Page 93 of With This Kiss
That was going to change.
“What does she have to do with Kingston?”
“She was in a relationship with him before.”
I blinked, unsure if I should laugh or not. “Kingston doesn’t do relationships, sweetheart.”
She shot me a look. “You said it yourself. You and your brother aren’t really close. How do you know what he does and doesn’t do?”
“Because I’ve never even seen him look twice at a woman.”
She tried to pull further away from me, but I stayed where I was, holding steady. She wouldn’t be able to keep her distance from me unless I allowed it.
And with all the shit that happened tonight… yeah, I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to stay far from her.
“That doesn’t mean anything. Etta told me before—she told me it was Kingston who beat her. Who stepped on her self-esteem… Who made her feel like she had no way out, and she…”
She closed her eyes.
I frowned. While it was true that I didn’t know Kingston well enough, beating up women wasn’t really something I could ever imagine him doing.
“Jamie…”
She pushed at my chest. I didn’t budge, but that seemed to only intensify her anger. “You don’t believe me?”
“It’s not that,” I said carefully. I believedshetruly believed that was what had happened, but something about the story didn’t sit right with me.
“We need to be sure about this.”
“The only proof of this is between Etta and Kingston. And Etta’s dead, Reign.”
“Baby, I know that?—”
“No, you don’t. You weren’t there in that hospital room after all was said and done. You didn’t see the way she looked. How broken she was. Etta had always been so full of life, but at that moment, that last moment I had with her… she was just so broken. And it’s Kingston’s fault. The worst part of it all was the way everyone was treating her death. No one wanted to do anything about it. No one wanted to confront Kingston over that because they didn’t think her life was worth offending him. Not my dad. And certainly not Caine. But now I find out that Caine is working with you? Is it safe to assume he is also working with Kingston as well?”
I didn’t say anything, but I was sure my silence was answer enough.
She struggled to get out of my hold then. I moved out of the way, afraid she might end up hurting herself.
She stood up from the couch, tears filling her eyes. I stood too, reaching for her, but she saw it coming and backed away from me.
I didn’t fucking like that.
“Jamie.”
“No. Caine is working with you guys… against my dad. Is that right? Are you telling me my brother is going to betray the Caparelli Famiglia? This is a death sentence for him.”
“Not unless we win,” I said, and that was exactly the way I planned it to be.
“Win what? What is the point of all this? It’ll just end up in bloodshed. And now…”
Her voice faltered, and it was as if everything that had happened so far—not just tonight, but everything—finally broke her.
Her tears flowed freely down her face, and they would not stop.
I didn’t know how to make them stop.
“Baby.”
