Page 26 of Receiving His Mercy
“What if it’s for her own good?” Surely there was a gray area of kidnapping. Good versus bad kidnapping.
Right?
“It’s not. Kidnapping someone is never allowed. Understand? It’s against the law. And she’s my friend.”
“Which is part of the reason I should be protecting her.”
Lacey sighed. “Travis, she doesn’t want your protection.”
What did that have to do with anything?
“And I’ll reiterate, she doesn’t need it. She’s fine.”
“Dating strangers without someone watching over you isn’t fine. She has no sense of self-preservation.”
“You have never wanted to do that in the past for any friend I’ve had. You didn’t say two words to Indie at the wedding.”
Indie? Who the hell was that?
Oh wait. She had a friend called Indie.
“I don’t know Indie, why would I talk to her?”
“And you don’t know Caren either. You haven’t seen her in a long time. And to be completely honest, big cousin, you neverdid know her. You didn’t want to. You thought she was weird and a nuisance.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“We don’t lie to each other, remember? Also, I overheard you saying that to Jace once when we were younger. The thing is, so did Caren.”
He winced. Fuck.
“I was a complete asshole, wasn’t I?”
“Well, you weren’t nice. But you were also a lot younger. I got really mad at you and was going to go after you, but Caren stopped me.”
“Why?” It would have killed him to have Lacey truly mad at him. Sure, she got annoyed by him sometimes, although he honestly had no idea why. Something about him being too protective and stubborn.
You know, some sort of bullshit like that.
But she never got truly angry at him.
“Well, she told me that what you said wasn’t wrong. That she was weird and probably annoying. I disagreed. She told me that was because I was way more mature than you as girls’ brains developed faster than boys. Then we giggled.”
“I’m six years older than you!”
“Uh-huh and you were still blind to the fact that there was more to Caren than met the eye.”
Fuck it.
He had been.
And he couldn’t deny it. He’d been focused on teenage bullshit when she’d first appeared. Then getting into the Marines.
Still didn’t excuse talking about a young girl like that.
“What things?” he asked.
“Things that aren’t my secrets to tell. But you should go easy with her. Caren is strong and tough on the outside, but I thinkthat tough shell could be easily broken. And you could hurt her if you’re too rough.”
