Chapter Twenty

Kane

I left Danny blissed-out and asleep after I had eaten considerably more than would be classed as food. But it was deliberate. I had to stop hiding behind him and step up. If Danny and I had any chance of a future, then that included his family. And apart from Emily, who was a giant prick, I really liked his mom and dad. Elizabeth was soft, just like in every daydream I'd had of my own mom, and I didn't mean soft as in no backbone. I wasn't that clueless.

Maybe this wouldn't work. Maybe I was making the biggest mistake of my life, but he was worth it. Danny was worth it. And if that meant me walking away, then I would do that too.

I could hear Emily's voice from the open back door. Not that I couldn't be stealthy if I needed to, but it wasn't necessary.

"What I mean is, how much do you really know about him?"

And yeah, it didn't take a rocket scientist to know she meant me.

"Ginny is fine," Buck said firmly. "And Danny is your brother. His instincts have always been good."

"But are they now?" Emily said. "He was talking about trees, for goodness' sake."

"Emily," Elizabeth snapped, but I'd heard enough and stepped into the room. They all fell silent. I took in Ginny sitting next to her mom.

"You might want to send Ginny somewhere else," I started and as an introduction, it had a dramatic effect.

"I don't see why—" Emily began, but I turned on her.

"I'm going to say what I have to no matter what, and trust me when I say this isn't for her ears."

Her dad immediately rose and ushered Ginny into the other room that had a TV and shut the door. I was grateful, especially when curiosity didn't have him coming back. He just stayed with his daughter, and I admired him for that. I looked at the other three sitting at the table. Elizabeth had tears in her eyes, but Emily looked defiant.

"My name's Kane Diaz and four weeks ago I was released from Ware Correctional after serving seventeen years for assault with a deadly weapon. I was physically abused by my father for most of my life, but that night, for the first time in my life, I fought back." I yanked my shirt up and turned around. I heard Elizabeth's muffled cry at seeing my scars and turned back, letting my shirt drop. "But because I also have a scar on my face, no one—the cops, the lawyers, the judges—believed I could be a victim. And they sure as hell didn't care about scars anywhere else but on my face."

I focused my attention on Elizabeth. "Danny is important to me, but despite the fact that he may never forgive me for telling you what happened to him, this needs to be said." So, I did. I told them in graphic detail what had happened to Danny in that hole. I was sorry to scare them, but this was for Danny's benefit. He needed his family.

"Danny is immensely talented. He suffers panic attacks and PTSD because of what he went through fighting for his country." I glanced at Emily, who had paled. Buck had his arm around Elizabeth, and she was crying openly. But they had to know, and even if Danny hated me for it, I wanted him to heal. It had taken me five minutes to work out how important they all were to him.

I should be so lucky.

I gazed at Emily, who I had to admit looked a little shaken. "So never, ever say he had a cushy job."

Emily shook her head. Tears shone in her eyes. "I had no idea. I mean, I knew he was captured and lost weight… But they never tell us anything."

"Well now you know." I took a step back. "I'll go pack my things." Because I knew they wanted me out of here.

"You damn well won't." Buck rose from his chair. "The relationship you have with my son is private between you two, but if it means anything at all, you have our blessing." He held out his hand, and I gazed at it in shock, then reached out mine and shook. But instead of letting go, he pulled me in for a hug. "Thank you," he muttered. "You might have just given us a way to get our son back."

I was stunned. Elizabeth had hugged me the first day, but this? My throat tightened as an image of Archie came into my head. And I hugged him back.

I was back with Danny when he woke and confessed immediately.

Danny just stared at me. "You said what?" He croaked, but then waved his hand. "No, I heard you." Silence fell, and it wasn't up to me to break it.

"I don't know what to say," he said.

I reached out for his hand, but he snatched it away, and the bottom fell out of my world. This was it. I'd screwed up the only chance I was ever gonna get with someone like Danny. But I should have known. Dad said I was useless. Told me every day I was good for nothing.

Looked like he was right.

I stood and reached for the bag I'd brought, dumping in my couple of tees, boxers, the nicer pair of jeans I was planning on wearing for tomorrow, my toothbrush. Danny was still sitting on the bed staring into space. I looked at him for a long moment, wishing things were different. Even waking up that morning so many years ago, wondering why my face itched like crazy and I felt sick, like I had the flu. Even in prison, because of Archie, I didn't think my life was over, and he taught me never to give up, to always fight for one more day. And I mentally sent him an apology, hoping wherever he was that he heard it because this time I was done. I just didn't have any more fight in me.

"Daniel Christopher Sullivan, you get your ass down here."

The shout seemed to jerk Danny out of whatever place his mind had gone to, and he stood and nearly stumbled to the stairs, and I quickly followed. Emily was mad. Spitting mad, but tears were also streaming down her face. She saw him and put her hands on her hips. "Get down here you little shit."

Danny choked out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob and practically fell into Emily's arms. I moved past them both, out of the door, and started walking.

A while later, I realized I hadn't really thought this through. I had money in the bank, a brand-new debit card, but not much cash, and I also didn't have much idea how long it would take me to walk to Asheville from where I was, or if there was a bus. Fuck, I didn't even know where I was going to go once I got there. I guessed it didn't matter how many times I said fuck now. I heard a car in the distance and made sure I was walking tightly to the side. There weren't any sidewalks, but I was big enough to see.

Unfortunately.

Because when I turned as I heard the car come up behind me, it was a blue 1965 Mustang convertible with a four-speed engine. It even had a dog I knew sitting there in the passenger seat looking like she was having a great time.

I stopped and planted my feet, waiting for whatever he needed to throw at me. I knew Danny had the right to be angry. Maybe my cutting out on him had made it worse.

"Where are you going?" he said after pulling over and getting out.

I opened my mouth, but words didn't seem to come to my mind.

"Or wherever it is, how are you planning on getting there?" he added and took a couple of steps right up to me, his eyes flashing. I kept my arms down and waited. He was a ranger. He could throw a punch. But he waited, obviously needing an answer.

"I don't know," I almost stammered. "Was thinking of Asheville. Maybe the bus."

He nodded like that was a reasonable answer. "Why?"

I gaped. "Why the bus?"

"No, dumbass, why are you leaving?"

I stared at him in astonishment. "But you know what I did."

He took the last step and crowded me, but I still didn't step back. Then, slowly, he lifted his hands and placed them carefully on each side of my face. "You left without giving me a kiss. I didn't like that."

"What—" But no more words happened because Danny yanked my head down and kissed me. And I tried not to move, to react. Desperately tried not to kiss him back, but when he made that little sound in the back of his throat that made my knees weak, I was done. My arms reacted all on their own, and I kissed him right back.

"You're not angry?" I managed to get out when we came up for air.

"With myself, sure. I spent three years hiding." Danny smiled. "And I'm not stupid enough to think that it will make all the difficulties suddenly go away. I'll probably always react to certain noises. I'll probably always need Sadie. I hate confined spaces and while I hope that will lessen with time, nothing else is going to fix that, but today Kane Diaz, you gave me my family back, and that means the world to me."

I knew Danny didn't like being caged in, but nothing on earth could have stopped me from clasping him tight. Sadie barked, and we both grinned. "Come on because they're waiting to eat lunch, and mom gets cranky if her pies burn."

"I haven't gotten you anything for your birthday." It really bothered me.

"Yeah," Danny said, sliding into the driver's seat and laughing when I simply lifted Sadie and sat her back down on my lap. "You really did."

We cried off lunch because neither of us were up to it but by four in the afternoon we were both starving and saved the awkwardness of going into the main house—well, some of it—by Ginny coming into the barn and yelling for us at the top of her voice. She was greeted by a very enthusiastic Sadie, who barked in greeting from her spot on the couch when Danny stuck his head over the railing of the mezzanine floor. "Yes, princess?"

"We're opening cards and presents before dinner and I don't want to wait anymore, so you should come now." I had to bury my head in the pillow so she couldn't hear me laughing.

"You can tell Grandma we'll be five minutes," Danny promised. We'd both been in the shower, so all we had to do was throw some clothes on.

"That's okay, I'd rather wait for you," and she plonked her cute butt down on the sofa.

"Can I revisit the idea of catching the bus?" I whispered.

"You're not leaving me on my own," he whispered back.

So I didn't.

We walked into the house with Ginny instructing us that when it was her birthday next month, Daddy had promised she could invite her entire class to watch Disney on Ice, and that she would let us both come. I couldn't think of anything more terrifying, but Danny simply thanked her and said it would depend on work. She nodded, clearly used to that answer from adults. I had no intention of pointing out that there was a good chance I wouldn't be allowed into the place even if I lost my sanity and went, and that was assuming all her friends' parents didn't take one look at me and call the cops.

Emily was quiet but sent us both a smile, and Elizabeth practically ran over to squeeze the life out of Danny and didn't seem able to let go. Buck distracted her by asking Ginny where his birthday present was and I hung back and watched as they all sat, and let Ginny decide what gift Grandad should open first.

"Actually, why don't you give Uncle Danny his present first?" Emily said, then glanced at her brother. "She chose it." Danny was impressed with the notebook. It seemed an odd gift for a child to pick to me until Buck explained that it was smart technology and transferred files to a computer as you hand-wrote them.

I nodded politely, but inside I was honestly questioning what a guy like Danny was doing with a dumbass like me, and the pleasure I'd felt from earlier in helping his relationship with his sister heal dimmed considerably. I watched as Danny kissed his sister's cheek and she clutched his hand tightly afterwards.

Then we ate. I'd noticed in a trusted environment my appetite grew exponentially, but like Danny said, his issues weren't just going to magically disappear, and he could only hope they would lessen over time, so maybe if I was lucky, mine would as well.

An hour after finishing dinner, I realized for the first time that I wasn't as anxious about tomorrow and meeting Danny's brother, when Danny's phone practically blared out. I'd heard it ring before with that sound and knew it was Rawlings, even if the look Danny sent me when he heard it didn't clue me in. He grabbed it, answered, and walked through the kitchen to the yard. I followed him and he put it on speaker when I closed the door.

"Okay, Kane and I are listening."

"Shae's just been arrested."

"Shit," Danny swore. "How come?"

"The idiot tried to join an underground fight but there were detectives there on a different case. They let his fight play out and grabbed him when it was done. Apparently he was tranqed to stop him from running."

"Now what?" Danny asked while I was still processing that.

"Now, he's on his way to the new enhanced detention center at Ware Correctional."

Which meant I was out of choices. My worst nightmare. "We're on our way back," I said, and Danny clicked his phone off, and for a second we just stood there.

"I don't want you to go," Danny whispered.

Neither did I if I was honest, but no one else would stand up for Shae. It was up to me.