Clutching my hair, I whispered, “I'm so confused. I need to understand how he could do this.” How he could abandon me... and his potential child.

Jumping to my feet, I went to leave. Gram's hand stopped me. “Nicky, please. Don't give him the pleasure of your time. Just walk away. Isn't that possible?”

With sorrow on my tongue, I whispered, “Not for me.”

His thumb pressed into my skin, not painfully, just to hold my attention. “Stop sacrificing yourself for everyone, Nix.”

“I'm not.” Tightness crept up my throat.

“You are. It's your biggest flaw.”

Bending down, I wrapped him in a hug so fierce it stole the air from both our lungs. “Gram, I promise that I'll make this work for both of us. Okay? Trust me.”

“I do trust you. That's what makes me so worried. You'll find a way to help, you always have, and it's going to be at your expense.”

Letting him go, I turned away as fast as I could. Maybe he's right. Is all of this going to hurt me somehow?

Fuck it. I was already hurt.

I needed answers.

Abell was the only one who had them.

- Chapter Fourteen -

Abell

The knock on my door was sharp. It reverberated through my apartment.

Who the hell is that?

I was in a black mood. All morning, I'd been calling Nix. For some reason she hadn't responded.

Paranoid after the warning I'd received yesterday, I'd been marching around my apartment, preparing to head into the city and investigate her home.

I wanted nothing more than to look on the face of the woman I'd fallen for. There was an indent on her lower lip that needed me to kiss it.

Ripping open the door, I stared at that perfect indent again.

Only now, it was part of a frown.

“Nix,” I said, leaning into the hall, glancing around. “What are you doing here? Who buzzed you in? I've been trying to reach you all day!”

“One of your neighbors,” she said. Leaning past me, she scanned my place. What was she looking for?

“You buzzed someone else? Why?” Ruffling my hair, I reached for her. “Never mind, come inside and get warm.”

She dodged past me, leaving me holding the ghost of her presence. Nix stood in the middle of the room, as if going further would be dangerous.

I shut the door quietly, moving towards her with wary steps. “Are you okay?”

There. The fury in her eyes made me stand still. “No. I'm not okay at all.”

I reached for her again, and once more, she sidestepped. “Nix! What the fuck is going on?”

“You tell me.” Flipping out her phone, she showed me the screen. It took me a minute to recognize myself.

That's... from last night. Baffled, I took her phone, studying the photo in horror. “What—how do you have this?”

“Someone sent it to my brother, I had him send it to me. Abell, what were you doing last night?”

“Who the fuck would take that picture?”

She was terrifyingly somber. “Answer me about last night.”

Maybe I could have lied. There was a chance she'd listen, accept whatever I said. The frailness in her green glare said, 'I want to believe you.' Nix was willing to listen. She wanted to think the best of me.

But there was no reason to.

The truth would show that.

Handing her the phone, I lifted my head high. “You wanna know what I was doing? Exactly what you suspect.” Her face twitched. “I was getting wasted off my ass, trying to run away from my problems, like I always fucking do. Is that surprising, somehow?”

“Tell me you didn't sleep with her.”

I balked. “With who? Trish?” My brain clicked. “That's why you busted in here, looking around. You thought she'd be here? That I'd actually cheat on you?”

“How could I know what to think after seeing that photo?” she snapped. “Did you sleep with her?”

“Of course I didn't!” Dragging my fingers down my skull, I started to pace side to side. “I'd never do that to you, Nix!” It was funny, arguing my morals like this. Me, Abell Birch, celebrated manwhore... saying that I didn't fuck somebody.

Nix hadn't moved, she just seethed at me, uncertainty cracking her voice. “I want to believe you. It... it feels like the truth.”

“Don't forgive me yet,” I said flatly. “What I did was worse than cheating. I debated abandoning you, saving you from my tainted, destructive life.”

She bit at the air, lips pulling back. I'd never seen her so pissed. “You were actually going to run from me? From this?” She gestured sharply at her belly. It was flat, but I visualized what could be inside of her none the less.

The energy went out of me. This anger was what I'd expected. I deserved to be attacked. Flopping onto the arm of my couch, I let my hands fall over my knees. “Yes. I was going to run.”

“Why?” The tension in her neck made the side of her jugular tick. I wanted to kiss it, make her blood run for another reason, but I didn't dare.

Resting my head on my fist, I said, “To save you.”

“Holy hell, Abell. You freaked me out because you were trying to martyr yourself?” Palming her forehead, she laughed. “You don't need to save me from yourself, I'm a big girl, I can make my own choices.”

All I'd wanted before was to look upon her face. Now, it was hard to glance at her.

“Abell?” She came closer, my floor creaking. “What are you hiding?”

Can I tell her?

Her fingers came down on my shoulder. It reminded me of when I'd grabbed her knee in the mall. “Abell.”

I curled my fingers around hers. “I got a phone call last night. Someone bribed me to exit your life. They said you'd be ruined by me if I didn't walk out on the marriage.”

The color drained from her skin. “You're not serious.”

“I am. I didn't know what to do. How could I put you, and a child, through what my father put me through?.”

“Then... our wedding, are you going to call it off?”

And that was the real question.

This woman, this glorious, funny, amazing woman... did I dare risk leaving her a husk of her former self?

She'd argued with me, tried to make me see that this world was good.

Worth loving.

That I was worth loving.

Was her belief in me enough?

“I've always run,” I whispered. “Since my mother passed, I've tried to escape ever caring a fraction about anyone else. I thought nothing would change that.” Lifting my eyes, I gave her a weak smile. “Then I met you.”

She hit me like a bullet, knocking me back on the couch. Straddling my waist, she glowered down at me. “You aren't—you can't—dammit!” Her hair thrashed side to side. “You're not supposed to make me feel this way!”

My mouth fell open, but I had nothing to say. Wasn't she going to scream at me, or at least punch me once or twice? “Nix...”

“How am I supposed to handle all of this?” she asked. “You make my life far, far too unpredictable, Abell Birch.”

I went to speak, but she shut me up, her lips stealing my words. The kiss was a firecracker, the sparks vanishing too quickly as she leaned away again. “What do we do about the phone call? Do we call the cops?”

Right to business. That's my girl. “I don't know what they could do.” Holding her, I let a lick of my inner rage touch my voice. “But I won't let anyone come between us. Not ever. I'll always protect you, Nix. You... and our baby.”

Snuggling around me, Nix buried her face in the crook of my arm. “I want to tell you something, but looking at you—I don't know if I have the guts.”

I chuckled. “You, of all people, scared of something? What could make you so nervous?”

In my grip, Nix trembled. Whatever was getting to her, it was huge—momentous.

And then I knew.

There was only one thing that could shake the wild fire of this woman.