“Proof.” I repeated the word, letting it roll around on my tongue like slow, melting chocolate. And then, a light bulb went off. She was talking about marriage again. Romance? She wanted romance? In the middle of some unknown mafia war where we might all end up in caskets? Done. I could multitask. I was going to romance the hell out of her. “Done.”
“What?” She reared back as if I’d just told her that her ass looked fat in her jeans.
“Done.”
“But—”
“Now it’s time for you to be patient. Can you do that?”
Her smile lit up the room, — scratch that, her smile lit up my freaking world.
“Yes.”
I lost track of time as we sat on the floor talking, catching up, teasing each other… I was almost asleep when Trace asked, “Why are you being such an ass to Chase and Mil?”
With a sigh, I turned and pulled Trace into the curve of my body, resting my chin on her head. “You know Chase just as well as I do, sweetheart. You can’t just order him to do things. It’s hard for him. Hell, it’s hard for me. They need each other. She needs to trust him, and he needs to allow himself to trust her to fall for her, if he can.”
Trace let out a heavy sigh. My chest clenched at the thought that she wasn’t okay with his relationship with Mil. I was damn possessive of her heart and hated that it was possible he still held a tiny sliver. I would start a war over that sliver. I would kill for it, steal for it, destroy for it.
“I’m glad.”
“Hmm?” I pretended that my heart wasn’t beating out of my chest, that my breathing hadn’t hitched, that my damn mind wasn’t ready to explode.
“That you’re pushing them. It’s what they need. It’s why I love you.”
“Because I push people?” I laughed nervously.
“Nah, because underneath that bad-ass mafia mojo, you really care, and you’re willing to do anything, including killing your own damn happiness, to save the world.”
I didn’t think it was possible, but my heart beat faster.
“You’re like my Superman.”
“Whoa, let’s not go putting me in tights or anything.”
“It’s the cape that does it for the girls, not the tights.”
“Noted.” I kissed her head. “Trace?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you still love him?”
No answer. I gripped her body harder, hoping and praying it was just my imagination, that I wasn’t seriously thinking about marrying a girl I didn’t completely have.
I was just about ready to pass out when she answered, “Yes.”
My world exploded. If it were possible for a body to burst from the inside out to spontaneously combust on the impact of one simple word, mine would have.
“But not how you think,” she clasped her hands together pausing too long for my comfort. “Chase was my best friend — you were my soul mate. There’s a difference. It’s like asking me if I love Tex or Mo. I love them, I even love Mil. Chase will always shave a special place in my heart, but he doesn’t own it — you do.”
Amazing how the human body can go from overdrive to complete serenity in six seconds. Even more amazing? That my physical reaction was caused by something completely emotional. On the outside I probably looked fine, but on the inside I was completely destroyed, just like Phoenix had been by his father and the ridiculous life he’d put him through.
I had no idea why Trace’s confession was making me think of Phoenix, but there it was. Maybe because in that moment, when I was hanging on Trace’s every word, I could almost glimpse into how he must have felt when his dad had told him…
“It’s complicated.” Phoenix broke the beer bottle against the rocks and stuffed his hands into his pockets. His sister had just gotten shipped off to boarding school. He said he wanted to talk — said he was having a rough time with it, which was just weird, considering they weren’t even that close.
“So try to explain it.” I took a seat on the rock and watched as the waters of Lake Michigan lapped around the rocky terrain.
“My father, he’s been into some messed up stuff and finally — he finally got desperate, like real desperate.”
“How desperate?”
“Let’s just leave it at that.” Phoenix sniffed and rubbed a gloved hand under his nose. “I think he was going to use Mil.”
“Use?”
“In his prostitution ring. One of the men asked if she was available, like it wasn’t a big deal. Like she was some whore.” He cursed and picked up a rock, throwing it into the ocean. “When I asked him about it later, he laughed it off. Said to mind my own shit.”
“Did you tell Mil?”
Phoenix winced. “Didn’t have to. Somehow, her ma caught wind of it. When I asked my step-mom if I could help, she said no, that she already had a plan.”
“A plan? Which means that clearly your father was—”
“I know,” Phoenix interrupted. “Can we not talk about him, though? It’s Mil I’m worried about… after Vegas, after Chase, she’s just… not the same. It’s like something happened to her, like Chase did something.”
“He didn’t,” I snapped. “He wouldn’t.”
“Look.” Phoenix’s eyes looked crazed. “When she got back from Vegas she had cuts up and down her arms and a scar on her wrist, an ugly-as-hell scar that looked like someone had burned a cigar into her skin. I’m not saying Chase did it. I’m just not saying he didn’t, either.”