“You think so?”
“I know so. I’m your man. Someone’s stalking you, threatening you,you tell me. I handle it for you. You don’t go off by yourself to meet some psycho. That’s what I’m pissed about, Kadence. The rest of it doesn’t mean shit to me.”
That gets her to stop crying. She picks her head up, blinking at me. “I couldn’t.”
“There’s our only problem, baby.”
“What?”
“You keeping secrets from me.”
“You were keeping stuff from me, too.”
I can’t help running the back of my hand over her soft cheek, because she’s right. My secrets are just a little different. “We’re not talking about me now.”
“Of course not,” she grumbles.
“Kady, look at me.” I wait until she does as I say. “It’s my job to keep you safe. Protect you. And you obviously didn’t think I was strong enough to do it.”
“Oh, God. No, Blaise. That’s not—You don’t understand, it wassohumiliating.”
“What? That your dad had another family and you had a half-sister living an hour away? So fucking what?”
“I didn’t—”
“You think I give a fuck? Think I’d judge you?”
Yeah, that’s what was bothering her. Silly, girl shit.
“Baby, you’ve seen firsthand the way my dad went through chicks after your mom bailed. You think less of me because of it?”
“No.”
“So why do you think I’d judgeyoubecause of something your dad did?”
“I don’t know.”
“I never pretended to be any better than you.”
“I know.”
“Your dad’s a scumbag—nothing I didn’t already know based on how he treated you and your mom.”
“Yeah.” She sniffs miserably.
“And now you have yourself a sister?”
She nods slowly.
“You like her?”
A small smile forms at the corners of her mouth. “Yes. She’s really sweet.”
“Dante’s girl? Christ, he ever hurts your sister, I’ll have to kill him, and he’s a scary son of a bitch.”
“Overprotective much?”
Laughter rumbles out of me. A much-needed sound between us. “Yeah, baby. That’s kinda my thing, if you hadn’t noticed.”
