Page 48 of Keeping Kaitlyn

Me: No. See you at noon.

Backing out of the text thread without waiting for a reply, I pull up the last text message.

Damien: I need to talk to Kaity.

We haven’t spoken since the day I married Kait. The last thing he ever said to me was,take care of her.He was still angry with me for taking her with me. Still angry with me for the impossible situation that my running away with and marrying his boss’s daughter put him in. I didn’t care then and I don’t care now. No matter what happened after that day—how losingKait made me feel or how angry finding her again has made me, I don’t regret taking her away from her father and that sick fuck he was trying to force her to marry. I don’t regret marrying her.

The only thing I regret is loving her.

Mainly because she never loved me back.

Me: About?

Damien: Family business

That means he’s playing errand boy for Kait’s father.

When Tom Barrett finally caught up to us in Helena, he’d been too late. We were already married but that didn’t stop him from trying to drag her home anyway.

After what you’ve done to me and this family, marrying someone suitable and giving me a grandson is the least you can do.

Family business.

When I read Damien’s text, the back of my neck goes tight. I feel my jaw clench—and just like that, I’m playing human shield for her again. Protecting Kait from her shitty father.

Me: Since she’s my wife, I guess that counts me in, doesn’t it?

Kait hasn’t been my wife for a very long time but if he’s reaching out to me, looking for her, my brother obviously doesn’t know that and I’m not going to be the one to tell him.

Damien: It’s important, Went. You think I’d be asking if it wasn’t?

Shit.

My first thought is of Kait’s little sister, Abbey. That something must’ve happened to her or maybe to Kait’s mother. That’s the only reason Damien would reach out. The only people on that ranch besides my brother that gave a shit about her.

Me: Then you better tell me what the fuck is going on because you’re not getting to her until you do.

I watch a trio of dots dance in the text thread, heart in my throat because something is wrong and it’ll be up to me to tell Kait. I’ll have to be the one to hurt her. The prospect isn’t nearly as appealing as I thought it would be.

Damien: It’s her father. He’s dying. Kaity needs to come home.

TWENTY-SEVEN

WENTWORTH

Kait’s fatherhas stage four liver cancer. he was diagnosed about a month before I called my brother, looking for a place to hide. After the doctor told him and started talking treatment, Tom Barrett saidno thanksand went back to the business of being an asshole without bothering to tell his family. Six years later, he has a few months to live at best, which in my opinion, is more than he deserves.

If I had to guess, being told he was dying is the main reason he said yes to letting me rent Northpoint and agreeing to sign a lifelong NDA. Pieces of paper, no matter how binding, don’t matter when you’re staring death in the face. All that matters is making sure that your family is taken care of before you go. I suppose the fact that I came along and offered him a hundred grand a week for a hideout seemed like divine intervention until I left while he wasn’t looking and took his workhorse with me.

Me: he’s dying? Good. He can go to hell. Tell him I said fuck off and good riddance.

Staring at the text I’m about to send, I feel my guts grind together—anger and resentment so heavy, I can barely breathe.Because even though she still hasn’t told me why she left me, I’m sure her father had a hand in it. Instead of sending the text, I delete it before hitting the call button. Damien answered before the call even got through its first ring.

“Tom wants her to come home,” Damien says. I can hear nickering horses in the background. Hearing them reminds me of what Kait told me last night. That she misses her horse.

“Why?” I’m so angry I practically snarl it into the phone. “So he can blame her for the fact that he’s dying like he blamed her for everything else?”

To his credit, Damien doesn’t try to argue that his boss would never do something like that. Instead, he simply sighs. “I don’t know—thathe won’t tell me,” he says quietly. “All he’ll say is that he needs Kait to come home and since I’m the one who is ultimately responsible for bringing you into their lives and you’re the reason she left, I’m the one who is responsible for bringing Kait home.”

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