My eyes narrowed in on her lips. “Besides, if she handles the practical shit, I can process more of the emotional shit. Like the comfort you’re offering me right now.”
Kiera pushed my shoulders, trying to get me to talk about my feelings.
Jokes on her, I liked it when she fought back.
“I’m being serious.” Throwing my hands up, I stared into her eyes, getting lost in the endless meadow of green. “It’s hard to deal with Bill and what he’s done to them. What he did to Jess.”
My eyes started to burn, something I didn’t want Kiera to see. So instead, I rested my forehead back on her shoulder and grabbed her ass.
I could feel her eyes roll as I hid my face.
And then her breathing quickened as she ramped up to ask a question. The one question I knew had been on her mind since I told her the truth about my family. Our little cozy bubble would pop as soon as the words left her lips.
But I knew it was coming.
Swallowing hard, Kiera shifts back to meet my eyes. “If you have access to all the… resources that you do, why haven’t you just —”
Killed him.
I could fill in the blank. And the answer was something I debated every day.
27
KIERA
Shit.Shouldn’t have asked that.
The kitchen was eerily quiet as Spencer scanned my face.
Eventually, she shrugged. “That’s a fair question. I could get away with it.” A jilted laugh came from her chest, like she was visualizing it as we spoke. And I couldn’t blame her, after that night in the warehouse, it was hard to imagine having the self control to not take it all into my own hands.
Then a deep breath followed. “The truth is, as crazy as it sounds, I don’t think it’s what’s best for the kids.”
Just as I raised my eyebrows, ready to question her logic, Spencer continued, “They’re real people, maybe little ones but people nonetheless. They have their own feelings to contend with. And I can’t be sure that they wouldn’t want him around later in life.”
“I never got the chance to forgive my mom for what she did to Jess and me as kids. Never got to decide if Iwantedher in my life. And I never got to tell her any of it to her face.”
I could see the hurt on her face, how hard it was to lose her mom so young. All I wanted to do was wrap my arms around her, and hide away from all of it with her.
Spencer sucked her teeth. “It was taken from me. All of it. Even the chance to see if she could do better.”
Shaking her head, she stared into her cup of coffee as Leo came back into the room. “Ultimately, I decided it wasn’t my Justice to take. Even if that motherfucker tests my resolve every goddamn day.”
Leo scoffed as she got back to the stove. “No kidding.”
The dark clouds over the kitchen cleared as Spencer laughed with Leo. I could understand all of it. My own mother tested my patience every day, making it impossible for me to forgive her. But if she just disappeared now, I’d never have the chance to make her realize how badly she’d hurt me.
Or, I’d never have the choice.
From under my ass, I felt the vibration of a ringing phone.
Spencer dug under me, grabbing her cell from deep in her pockets and pulling it to her face. “Be right back.”
Scooping me up, she set me down on the stool and headed into the hallway to take the call.
Once she moved fair enough down the hallway, I turned my attention to Leo. “You little bastard.”
Whipping around, Leo pointed at herself. “Who? Me? What’d I do?”
