I shrugged. “Tell her the truth. She knows everything anyway.”
“For real?”
“I had to lie to the entire world. I couldn’t live with lying to her too.”
Cam considered me, gauging me as if I was a fucking stranger, and I couldn’t blame him.
Then he studied Liliana and seemed to make a decision. He came closer, kicking the door shut behind him, and hooked the chair from the desk with his foot, sitting backwards on it, his tattooed arms dangling over the back as he faced my daughter. “I’m not going to hurt your dad. But I’m pretty angry with him right now, so if you stay in the room for this conversation, I might say some things that scare you.”
“I’m not scared of you.”
“You don’t need to be. I’m just checking you’re okay with some of the stuff I need to talk about with your dad.”
“She’s okay.” I pulled Liliana back into my lap. “No offence, pres, but you’re not the biggest arsehole she’s ever met.”
Cam’s lips twitched, fighting a smile in spite of himself.
It was good to see, but the dread when it faded hit harder than ever. “Did you vote?”
Cam folded his hands. “On what?”
“On whatever.” I knew they weren’t going to kill me. But they could take my cut. My bike. Myhome. I’d never told anyone the club was the only place I’d ever truly felt safe. Like I belonged, despite the giant secret I’d kept from my brothers.
“We voted,” Cam stated flatly. “Though, by the end of it, I’d lost track of what for. And I didn’t vote at all. I wanted to talk to you first.”
“What about the rest of them?”
“As expected.”
The fuck did that mean? My brothers were my friends. My friends were my brothers. They cared about me. I knew that. But I’d lied to them. And I’d brought shit to their door that put everyone they cared about in danger. That putCamin danger, a mortal sin Saint and Alexei would never forgive. “Are you kicking me out?”
Cam held my gaze. “I want to.”
“That’s fair.”
“Is it?”
“I lied to you.”
“Fuck yeah, you did.” Cam’s glower hardened. “And for putting my family in danger all these years I should fucking kill you. I want to kill you. Iwant...goddamn it. I want to be angry enough to bash your fucking face in, but the truth is, I ain’t angry at all. I’m disappointed—I’msad, man. That you didn’t trust me, or Saint, or evenEmbryenough to help you before it came to this.”
“It was never about trust. It was about risk. This dude... Cam.”
“I know.” Cam glanced at Liliana. “Alexei’s filled me in as much as I need to know right now. Whatweneed, you and me, is to figure out a way forward. They’re gonna come for you, right? All three of you?”
I nodded, letting Liliana’s hair tickle my nose. “I moved around a lot before Saint brought me here, but I’m not hard to find. I made sure of that so he knew I had nothing to hide. But he’ll figure out she came to me. There’s nowhere else she could go.”
“Was that always part of your plan? That you’d be here, with us, when the time came?”
Cam shifted on his chair. For the first time, I noticed the braided bracelet he wore, the same as mine and Embry’s, except his accent thread was gold, for a king. Because that’s what he was. And he wanted to know if I’d spent the last decade conspiring to use his kingdom—his family—as collateral damage to save mine.
“I never patched in so you’d protect me, boss. You honestly think I manipulated Saint into befriending me?”
Cam’s faint smile returned for a brief moment. “Okay. I accept that logic. But taking Saint out of the equation, whatwasthe plan? To have a secret relationship with your kid her whole fucking life?”
“If that’s what it took. I’d have walked away if Juana had asked me too, though. If Lili had.”
Liliana elbowed me.