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“Can I have both?” he asks, his voice so small you can hardly hear it.

“I’ll get the emergency sprinkles,” Ace declares as they disappear into the kitchen. Bella sits next to me as Kate sits on the ottoman across from us.

“Thank you,” she says, wiping her face. “I don’t have much time. I know you two want nothing to do with me, but… I couldn't leave town without saying something."

“Who did that?” I ask. “Ronan?”

“Yeah,” she says. “He, uh… Accused me of trying to get with Beckett again.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Look… I’m just going to tell you what I know,” she says. “Ronan killed Anthony. He made me come with him when he left his body last night.”

“How do they know each other?” I ask, but I don’t really know if I want the answer.

“Ronan is who got Anthony out of jail. I don’t know how. I knew better than to question him,” she says. “When you got away from him and came back here… Ronan started getting paranoid. He said Anthony fucked up the plan.”

“What plan?” Bella asks.

“To keep Beckett and Mason apart,” she says. “I was so in love with him… I would have done anything for him… I did do anything for him…”

“So Ronan got Anthony to distract me, and you separated the guys,” I say. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” she admits. “Ronan said he was going to answer for this, and he…”

“Answer to who?” Bella asks. “Are you saying Ronan works for someone else?”

“I… Shouldn't have said that,” she says. “Just… Ronan is a rat. He’s never been on y’all’s side.”

“Go back to the cheating thing,” Bella says.

“Ronan is panicking. He’s going to try and kill Beckett,” she says. “He wanted me to help. I told him I wouldn’t help him, and he freaked out and said that I just wanted to fuck Beckett. He… I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t allow my son to watch me get the shit beaten out of me. I won’t let him believe that is what love should be.”

“Does Ronan know you’re gone?” I ask, standing up and going to my bag sitting on the table by the door.

“No,” she says. “He’s passed out drunk. After beating me, he drank until he passed out.”

I pull all of the cash out of my wallet and walk back over to her. She just stares at me when I take her bag and shove it in. I was planning to put all this cash in my savings, but I’d rather do this.

“You can’t…”

“Buy that little boy the future he deserves,” I say. “It’s not much, but it will get you the fuck away from here.”

“Thank you,” she says tearfully. “I’m so sorry I was part of…”

“We are survivors, Kate,” I tell her as the guys slowly return to the living room.

“I got you an ice cream cone, Mommy!” Asher says happily, shoving a cone into her hand before licking his own cone in his other.

“Figured you’d be in a hurry,” Beckett tells her, and she nods once.

“Hear all that?” I ask, and Mason nods.

“I’m so sorry I… I didn’t want to be the reason you two fought,” Kate tells them. I’ve been called horrible things for years because of that… Ronan holds it over my head…” she says, trying not to cry.

“It’s water under the bridge, Kate,” Mason says.

“I’d offer you an escort, but you’d be easier to find that way,” Beckett says. “You plan on coming back?”