Page 162 of Slapshot Baby

“I’ll tell him. Tonight.”

She studies me, and I can see all the things she wants to say. Somehow, her not saying them is worse.

“I don’t trust him,” she says finally. “I don’t trust that he won’t hurt you.”

Her words land because they sound too much like the fear I’ve been carrying around since the charity gala.

That eventually Kai will leave.

That I’ll be the idiot who should’ve known better.

My eyes burn, and I look away.

Lucy’s expression softens. She crosses the space between us and pulls me into her arms.

“I’m trying to protect you,” she murmurs into my hair.

“I know.”

Since we were little, Lucy has thrown herself between me and anything that could hurt me.

She fought girls who called me too sensitive. She told Dad to leave when I couldn't. She built a fortress around me and mortared every brick with loyalty.

But the air inside that fortress has been getting thinner for years. I can't breathe inside it anymore. Her arms feel like safety but her words feel like a collar.

“I need to go.”

She pulls back. “You’re going now?”

“Yes.”

Her mouth tightens, but she doesn’t try to stop me.

I pick up my keys and dial Kai’s number.

He answers on the first ring.

“I’m coming over.”

I drive to his building with Biscuit in the passenger seat. My eyes are swollen. My heart is slamming so hard.

I don't know if Lucy is right. I don't know if Kai is different. I don't know if the man waiting in that penthouse will stay or go or shatter me the way my father shattered my mother one kitchen-table goodbye at a time.

But I know what it feels like to stop breathing.

And I know who makes me start again.

The elevator opens on the top floor. I walk to his door. Biscuit pulls ahead of me, nails clicking on marble, and presses her nose against the gap at the bottom. She scratches the door and whines. My fist hovers over the wood.

On the other side, I hear footsteps. Fast. Already moving.

The door swings open before I knock.

28

KAI

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