“This,” he says, waving to the office around us, “you, the rest of the guys, all of you treating me like I’m your fucking father. That wasn’t part of the plan.”
He looks tired. More tired than I’ve ever seen him. His shoulders are rolled forward like he’s carrying a thousand pounds on his back. He’s always carried his burdens without bowing. A little thread of fear unwinds in my gut. What’s happening with him? Why is he so weighed down?
“There’s a lot to unpack there, man. But…which plan are we talking about?” Ransom’s eyes shift to me, pinning me in place.
“When I chose you guys in that fucking place. When I pulled us all together, it wasn’t so I could be your dad. That was never part of the plan. I wanted…” He trails off.
“What did you want?” I ask quietly. He looks at me, and I can almost see a reel of our history playing back in his eyes.
“I wanted a family. A strong one.”
I swallow thickly and nod. “You built one man. The fucking strongest.”
And he did. There’s no fucking way we’d all be where we are today without him. He’s got to know that. “You know that we’re all here with big fat mansion-sized bank accounts because of you, right?”
His dark eyebrows slash down. “We all fucking built this, Kade.”
I shake my head at him. “No, man. I get that you believe that, but we all know differently. We’re here because you had a vision. You saw a better life for us all. One bigger than we ever dreamed.” I hold up my hand to stop the denials I see sitting on his tongue. “We look up to you because we know we’re here because of you. And because you love us, you jackass. We don’t want to let you down. And all I ever do is let you down. It’s a big fucking pill to swallow.” He clenches his jaw, then pushes off the wall, grabbing the back of my neck in his hand, bringing our foreheads together.
“You’ve never let me down, brother. Not once. So get that fucking thought out of your head.”
“The office, the women—“ I say past the lump in my throat.
“No.” His voice is firm. Unyielding. “Your fucking heart is just too big, Kade. I need you to take better care of it. I don’t want to pick up any more of your broken pieces.”
“There’s not many left,” I admit quietly.
Ransom growls, “There’s enough, man. You’re enough.”
I have to close my stinging eyes. Ransom may not get why we look up to him, but it’s this. This care he always shows. This driving need he has for us to be okay. No wonder he’s fucking exhausted. We’re a whole hell of a lot for any one person to wrangle. But he’s nevernotbeen there for us, and I know as long as he’s fucking breathing, he always will be.
“Kade,” he says carefully, “I hope that this woman is who you think she is. I really do. I want that for you so fucking much. For all of you. But…you’ve got a really shitty track record. Your judgment when it comes to women is not always the best. And now? With way more zeros in your bank account, well, you’re a fucking target. Just…be careful, okay?”
I want to rage at him, tell him he’s wrong. That this time is different, but I swallow back my words. I’ve said them to him before. Last time. And the time before that.
He’s not lying.
My judgment is shit.
“I will,” I say tightly, wishing I’d been able to dodge this conversation longer. I’d been avoiding him as much as I could, carefully dodging the topic when I had to connect with him.
I hadn’t brought Becca up with him for this very reason. Because he is wrong this time. Becca isn’t like the others. She hasn’t even asked me about her fucking car. That’s got to mean that she doesn’t care about the money. She almost walked away from me when she found out how rich I was.
I’ve seen women put on an act before. Fuck, I watched my mom do it when I was a kid. I can tell when I’m being played. And I don’t see Becca putting on an act with me. No. Ransom is wrong this time. Becca is exactly who she says she is. And she’s with me because she really likes me. I know her.
But as I head for my truck to pick up Becca, I can’t quiet that little niggling worry at the back of my mind, telling me that maybe I am wrong. Maybe she’s just a really excellent actress.
22
KADE
I’m relieved when I pull up to the Dojo and see Becca exiting with a group of women. I hate the idea of her walking back to the shop by herself, and I was worried the whole drive over that she’d leave without me.
She smiles as she sees me and jogs to the truck. I lean over and push her door open, knowing it’s pointless to jump out and try to open it. Her smile cuts through all the bullshit in my head. It’s fucking sunshine. The day that piece-of-shit car died at my garage is the luckiest fucking day of my life. Everything about my life is better with her in it.
Everything.
“Hi!” she says as she hops in. She drops her bag on the floor and leans over the center console, her lips meeting mine. I grab the back of her head and pull her in tighter to me. I love the way she smells after working out. The musk and warmth of her skin better than any perfume she could ever wear.
