I’ll tell Mount.Be ready to move.
Ransom responds just as quickly.
I’ll be ready.
That makes one of us.
14
Kane
Imake her happy.
That’s what Temperance said before she slammed the car door and stomped her way to the warehouse elevator.
I make her happy.She wants me in her life.
She doesn’t know there’s nothing I want more than to keep making her happy for the rest of her life, but there’s no way that can happen unless she gets tolive.
I can’t tell her how I feel ...
That I want what she wants.
That I’ve never wanted a future with anyone before.
That I’ve never loved anyone like I love her.
That not having that future with her will be the only true regret of a life that should be filled with them.
I can’t tell her any of this. But I can show her.
I pull out my phone to call in a few favors.
As Temperance hammersher way through my spare parts and then dives into the two pallets of scrap metal I had delivered from a contact, I watch her.
I suppose it comes as no surprise. Watching is what I do.
But this time, I’m thinking dangerous thoughts.
What if I tell her the plan? Maybe there’s a way to make this work so she doesn’t hate me.
As she welds two pieces of metal together, I wish I could see inside her head to the vision she has there, but I can’t.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Temperance Ransom is the strongest woman I’ve ever met. She’s been forged in the fires of life and emerged as something unique and beautiful. Somehow, even though she’s been hardened, she retained enough softness to care about a man like me.
Maybe even love a man like me.
Which is why I can’t tell her.
The best way to protect her is to keep her in the dark. Let her hate me. Let there be no question to anyone watching from the outside that this is one hundred percent real.
Her grief.
Her pain.
It will shred her. It’ll shred me too. But I don’t have a choice.
I’ll do anything to protect her.