Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

JENSEN

L ast night was perfect. The only thing that would've made it better was taking my girl to bed and showing her just how perfect she is.

But I got the next best thing—she opened up to me for the first time since I laid eyes on her. Kate Monroe does not open up to people unless they're part of her inner circle, that much is obvious, and last night, she told me about her parents. Something I don't think she's ever spoken about before.

No, she told me about Violet and Henry. They aren't parents; no parents measure their child by her success and then set the bar so high she'll never be good enough.

They never hugged her or kissed her. I'm not even sure if they've ever told her they love her. She shut down on me at that point, and it broke my fucking heart to witness the pain she's still in even years after she left home.

I want to annihilate them.

Last night, when she went to bed, I spent hours researching their law practice and then looking up her brother. I think I got only a small glimpse into her family and her childhood, but Easton knows it all. He has to. It took everything in me last night not to contact him. The only thing that stopped me was knowing that if I had, Kate would never forgive me. I'm already treading on volatile ground, and it takes only one false move for the land mine to go off in my face.

And that's the issue right there—it takes a lot to open the door to her trust, but only a tiny infraction for it to slam shut, the bolt to slide across, and the drawbridge to rise.

To everyone else, she's an enigma. But not to me. I don't even need a map. I just need her to see that I've got her, and she doesn't have to be anyone else with me.

"Morning." Kate yawns her way into her kitchen, pulling open the cupboards to find her favorite mug. "Hey, have you seen the…uh…Sleeping Beauty mug? It was in here yesterday." She moves a few mugs around to search the back.

"It's normally at the front, right?" I rise from the air bed and stroll over to her. Her black silky sleep shorts rise just above the curve of her ass as she reaches up to the top cupboard.

Fucking hell, she's got everything.

"Yeah. I normally have my one cup of caffeine in it every morning."

I know, Princess.

I also know exactly where the mug is.

Coming up behind her, she stills when I press my chest to her back and slowly reach around her, my palm splayed out across her stomach as I maneuver her to face me.

She looks up at me, her blonde hair still disheveled from sleep, although not nearly messy enough for my liking.

Placing both hands on either side of the counter, I lean down until we're nose to nose. "It's on the coffee machine, ready to brew."

"It is?"

I nod and lean into the side of her neck, my lips not touching the sensitive flesh but my breath firing off every reaction across her body. "It is."

"How did you kn?—"

"You aren't seriously going to ask me how I know that's your favorite mug, are you? Time and time again, you do me a disservice, baby."

"Jensen, you can't keep doing this."

"Because you want me to kiss you, yeah?"

"No."

"Your body doesn't lie to me, even if your mouth does."

She places a hand on my chest and slowly pushes me back. "What plans do you have today?"

Sensing this is as far as she'll let me go, I walk back over to my air mattress and begin letting it down. "I needed to talk to you about that."

Mug between her hands, she walks over and sits on the couch, eyeing me. "Shoot."

"I think I'm gonna move back into my place."

Silence for a few beats before she clears her throat. I keep my back to her while I start folding the air bed away.

"Preseason will start as soon as I'm back from Alberta. I don't want to get in your way when I'm back and forth with traveling."

"Yeah…okay, I guess the sickness has stopped, and if you want, I can give you a key to here just in case."

Shoving the mattress back in its bag, I turn to the blonde-haired beauty sitting on her couch, her favorite Disney Princess in hand. "Just in case of what?"

"Well, um, just in case you forgot something or want to stop by for any reason."

I smirk and make my way through to the bathroom. "Okay, Princess."

"So I guess I'll see you when you get back from the wedding? Tell your sister I said congratulations."

Kate stands in the entryway as I check over the apartment for anything I've left behind. I don't want to leave, but two things are forcing me. The air mattress and the fact I don't want her to set up a spare room for me when she'll need all the storage space she can get for the million baby products I plan on buying, especially since it's now double of everything. But I also need to change up my game. It's risky, but I need to remove myself from her space and hope she'll feel my absence in the same way I'm going to miss the shit out of her.

Bags finally on my back, I stop next to her at the door, taking her chin between my thumb and forefinger. "What are you doing when I get back from Alberta?"

"Working."

"No shit, you're always working. After work, what are you doing?"

"Nothing, I guess."

"Keep it that way. I'll pick you up from work on Monday, and we'll go baby shopping."

I don't miss the flash of excitement across her face. "Aren't we supposed to wait until I'm twelve weeks before we start buying? You know, when we're out of the danger zone?"

"The sonographer and doctors were all happy at the initial visits. Plus, we need to talk about setting up two nurseries—one here and one at mine."

She pinches her brows together in surprise at my statement. Or is it disappointment? I fucking hope so. "Yeah, I guess they will have two homes."

They won't have two homes. They'll have one, and so will my girl—my apartment.

But I decide to play along for now. "Twice the love."

Kissing her on the cheek, I open the door and close it quietly behind me, walking down the hallway and away from the girl I desperately don't want to leave.

"Jensen!"

Whipping around from where I'm waiting at the elevator, Kate comes flying toward me. At first, I fight to remove the shit-eating grin from my face because that didn't take long. But the closer she gets, the more panic-stricken she is.

Waving her cell in her hand, the screen is lit up. "They know!" she blurts out.

Holding both arms out, she crashes into me, and I wrap myself around her in a bear hug. "Who knows?"

"My parents, Violet and Henry. Either that guy at the restaurant didn't delete the images like he said he did, or someone else took shots, too."

She hands me her phone and I begin scrolling through the last few texts from Violet.

Violet

Care to explain what the hell is going on here?

*Image at the restaurant.*

I don't watch ice hockey, but this is the Scorpions' goalkeeper, right? The one who is pictured with a different female each night. The one who has no respect for women and seems proud of it.

And my daughter has become his latest victim. Or is it that she willingly lowered herself to him?

You look cheap. Consider your career over.

They are finished.

"Where do they live?" I growl.

She takes the phone back from me, her eyes shining with tears. The strong, powerful, confident, and sassy Kate is totally gone, and in her place is a shy, defenseless girl. Her transformation needs no explanation now that I've read the utter bullshit in those messages coupled with her revelations last night.

"Across town. But they're probably at church. They go most mornings."

These people are "religious?"

"Doesn't matter. I'll wait for them to get home from their morning sermon and then offer them one they'll never forget."

Her eyes widen with fear. "You're going over there?"

The elevator doors open. "We both are. You think I'm just going to sit back and watch you get treated like this?"

"It's not your battle to fight, Jensen."

The elevator doors close behind me, and I frame her face with my palms. "People go to war to protect their country and freedoms. I go to war for my world."

She bites down on her bottom lip, and I don't know if it's to hide her smile or anxiety, but she's aware that she won't change my mind on this. "I need to change and grab my purse; I'll meet you downstairs."

"How long does the service usually take?" I glance down at my watch. We've been sitting in my car and waiting in their driveway for at least forty minutes. Ideally, I'd have gone in and made myself comfortable, eaten some of their luxurious food, and kicked back, but Kate doesn't have a key.

To her childhood home.

"They should be back any minute."

Her left knee bounces up and down as she sits in the passenger seat, her large sunglasses covering her pretty eyes. It's not even sunny out.

I place my hand on her knee to stop the bouncing and lean across to pull off her shades. "Look at me."

Biting her bottom lip again, she continues to stare straight ahead at the enormous mansion in front of us. "Look at me, Princess."

"Do you know what my parents will do if they hear you calling me that?"

Like I give a fuck.

"Kate. Look. At. Me."

Finally, she turns to look at me, her eyes puffy from the tears I know she's cried and fought to hide all the way here. "What?"

"You don't need these people and don't owe them a thing. You hear me?" I know she doesn't hear me. She thinks this whole thing is a terrible idea, and I can see it just by feeling the way she trembles beneath my touch.

"You don't know them like I do. All my life, it's been ‘toe the line we set or pick up the pieces of the mess we'll make of your life.'"

"Life? By that, I assume you mean your career?"

"Yes, Jensen. My career, my job, aka my life."

"Your success doesn't define you, and neither do they."

Kate opens her mouth but then closes it quickly, casting her eyes from where my hand is resting in her lap up to the rearview mirror. "They're here."