I turn the first lock.
Then, the second.
I reach for the third, high up on the door, when Nathan’s hands squeeze my neck.
I cry out as he pulls me away from the door.
“Help!” I scream, finally finding my voice. “Someone help me!”
Glass breaks in the window over the porch, and Kade’s body comes barreling through. He doesn’t stop until he reaches us, knocking us both to the ground as he goes after Nathan. I roll away from the two men as I watch Kade punch Nathan in the face over and over. Blood spews everywhere. And Kade easily wins the fight.
“Call 911,” Kade says, pulling his phone from his pocket and holding down Nathan.
I call, and within minutes we hear the police sirens. Kade gets a few more punches in before the police arrive. They handcuff Nathan and take our statements. They all insist I go to the hospital, but I don’t want to spend the day in the hospital, so instead, I have a medic check me out, and after promising to make a doctor appointment for tomorrow, just in case, we are left alone.
“You’re safe now,” Kade says, stroking my face. “I guess I should go too.” He glances toward my front door.
“No.”
His face lights up, but the sternness of my face dissipates any happiness on his. This isn’t going to be an easy conversation.
“I love you, Larkyn,” Kade says.
I bite my lip. I’ve been waiting months to hear him say those words to me and mean them.
I nod, because I can’t force my lips to say them back. Not until I hear more. Because if I admit I love him, and this doesn’t work out between us, my heart will break worse than when Nathan attacked.
“I know you set up a foundation to help people. That’s what the money went to. I know that money is now being used to start the non-profit with Sebastian to help people heal from whatever pain they are dealing with.”
I nod. I’m sure Sebastian eventually told him the truth.
“What you don’t know is I’ve always known. From the first day you set up an account to use the money for charity, I knew. My lawyer tracked the money and found out for me. You can talk to him if you want. He’d never lie for me. It’s a problem really.” He smiles and sticks his hands in his pockets as his adorable dimples form on his cheeks.
“If you knew, then why did you constantly ask me? Why did you make me feel like a gold-digger for taking the money?”
“Because you asked me to.”
“Huh?”
“Because you asked me to be an ass so you wouldn’t fall in love with me. So I was an ass. I knew that was a sensitive topic for both of us that I could easily play up and piss you off with. That’s all it ever was.”
I think back to all the times he screwed with me, and I know he’s telling the truth. I asked him to make me hate him so that I wouldn’t fall in love. And every time we got close to falling in love, he did something that made me mad.
“I’m not leaving you. Or our baby. Ever.”
I shake my head. His words aren’t enough. “I heard you with Harlow.”
“I told her the truth. There is no way her baby is mine.”
I nod. “I know. I heard you say you never want children. I don’t want to trap you with a baby. This will never work.”
Kade’s eyes narrow, and he walks out of my living room. Then out the front door. While I stand frozen.
I don’t know what he’s doing or if he’s coming back. And I hate that I don’t know if he’s coming back.
A few minutes later he returns with papers in his hand. He thrusts them into mine.
“Read this paragraph,” Kade says, pointing to the third paragraph.