“I would have killed her.” How did he not kill her? She got off light if all he did was kidnap her to make sure she wasn’t going to do something so stupid again. “So, is Olivia-”

“My niece,” he says and I nod. That makes sense.

It feels like my turn. “I never cheated on Zac. He was just always sure I was going to.” The words ache in my throat as I correct myself, “Except the kisses with you, I mean.”

Connor’s eyes light with heat and I feel my heart begin to pound in my chest.

I want to kiss him again. Like we’re drawn together by ropes ever tightening around us and slowly pulling us together, we move toward one another.

His eyes are locked on my lips and I can’t think of anything I’d rather have. It feels good to air the uglier things in life with someone and still feel a connection with them. There’s something about him that seems so real, and yes, he’s terrifying. He still kidnapped that woman. He is a monster.

But I find it hard to fault him given all the available information.

The waitress walks up and I pull back, feeling awkward as she places our food before us. It smells amazing, though, and I hear my stomach rumble. I don’t think I’ve eaten anything today. Everything just kind of went crazy and I missed some important life needs.

Once we’re alone again, I realize what’s been nagging in the back of my skull for the better part of the day. “Wait, is your brother Kieran Knight?”

Connor’s whole body goes still, but his eyes lock on me like I’m brandishing a dangerous weapon.

But I push on. “I remember hearing something on Facebook. He took his kid and ran or something like that.”

I realize I know him. “I’m Jane Snow.” I remember the knights. The boys were nobodies form nothing who all of a sudden took the city by storm. Kieran owns half the city. He’s got real estate everywhere. Kyle went smaller and became a vet – the best and I think only one in town. And Connor, the one who managed to become wealthy even though no one seems to know how.

“So what do you do?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

He doesn’t seem too excited to talk about himself so personally. “You heard right. He took Olivia and ran with her. He wanted to start over because Cami was so strung out.”

“You know,” I say, taking a bite of a fry, “I’m lucky. I never really had family drama. Not really. I mean, dad’s overbearing sometimes, but they love me.”

Connor cuts a bite of steak as he answers me. “I envy you that.” The clipped answer tells me that there’s more to it than he’s giving me.

“Honestly,” I say, hoping he’ll just tell me whatever he’d like but doesn’t feel pressured to share, “Zac is my worst drama to date. He’s just all kinds of crazy. The whole tracking my phone thing, the jealousy, the need to try to control and manipulate me, it drives me nuts.”

Then again, that’s what Connor has been doing. He pretty much kidnapped me, he tried to use fear to make me do what he wanted, and that isn’t negated by the fact that I wanted to come. He was doing what he knew to be despicable and he continued.

But if I was worried someone would kill someone I love, wouldn’t I do the same? And for me, I’m sure he was certain I’d call the cops on him or something that might ruin his whole life. And I need to put his fear to rest.

“As far as I’m concerned, it was a weird sex thing and none of my business,” I say softly and he looks at me while chewing. That’s all I’m going to say about it, though. I’m not going to try to force feed him that I’m not going to call the cops.

“ I’m enjoying myself. Thank you for the date,” I say, wanting to make sure he’s aware, though not wanting to spell it out.

“It’s my pleasure,” he growls, and I close my eyes.

“You know,” I say, hoping he’ll talk again, “Your voice was pretty much the whole reason I was listening at the wall. It’s… so incredible,” I say, unable to actually quantify what it is about his voice that turns me on so.

When I open my eyes again, he’s studying me.

I decide to change the subject. “So, how is she not in jail if she nearly killed Olivia?” I ask, curious.

The pain in Connor’s eyes is clear as he responds. “The court decided to get her into some rehab programs and give her community service instead of jail. They thought she needed help, not jail.”

“That’s some shit,” I say, feeling myself getting unreasonably angry. I know this isn’t my battle, it isn’t my life or my family, but such a miscarriage of justice is hard to swallow, especially when a child’s life was nearly destroyed because of it.

“Is she okay now?” I ask, hoping he doesn’t get upset at my prying.

“She made a full recovery. That’s nothing to the emotional scars, but physically, she’s good.” He dunks a fry in the house made fry sauce and I follow suit. The food is delicious, it tastes like homemade fries, the steak is perfectly seasoned and cooked, and the mushrooms are so firm I’m sure they spent minimal time in the pan.

“Well, that’s a consolation,” I mutter, still seething internally. How could a court let a woman go after almost killing her child? “You know, if the dad had done that he’d be jailed for the rest of his damn life,” I say, hating the double standard. The world treats fathers like they’re second class citizens. But mothers? The whole world seems to treat them like they can do no wrong.

Maybe I’ll get it someday. Maybe if I become a mom, I’ll understand why it’s so important to people to keep mothers and children together while still feeling like they can toss a father away and see no harm.

It still seems like a load of crap.

Connor reaches out and his hand covers mine. The warmth of it helps ease some of the fury pounding in my blood. I stare at his hand, seeing how huge it looks over mine and my heart begins to thunder for another reason. One that has nothing to do with anger at a broken system.