Except for me, of course.
When I was in LA, I convinced myself he’d buried that body for me to even the playing field. I knew his secrets. He had one to hold over me. I was so wrong. Deep down I knew I was wrong, too. Kane would die for me. He’d kill for me. He’d bury a hundred bodies for me. And I’d do all this and more for him. Once you realize the bond you share with another human being is without consequences or judgement, it changes everything about who you are together. So why hide something about Murphy from me?
And he is.
Or he was.
Not after today.
The elevator dings on Kane’s floor, and I exit, cutting right through the lobby. The receptionist behind the desk is no one I know, a redhead with redder lips. She smiles as I approach. “Can I help you?” she asks.
I ignore her and keep walking.
This time, I cut left and I’m in the executive hallway before she can get out of her chair.
It doesn’t take her long to chase me though. “Ma’am. Ma’am, you can’t go back there.”
And yet I can, I think, continuing until I’m at Kane’s shut door. I reach for the knob.
“Ma’am, stop!” the wench calls out. “Someone, call security!”
I open the door.
Kane is sitting at his conference table with two men present, one in the seat on either side of him. His eyes lift to the doorway and find mine, his pupils dilate at the sight of me. I step further into the room. The redhead appears in the doorway, holding onto the wall as she pants out, “Mr. Mendez, I’m so sorry. I’ve called security.”
“Tanya,” he says, “meet my wife, Lilah.” There is a distinct possessiveness and satisfaction to his voice with the word “wife” that no one can miss, most certainly not me. “Lilah, this is Tanya.” He indicates the woman in the doorway, now behind me. I don’t look at her. I’m focused on him and only him. “Tanya just started with us,” he adds.
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Mendez,” Tanya quickly offers. “I would never—I just. I’m sorry.”
Mrs. Mendez.
The title hangs in the air between Kane and me, and I guess there’s still a little honeymoon bliss left over, because the edge to my mood notches down, even if it’s ever-so-slightly.
Kane knows, too. I see it in the darkening of his eyes, feel it in the intensity of his energy. He motions to the two men. “We’re done. You know what I expect.” They stand, Kane with them, and everyone scatters but him.
He and I meet in the middle of the room and the door shuts behind those who’ve fled the room. For several beats, we just stare at each other, the energy between us a push and pull driven by me. And what drives me right now is a mix of the surreal feeling of finally saying “I do” and a sense of being betrayed by the person I trust most in the world.
“Miss me already, bella?” he asks softly, that purr to his voice that I know too well.
“What do you know about Murphy that I don’t know, and how long have you known it?”
There is no delay in his answer. “Too long.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Too long.
Kane’s answer stabs at me, spiking newfound anger and outrage. “Too long?” I challenge. “What the fuck Kane? Really?”
My anger bubbles over and burns into fury. I want to punch him. He knows me well, anticipating my reaction, and catching my arms. “Don’t hit me.”
“I’m not going to hit you. I just want to hit you.”
“I was protecting you, Lilah.”
“This a broken record, Kane. How is leaving me in the dark about the man I work for, protecting me?”
“I didn’t leave you in the dark, Lilah. I had new information come to me right before our honeymoon. I knew this would be emotional. And you don’t do emotions. Call it selfish, but I had you to myself, and happy, and I wanted to enjoy that for just two weeks. I planned to tell you when we got home but there wasn’t exactly that opportunity.”
“Okay first of all, I do emotions. What do you think that was on our honeymoon?”
“With me, bella, you do emotions, but only because I didn’t give you another choice. I swore I’d follow you to the ends of the Earth and I did. You don’t do emotions. You shut down. I didn’t want that on our honeymoon. And think about it. Way back when, I told you Murphy didn’t exist before a certain period of time.”
“I think you said, for a certain period.”
“Semantics, Lilah and you never pushed for an explanation. You never asked for more. Today when I brought him up, you shut down, joked about other things. You not only didn’t walk through that door, you pushed me back. Because you knew where this topic would lead.”