“Kandy, I—” He struggled for words, looking me all over, eyes damp and red. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered brokenly. He was at the bedside, looking right down at me. “I didn’t know she’d come—didn’t realize she was that much of a threat. If I’d known, I never would have taken you home with me. It should have been me it happened to, not you.”
I couldn’t conjure the right words for a response, so I looked away instead.
He grabbed my hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing my knuckles, the back of my hand. I closed my eyes, fighting the wave of emotion that’d swept through me when I felt his lips on me, his breath running over my skin. The monitor beside me beeped, filling the silence that was brewing between us.
“Will you say something?” he finally asked, voice low.
“I’m not sure what you want me to say, Cane.”
“Anything. Whatever is on your mind.”
I swallowed hard, focused on my lap. After several minutes passed, I said, “There’s obviously a lot I don’t know about you.”
I took a glance up, and he’d straightened his back. “I told you there were things about me you wouldn’t like, Kandy. Things you’d find out…”
“I know but…I didn’t know they would be as bad as working for a cartel.”
“I don’t work for the cartel. I only work with him.” He gritted his teeth after the statement.
“Is he really coming here?”
“He will…but not any time soon.”
I sighed, pulling my hand out of his. He watched the action before staring me in the eyes. “What can I do to make this right?”
“There isn’t much you can do, Cane! I was stabbed in your house by ex!”
His eyebrows dipped slightly, and he pulled back a bit to see my whole face. “Do you not trust me anymore?” I looked away, and as if that one gesture said it all, he said, “I didn’t know this would happen, Kandy.”
“I know you didn’t…”
“So why lose trust in me? I’d still do anything for you. I’d take a bullet for you if I had to—”
“Cane, I was pregnant!” I finally blurted out, and his eyes grew wider, almost like he didn’t believe me. He looked me all over, as if I were under an X-ray.
“What are you talking about? How?”
“What do you mean how? By being with you! When Kelly stabbed me, it didn’t just hurt me—it killed someone that was growing inside me!” Saying it out loud was like talking with glass in my throat. It hurt like a bitch to admit. I was still in denial about it…still hoping this was all a fucking nightmare and that I’d wake up soon.
“Shit, Kandy, I’m sorry—I didn’t know. Why didn’t you tell me you were—I mean…”
“I didn’t know I was until a few hours ago. The doctors told my mom, and she told me.”
He sighed. I couldn’t help thinking it was a sigh of relief. “Fuck. I’m so sorry, baby.” Standing, he cupped my face, bringing his lips down to my forehead. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered again.
“I guess it’s a good thing for you that it’s gone, huh? My dad told me you don’t want kids.”
He pulled back, glaring down at me. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“That’s what my dad said you told him. I guess before you started Tempt. You told him you were afraid to bring a kid into your world.”
“Wha—Kandy, that was before I ever even met you,” he scoffed. “You can’t possibly think that I’m happy to know the baby is gone? It’s going to fuck with my head even more now!”
“I honestly don’t know what to think about you anymore.” He pulled his hands away, looking at me as if I’d shot him right in the heart, and I stared right back, my eyes burning. “There’s so much about you that I don’t know, and I’m sure what I’ve found out so far is only the tip of the iceberg. You have all of these secrets, and they’re coming out one after another. And with each secret, there is a threat, and when I’m around, those threats end up hurting me. Not you, but me. When we’re together, I’m the one who ends up losing everything.” I choked on my next breath, and he held my face in his hands, bending down to catch my eyes, but I refused to look at him. I couldn’t look into his eyes. It would kill me even more that I was saying all of this.
“Kandy, you know I will protect you with my life—I promised that not even two nights ago. I’m sorry this happened—I should have taken better precautions or locked the damn door after the caterers left, but I wasn’t thinking.” He paused, eyes shimmering with guilt. “I—I asked you if you trusted me, and you said yes.”