Cash? She wants to talk about Cash.
I suppose I should be happy I still have any connection to her, especially since it’s something like her love for my son.
But right now, I want to talk about us.
“He can stay with you if he wants, but right now we’re going to discuss something else,” I say, pulling her closer to me.
“Chance,” she warns, her hazel eyes flickering with hurt.
“I knew you wouldn’t leave, but I needed you to leave,” I say quietly, breathing in her scent. “I panicked at the thought of you getting hurt. They threatened to kill you, and they sent me pictures of you. They were following you. I needed you to leave right away. So I told Freya to take you away. I gave her my credit card and told her to take you somewhere you always wanted to go. She said you always wanted to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.”
“Freya knew?” she asks, her eyes filling with tears.
“No, she didn’t know what I was going to do,” I promise her. “But she did know that she was going to take you away until things were contained here.”
“You could have just told me. You didn’t need to break my heart with something that I was insecure about anyway. Between Gia and seeing what I saw…” She covers her face with her hands. “I can’t unsee you with that woman, Chance. And now you’re saying it wasn’t even real. Is this all a game to you?”
“No, baby. No.”
She’s tearing my heart out, and it’s only fair considering I did the same to her.
“There were so many ways you could have handled this, and that is what you came up with? To hurt me so badly, you knew I would leave and not come back to you. Well, you got what you wanted, because this changes nothing. You put me through all that for nothing? That makes it worse!” Her tears fall, and I wipe them away, each one like a knife to my chest.
“Fuck you, Chance. Go back to not caring about women. That’s safer for you, anyway, isn’t it?”
I don’t let her see just how much her words wound me. She needs to get all this off her chest, and I need to endure it.
I know I deserve all her hate.
And she’s right, I was an idiot.
I was fucking terrified that they would get to her.
“I didn’t touch that woman. I haven’t touched any other woman. I only want you. Be my old lady, Siren. I love you.”
She’ll probably hate me when she finds out how I make that official, but it’s too late for that.
“You’re going to tell me you love me now?” She frowns, shaking her head as she turns around to walk back to her front door.
Where my woman and my son live…
Without me.
This feels like a fucking failure, and one I’m going to rectify immediately.
I’ll do whatever it takes to win back what I’ve lost.
Mackenzie Masters is mine.
25
MACKENZIE
“What is he doing now?” Cash asks, sounding amused. I’m peering through the curtain and watching Chance place another bouquet at my front door. It’s been two weeks since he told me that he loves me, and I’m not going to lie, I’m fighting for my life to stay angry at him. He’s been leaving gifts for me every day—flowers, chocolates, and jewelry. He drops food off for me without me even asking. He leaves me little love notes, telling me how sorry he is, how he will make it up to me, and that he loves me and wants me to be his old lady.
“Delivering more flowers,” I say, sighing.
Cash watches me over his mug of coffee. “When are you going to forgive him?”