Page 87 of When He Fights
Ana’s hand fell back to her side as she stared at him.
His nostrils flared as Kane continued, “And when we were at your place and you were playing the harp, I was so caught up in you that I didn’t see the warning signs.I should have heard that truck approaching sooner.I should have realized I was presenting a target.Wewere presenting one.I was slow, and you almost paid the price for my inattention.”
“You were the one who got cut by the glass!And no one got shot.”
“Not that time.But if you’re close, I am weak.”
That was just—that was?—
“You have to leave so I can stay safe.”
She bit her lower lip.Swallowed.
Silence.
Kane kept staring at her.“You leave.I do my job.”
“And then what?”Ana asked.“You come and find me and we live happily ever after?That how it’s all going to be in the end?I wait where it’s safe.You take the risks.Then you come for me?”
“If you want me, I will always come to find you.”
“Wanting you has never been a problem for me.It’s the loving you that has hurt.”She stiffened her spine.“Because in the end, it comes down to this—you don’t trust me.”
“What?”He blinked.Took one more step away from her.
“You don’t trust me.You didn’t trust me two years ago because you didn’t think my feelings were real.And I suspect you feel the same way now—that if I see you do something that’s too dark or dangerous, I’ll turn away from you.That I won’t love you anymore.Newsflash.That’s not how real love works.With real love, you love the person completely.Dark spots and light.”
“You didn’t love Logan when you found out what he really was.”
She sucked in a breath.“You’re not Logan.You’re not a demented killer who gets off on someone else’s pain.”
“I am a killer.I’m a liar.I’m a cold-blooded bastard.You deserve far better than someone like me.”
“I happen to think you’re a hero.A fighter.A good man who has needed to do bad things.”Screw this.She advanced toward him.
“I should have waited in the hallway with the Feds,” Tyler muttered.He reached for her mid-advance, trying to stop her before she reached Kane.“Ana, we have to go.Your transport is waiting outside the hotel.”
Fine.Fine.Right.Whatever.The transport.The big escape run.Yes, got it.She shrugged off Tyler’s hand and finished making her way to Kane.She tossed her hair over her shoulder and demanded, “Do you think—for one, single second—that Logan has ever protected anyone in this world?”
His lips remained firmly closed.That was an answer, wasn’t it?
“Do you think—for one, single second—that Logan has ever fought to protect innocents?Do you think he’s taken bullets for anyone?Do you think he’s willingly stepped into hell in order for someone else to survive?Do you think he has ever made a sacrifice for someone else?Ever put someone else’s safety over his own?”
Kane’s lips pressed together.A bit harder.Tighter.
“He hasn’t,” Ana informed Kane.Her hand lifted.Pressed to the softness of his beard.She freaking loved that beard.I freaking love him.“But you have.Over and over, you have.You’re doing it again, right now.Sending me away so that I’ll be safe while you take all the risks.”
“Told you.”Gruff.“I can just fight better when you aren’t near.You distract me.”
“You distract me, too.Full disclosure, you also infuriate me.”She pulled in another deep breath.He hadn’t said the big words yet, not exactly.Not actually said,I love you.But he’d come close.He’d told her,I’d live and die for you.Those deep and dark words that had completely made the planets realign for her.Because when Kane said those words, she knew what he meant.So Ana threw caution to the winds, and she flatly announced, “You love me.”There.Done.Bold as could be.
She waited for a denial.None came.
But his head did turn.His mouth brushed over her fingers.
A sensual charge poured through her entire body.
“You loved me two years ago,” she whispered.“Yet you still sent me away.”
