s legacy.”
“Umm…”
“For the record, that includes blackmail, corporate espionage, and even on a few occasions, human trafficking.”
My mouth has dropped open.
I can feel it.
But I can’t make myself stop gaping at him.
“I don’t give a fuck what the old bastard did and I don’t give a fuck if it ruins my name, ruinsme—I looked the other way plenty of times and know my own reckoning might come if that drive gets out. But I don’t care about me. I care aboutyou.” He leans closer. “What happened when you were living out of your car?”
I’m blinking again.
Once. Twice.
“You care about me?”
“Yes. Now tell me, baby. What the fuck happened to you?”
FIFTEEN
BROOKS
Her mouth drops open again,and it’s so fucking cute when she does that.
So cute I want to lean in and taste her shock on my tongue.
But I have the feeling that’ll just end up with me being blinded by air freshener.
And I need my eyes.
So I can keep staring at her.
Thin—too thin—but still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Pale blue eyes, that hair of moonlight, a body I want to fall to my knees and worship.
But more than the outside, it’s always been the person Briar is on the inside that overshadows everything else.
So damned beautiful it takes my breath away.
Even if that beauty is tempered by anger.
Because right now she’s fucking pissed.
“You care about me?” she asks again.
“Yes. Now?—”
“Youcareaboutme?”
“Yes, baby, I?—”
“Did you care about me when you said,I don’t?”she snaps and I open my mouth, but I don’t get the chance to reply before she goes on, “You know I heard those words over and over again for years? Every time I’d close my eyes, I’d see your face go cold, hear those fucking words a-and?—”
Her voice breaks.
And part of my heart breaks.
