Page 2 of With This Kiss
“What happened?”
She sucked in a sharp inhale and looked away from me. It didn’t look like she wanted to tell me.
I made my voice firm when I said, “Etta.”
She took in a deep inhale before letting it out slowly. “He was jealous that a guy at the bar had bought me a drink. Granted, I didn’t even accept it. It didn’t help that he had a bad day.”
A bad day?
He sent her to the fucking hospital over a bad day?
A badfuckingday?
I took a deep breath and tried not to show my anger in front of her. That was the last thing she needed from me right now.
I squeezed her hand. She looked back at me with a smile that nearly broke my heart into a million little pieces.
“I know that doesn’t excuse what he did to me. I’m not trying to excuse it. I was just saying that it didn’t help.”
“A real man wouldn’t have taken his anger out on you just because he had a bad day.”
“I know,” she said softly.
I shook my head. “Etta, you can’t see him anymore.”
I knew I didn’t have any right to tell her who she could or couldn’t see, but?—
Hell, I would probably break apart if she continued seeing him after this. I had never liked him, even in the beginning, when she first told me about him, looking so in love, but I didn’t know what to do about it. It was obvious he had put on the full force of his charm, trying to lure her into his trap. I hadn’t met him. I barely remembered what he looked like from the few pictures she had shown me. She had beenreluctantto share much about him, but every time she did talk about him, an unpleasant feeling would settle deep in the pit of my stomach.
I should have gone with my gut and voiced my concerns to her sooner. There was just something…oilyabout him that made all my hackles rise, and now this?
“Etta.” They hadn’t seen each other for that long a time. It couldn’t be that serious, could it? Etta didn’t even tell me she was seeing someone. Not until I questioned her about it. I onlysuspected something was up when I realized she was acting strange.
She grabbed my hand, offering a small smile that didn’t look quite right from the swelling on her face. “I won’t see him again.”
“Promise?” I whispered. Would it really be that easy?
“I promise,” she said, her lips trembling.
I let out a small sigh of relief. “I’m going to let you rest soon, okay? I just need to ask you one more thing.”
She tensed. I ignored her reaction.
“What is it?” she asked, looking down at her lap.
“What’s his name?”
Because while we had grown up together and had told each other every little thing there was to know about each other, the one thing she hadn’t told me waswhoshe was dating, and I knew that was intentional.
“Jamie…”
I shook my head, cutting off whatever excuse she was about to feed me that would allow her to keep this secret. I tilted my chin up stubbornly. I wasn’t fucking leaving here without a name.
“Kingston Mahankov,” she whispered.
I didn’t react, but I could feel my heart dropping to the floor. She couldn’t be serious.
“Mahankov?” I whispered, feeling lightheaded. Everyone on the East Coast knew the name Mahankov.
