“It’s cancer.”

Just over a year had passed since Thea had shown up at my door that night, dressed in a red wig and clothes that had highlighted every one of her long, subtle curves.

A year.

A fucking year of keeping secrets about us.

Now, the two of us were tucked away at a bed and breakfast in Breaux Bridge. It seemed like it was a thousand miles away from the rest of the world—and from the taint of Melody Kent, but that taint of hers was like a cancer. Pretty fucking hard to get away from. And what made it more difficult all round was the woman had gotten divorced from Jack just months earlier. It meant that in all likelihood, Melody Harlow would need to lean on Thea.

I’d known something was eating at Thea from the moment I’d picked her up. We met at a mall in Baton Rouge and I drove around for a good twenty minutes just to be certain no one had followed us, then I would send her a text to meet me in the parking garage. She’d spent the same amount of time wandering around, in and out of stores and bathrooms.

We wasted so much time doing our best to avoid anyone who might be following us. On three or four occasions, we canceled plans because she was sure someone would see us. Four fucking weekends I’d lost with her because of Melody Kent.

Untangling myself from her arms, I sat up and stared out the window.

A cousin of mine owned this place.

It was getting harder to figure out places we could go and be alone without worrying that the private investigator Melody Kent had hired might do something like check my credit cards to find out where I was, so I’d ended up reaching out to a friend and asked if I could have a room for me and my girlfriend—and could she please not tell Mom and Dad or anyone else, okay, thanks.

She’d agreed only after I’d explained, and I still wasn’t entirely certain she believed everything I’d told her about Melody Kent. But she’d agreed, and she’d taken cash, too.

Now, staring at the floorboards, I played those words over in my head.

Cancer. I’d known Melody had to go in for tests, because she’d guilt tripped Thea into going along with her and Thea had called me later that night, talking about how snide her mother had been, and how she’d pried. “You seem to go away on weekends a lot these days. Whatever are you up to? You’re not breaking our agreement, are you?”

“I think she knows, LeVan.”

I had no doubt the woman knew.

But fuck her.

“Did you hear me?” she asked softly.

“I heard you.” Lifting my head, I stared out the window. The dark green branches of a magnolia turned it partially opaque, allowing me to see a partial reflection of Thea’s body as she sat up. “What do you want me to say? Because if it’s sorry…hell, I’m not sure I can say that without it being a lie.”

God forgive me for that, but I just didn’t know if I could be sorry.

“Sorry…” She laughed bitterly. “I’ve known for three days, LeVan. And I don’t know if I am sorry. I feel guilty for that. So guilty it makes me sick. You tell yourself you wouldn’t wish cancer on your worst enemy and this is my own mother.”

“She’s not your fucking mother. She birthed you. But she’s never been a mother to you,” I said, getting up. I grabbed my jeans from the floor and dragged them on, buttoning them before I turned to look at her. “She’s been even less of a mother to Nicky, so don’t go feeling guilty on his account either.”

“I know that.” She stared at me, her eyes miserable. “But I just…I don’t know how I feel. I don’t know what to feel.”

That misery on her face cut through the conflict I felt and I sighed, moving over to her and wrapping an arm around her. “Maybe the first thing you need to do is cry about it. Maybe she’s not really a mother to you, but she was supposed to be. It’s okay to hurt over that.”

She sniffed. “Chances are she won’t ever have a chance to be a mom, either. It sounds like it’s bad.”

“What kind of cancer are we talking about? And how bad?”

Thea sat up and that was when I saw the tears that she’d been trying to hide. They fell down her cheeks silently, but she met my eyes. “It’s liver cancer. They say they’re lucky they caught it when they did, because it’s still treatable. But…” She paused and swiped at the tears, taking a deep breath. “Even those who get treated? Not even fifty percent make it to the five-year mark.”

I let that figure hit me—and it did. Hard.

My stomach churned as I breathed in, then blew it out.

Some sick part of me wanted to laugh. In five years, this could all be over.

In five years.

And her mother was going to die of fucking cancer.

No, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, and if I had an enemy at all, it was that woman, Melody Kent. But son of a bitch, she was a woman who had let hate eat her alive her whole life, and if hate could take physical form…? Well, the cancer was going to do to her what her hate had done for as long as I’d been alive.

Longer.

Maybe some part of me should be happy about it.

I wasn’t.

But I sure as hell didn’t know what it was I did feel.

How in the hell was I supposed to feel? This was a woman I knew had laid hands on Thea. She’d never admitted to it, even when I pushed for an answer, and that, in and of itself, was enough of an answer as far as I was concerned. This was a woman who was doing her best to keep the two of us apart out of nothing but sheer spite. This was a woman who was threatening to put her own son in an institution just to see her own ends met.

If that wasn’t some evil shit, then I didn’t know what was.

But it wasn’t any better to wish something like a cancerous death on her, and I didn’t want to come close to that line. I didn’t want to come close to feeling the hate for anyone—not even Melody Kent—that had pushed that woman into doing and saying things nobody should do or say.

Thea’s soft fingers brushed my cheek, and I looked down to see her watching me as if she knew every thought, every twisted road my mind had gone down.

“It’s a mindfuck, isn’t it?”

“Hell, yeah,” I agreed. Catching her hand, I turned it palm up and pressed a kiss to the inside. “But that dragon ain’t gonna win, not even now.”

“Dragon, huh?” Her eyes flashed, some spark of amusement glowing there.

“Dragon.” I rolled her onto her back and came to my knees over her. The long, dark silk of her hair spread around her like a cape, and I bent to kiss her softly. “Maybe she’s got some idea she’s the queen of her castle and you’re the princess, stuck under her thumb. But you’re no Sleeping Beauty and I’m not a fucking prince who’s going to wait around a hundred years for the time to line up just right. That dragon can go fuck herself. You and me are right together—that means the time is right.”

Tears glimmered in her eyes and she reached for me, pulling me down until we were face-to-face, skin to skin. “I love you so much, LeVan. And I hate all of this.”

“I know, baby. We’ll work it out. Just…trust me, okay?” I had no idea what we were going to do, but we’d work it out.