LOGINI looked at Robert.“And you turned that into the programme.”“Voss did.”“You paid him.”“Yes.”“So did you.”His face hardened.“Life is more complicated than that.”“No. People just say that when the simple version makes them look terrible.”Jaxon looked at me.There was almost pride in his expression.Almost.Robert noticed.Again.“What?” Jaxon snapped.Robert’s eyes moved to him.“You always looked at her that way.”Everything stopped.I turned slowly.Jaxon did too.“What?”Richard swore.Robert smiled.“There it is.”Jaxon stepped forward.“What did you say?”“Robert,” Richard warned.Robert ignored him.“You always looked at her that way.”My mouth went dry.“That’s impossible,” I said.Robert looked at me.“Is it?”“Yes.”“I was eight,” Jaxon said.“And Rory wasn’t there,” Richard added.Robert looked at his son.“Still believing Clara.”Richard’s face went white.That frightened me.I looked at him.“What does that mean?”He said nothing.“Richard.”Nothing.I stepped towar
There were probably kinder ways to discover that a dead man had built part of his life around finding you, but the Kane family had never been particularly interested in kindness.Robert Kane stood on the stairs beneath us.Alive.Old.Smiling.And looking at me.“Still protecting the wrong child, Richard.”The words settled slowly.Then all hell broke loose.Richard raised the gun.Robert didn’t move.Bennett shouted, “Nobody fires!”Jaxon stepped in front of me.Again.Cruz aimed down the staircase.Mara grabbed Amelia and dragged her farther from the opening.Elena pulled Lila back.And I—I was getting really fucking tired of people looking at me like I was a secret somebody had misplaced.“Wrong child?”My voice cut through everything.Robert’s eyes found mine.His smile deepened.There was something deeply unpleasant about being smiled at by a man whose name had spent weeks appearing in files beside money, facilities and children who had been turned into subjects.“Rory.”Jaxon’s
Richard looked at her as she laughed. She stared back.“Did I volunteer?”“No.”“Did Mara?”“No.”“Cruz?”“No.”Richard’s jaw tightened.Amelia’s voice dropped.“Did Jaxon?”My father said nothing.I felt Rory move beside me.Amelia nodded.“That’s what I thought.”I looked at him.“You said I went willingly.”“You did.”“To help her.”“Yes.”“Did I know what they were going to do to me?”“No.”There it was.The truth.Small.Ugly.Finally honest.I stepped closer.“You let me stay.”Richard’s face tightened.“I was trying to get you out.”“You stood behind glass.”“Voss told me the procedure had already begun.”“You could have opened the door.”“I tried.”“You told me to be still.”His eyes changed.“Yes.”“Why?”“Because every time you fought the restraints, your heart rate went higher.”The room blurred around the edges.I remembered.Leather against my wrists.A light.Someone saying my name.My father behind glass.Be still, Jaxon.I had thought he was ordering me.Maybe he was.
The problem with remembering your childhood twenty-two years late was that every lie you had ever believed suddenly had somewhere to die.I stared at my father.He stared back.Around us, the house seemed to hold itself still.Amelia stood halfway up the staircase beneath the floor. Rory was beside me. Bennett and Cruz still had their weapons raised. Mara looked as though someone had reached inside her chest and pulled out a ghost.But all I could see was Richard Kane.My father.Alive.Standing twelve feet away from me while a memory I had apparently spent most of my life without continued unfolding inside my head.A door.A book in my hands.A girl sitting on the floor on the other side.My own voice.Younger.Higher.Annoyed because I could not pronounce a word.Then another memory.Rain against a car window.My father shouting at someone on the phone.My mother crying.A building I had never seen before.Except I had.I had seen it in dreams.For years.“You came looking for me.”
I looked at Richard and said, “She knew the genetic condition was fake.”“Yes.”My anger rose instantly.“Then why did she use it?”Richard’s eyes moved to my stomach.“To stop this.”Jaxon moved so fast I barely saw it.One second he was beside me.The next, his fist connected with Richard’s face.Bennett shouted.Richard staggered backward into the doorway.The men outside reached inside their coats.Bennett’s agents aimed immediately.“Hands!”Everything exploded into movement.I grabbed Jaxon’s arm.“Jaxon!”He tried to move again.I held tighter.“Don’t.”“Let go.”“No.”“Rory.”“You hit him once.”“He deserves more.”“I’m sure he does.”Richard straightened slowly.Blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.He lifted one hand toward the men outside.They stopped.No weapons drawn.Interesting.Richard wiped the blood with his thumb.Then looked at Jaxon.“I deserved that.”“Don’t agree with me.”Richard almost smiled.That made Jaxon move again.I planted myself in front of him.
I had imagined meeting Jaxon’s dead father before, but in none of those versions did he begin by objecting to our unborn child.For several seconds, nobody moved.Rain came through the open doorway behind Richard Kane, blown sideways by the wind and landing in dark spots across the wooden floor. Four men stood farther back in the driveway. I could see another vehicle beyond them, headlights cutting through the rain.Jaxon stood directly in front of me.Completely still.That frightened me more than if he had shouted.I knew his anger.I knew what it looked like when his jaw locked and his shoulders tightened and every word became so controlled that the control itself was a warning.This was different.His father had been dead for fifteen years.Except he wasn’t.Apparently, death had become more of a suggestion than a permanent condition for the people involved in our lives.Richard’s eyes stayed on Jaxon.“You weren’t supposed to get her pregnant.”Jaxon laughed.One short sound.The
The news alert came while I was brushing my teeth.TITANS CAPTAIN JAXON KANE AND FEMALE PLAYER RORY CALLAHAN: LOVE MATCH OR PR STUNT? INSIDE SOURCES SUGGEST RELATIONSHIP MAY BE FABRICATED.I stared at the screen so long toothpaste slid down my chin.For one strange second, I did not move. I just st
Jaxon,Per our discussion, the amendment is finalized. Five-million-dollar bonus will be paid upon resolution of the female player situation within twelve months of signing. Current status: four months remaining.Resolution defined as: voluntary resignation, trade acceptance, or contract terminati
By six in the morning, I had cleaned my apartment twice and hated myself for the third time before sunrise.The kitchen counters were spotless. The living room rug had been vacuumed so aggressively it probably needed therapy. I had rearranged the throw pillows, wiped down the windows, scrubbed the
My back slammed into the boards so hard the whole rink seemed to crack open.For one blind second, all I heard was the thunder of my own body hitting glass, the sharp scrape of skates and the distant shout of someone calling my name. My helmet flew off, skidding across the ice like a useless piece







