After Killian left, I went out. I pulled the collar of my coat up high as I stepped out into the blistering cold. Sharp bits of ice pelted me in the face as I staggered out into the eerily quiet street. I couldn’t think straight. Derek joined me at some point. I don’t even know when. He fell in step behind me. His presence was like a guard watching over a prisoner. Deadman walking. That’s what I felt like right now. I didn’t know what to do, but I wanted to see Mel. No. I needed to see her.

I walked all the way back to the apartment, numb, as I stepped into the elevator. Derek took up his post in the lobby. The door had almost closed, when Mel showed up in the lobby, shaking the sleet and snow from her hair. A smile tugged at my lips. There were only a few things that could bring a smile to my face right now, and she was one of them. I held the door open for her.

“Hey,” she said, smiling back at me. She seemed upset. Her eyes were ringed with red. It seemed we’d both had a shitty day.

“Hey,” I said, back, pushing her hair back behind her ear. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head and stared back at me, touching on the small cut above my eyebrow. I winced, having forgotten it was there.

“Do you?” she said, nodding toward me. I shook my head.

“Good,” she said, pressing her body against mine and pulling my head down, our lips meeting. The freezing coldness of our skin slowly seeped away with the fire brewing between us. It had been too long since I had her in my arms. Since I felt her wrapped around me.

“Mel,” I moaned, as I broke off our kiss. She buried her face in my collar.

“I need you, Rhys. I just need you,” she said, refusing to look up.

“Then you’re going to have me,” I said. The elevator opened. I picked her up, wrapping her legs around me. I rushed her into the apartment and leaned her up against the small table in the foyer. I shrugged off my coat and pulled hers off. She fumbled with my belt buckle, undoing it as I worked on her jeans. I slid them down over her ass, jerking her forward so I could pull them off. They dangled from one foot, her shoe still on. I took out my cock, not even stopping to stroke it. I was beyond hard. Whenever I was with her, I was always hard. I slid into her, bottoming out, catching her moan in my mouth as I tasted her sweetness.

She hitched her leg on my hip, her jeans jangling behind me as I slammed into her. The table rocked and swayed with each thrust. She gripped my shirt in her hands, fisting the fabric as I reached down and slid my fingers across her clit. I strummed it and then her legs tightened around me, her pussy so tight, I could barely move and she came, screaming my name against my neck.

I followed her over the edge, filling her with come as my legs nearly gave out from under me. Her pussy still milking me as the two of us stood panting in the middle of the foyer, almost completely clothed. I gradually came back to myself. Feeling in my arms and legs returning as she hopped down and fixed her clothes. We had a lot to discuss.

* * *

I grabbed the police report out of the safe and put it in Mel’s hands. She flipped through it, digesting everything inside. The truth of that night in the rest stop. The truth of why Esme stopped speaking. Other than the officer there, Derek and I were the only people who knew about it. And now Mel.

“You don’t understand. I can’t just allow whatever Kill’s planning. He knows something. He knows something that could destroy everything,” I said, running my hands through my hair. The threads were beginning to unravel. After a shower, I brought Mel back into my office and told her about my afternoon run-in with Killian. I knew he was an asshole. Hell, I was an asshole when I wanted to be, but I had no idea the depths he would go to just to get at me. And there was Esme caught in the crosshairs. I couldn’t let anything happen to her. I’d kill him first.

“Rhys, what does he know?” Could I tell her? The people who knew my secret could be counted on one hand, hell, on two fingers.

“It doesn’t matter. He’s going to try to use it against me, but I’ll leave before that happens. I’ll pack up and we’ll leave. The three of us. We can go somewhere. Disappear and start over,” I said, grabbing onto her hands. If this got out it would destroy the life I’d tried to build, but if we were together, maybe we could weather the impending storm.

“Now you’re starting to scare me. What could he know that you are so afraid will get out? Is it something illegal?”

The day my wife died. The day they laid my little girl in my arms. The day the test results imploded my world. And then it didn’t matter. What mattered was keeping Esme safe.

“It’s not something I want to get out. I don’t want Esme to know. I don’t want her to ever doubt how much I love her, and I won’t let anyone take her away from me. I don’t care whose she is, but she’s my daughter and that’s all that matters,” I said, vehemently. This was a declaration I’d made the day I found out and would make until the day I died.