Page 60 of Camping with the Boss

But can I? The green door reminds me of his emerald eyes, full of trust as he submits to me. That first moment when he realizes what he wants.Yes, Daddy.

And River fucked it all up.

“Wade, listen?—”

“Don’t fucking talk to me.” I need to get as far away from River as I can. In his need to destroy me, he hurt Canyon. Yanking open the door, I storm into the dining room. It’s mostly empty. But not empty enough.

Jared moves to stop me, and I shove past him. “Hold on,” he says, grabbing my arm.

I glare at him. “Let me go.”

He releases my arm but steps in front of me. “Wade, stop. Canyon needs some time, okay?”

Jared glances behind me, a warning in his eyes. River.

But I don’t care about him. “Did Canyon go outside?”

He nods. “Ander went to check on him.”

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Okay. Good.” He knows what to do if Canyon needs someone. If he struggles…because of me. I should have told him about Tim. Not that I could, but—none of that matters now. “Did you hear—everything?”

“The highlights. It was hard not to. At least everyone else was outside.”

I nod and flex my fingers. Every cell in my body screams at me to find Canyon and fix this. A few days ago, I would have done that. Not given him a choice. But Canyon deserves more. I need to do this the right way. And that means asking for help.

But first, River needs to go away.

“We need to talk.”

I spin around, my need to destroy something focused solely on River. “Fuck you.”

“This isn’t my fault. You did this.”

Fuck holding back for Canyon’s sake. I reach for River, but Jared slides between us. “Sorry, guys. We’ve reached our quota for fist fights this week.”

“Move, Jared.”

“No.” His gaze bounces from me to River and back. “Everyone needs to calm down.”

“Yeah, dude. You’re not helping yourself.”

Jared digs his fingers in my chest. A warning not to react. He turns to River. “You’re the one not helping yourself. Dude.”

“I didn’t come here to cause trouble. Or fight.”

I move Jared’s hand off my chest and cross my arms. His shoulders relax. “Why are you here, River?” I ask, and I try to stop there, but I can’t. “I needed you here three days ago. And you fucking bailed on me.”

“That’s— It’s complicated. Right or wrong, I made my choice. But what’s important right now is that things are about to get worse.”

“Canyon will be fine—” Jared says, but River shakes his head.

“This isn’t about Canyon.” He presses his palms into his eyes, and it reminds me of how young he is.

I keep my expression blank. “You could’ve fooled me.”

“Hold on. If this isn’t about Canyon,” Jared asks, tilting his head, “then what’s it about?”

“I came to warn Mr. Darian.” He finally looks at me. “There’s so much you don’t know. But then I saw the way Can looked at you, and I lost it.”

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