He stiffened.
“I went to the club because he made me. He told me to seek you out. To get close to you. I was scared out of my mind, but I had to, otherwise he’d hurt them.”
“Your sons.”
“Yes. I’m so sorry I lied to you. I should have tried to tell you, but I didn’t even know what he had planned then and I had to protect them…” her voice cracked.
“Shh, brown eyes. Just tell me. I’m not angry.” Not at her. But this unknown man, this person threatening her children to get her cooperation, who was setting him up?
He was a dead man.
She wiped at her cheeks. She wasn’t a pretty crier. Her eyes swollen and red, her face too pale, mascara smudged.
But he didn’t want to interrupt her to clean her up. He needed to hear this and she had to get it out.
“When I discovered that I’m a Little…it was like finding a piece of myself I never knew was missing. Everything slotted into place. And that was because of you. It all felt right because of you. Once I found out what his plan was, that he was setting you up to take the fall for the senator’s murder…I knew I had to warn you. If the threat was only to me, I would have warned you earlier, I promise.”
“Hush, baby. It’s all right.” He rocked her back and forth as she cried against his chest.
“Betsy, I need you to tell me who he is,” he said quietly. “We can protect you and your sons, but I need a name.”
“If I tell you, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to destroy the son of a bitch.”
She shook her head. “He’ll kill you.”
He got it then. She wasn’t just protecting her sons. She was trying to protect him as well.
“You can’t go after him. He’s too powerful. I warned you so that you would be safe.”
“And what about you? Was I expected to just forget about you?”
“I know I’m on borrowed time.”
“What the fuck does that mean, borrowed time?” Ink snapped.
She flinched at the fury in his face. “When I stop being useful, he’ll kill me. I just have to stay alive long enough to figure out a way to get my sons safe.”
Anger flooded him.
“Enough,” Ink snapped at her. “I don’t want to hear you say things like that, understand? He is not going to hurt you. You are not dying.”
“I haven’t lived for a long time,” she told him quietly. “The most alive I’ve felt in the last ten years is when I’ve been with you.”
“And you’re going to stay alive. With me. Because I need you. Do you trust me, Betsy?”
“I shouldn’t trust anyone.”
“Do you trust me?”
She closed her eyes. “Yes.”
“Then trust me to keep you safe. You and your sons.”
He stared down at her intently. “Show me that what was between us at the club wasn’t all an act.”
“It wasn’t!”