Page 12 of Honor ’N’ Duty

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, if you didn’t have a whole house and property to maintain, it would leave you more time to…to…” She arched a brow. “You know.”

He narrowed his eyes as a spurt of annoyance shot through him. He understood what she meant but didn’t want to verbalize it in front of Rosa. Laia assumed that he was a womanizer who spent his nights trolling the bars for action. Although just where she would have gotten that impression he didn’t know, because he’d never been that kind of guy.

He tightened his jaw. “I enjoy my bachelorhood just fine, thanks. The house is mainly for Smoke. Before Smoke, it was for my K-9, Tango. Tango retired two years ago and spends most of his time with my parents.”

“Well. We wouldn’t want to be an imposition to you.”

“An imposition?” She had to be kidding.

Or was she? By ghosting her all these years he’d given her that very impression.

The truth was that not only were she and Rosa family but Laia was… What? His ginormous guilt aside, she would always be his sister-in-law and the mother of his niece. Leaving them unprotected was out of the question. “You and Rosa are family. You could never be an imposition.”

“No? You shut me out,” she said, her voice low enough that Rosa wouldn’t hear. “What kind of a man deserts his dead brother’s wife when she has no one else?”

His jaw clenched. She had him dead to rights on that score. Not that he didn’t want anything to do with her, quite the opposite actually. In fact, that was the precise reason he’d stayed away. He’d never forgotten those forty minutes in an elevator with her.

Sensing his roiling emotions, Smoke snorted, looking up at him with worried eyes.

Before he could respond, her gaze dipped down his tuxedo, then up. “Besides. Clearly we interrupted you in the middle of…something.”

“I was at a friend’s wedding in Maryland,” he grumbled.

Her expression turned to one of shock. “You left a wedding and drove all the way up here because I called?”

“Yes,” he said, irritated that she thought so little of him. He would have driven all the way from Alaska to get back here. Again, to protect her and Rosa. He had a familial obligation to them. There couldn’t be more than that. Ever.

Keep telling yourself that.

As she followed him up the steps, he glanced back. The smooth skin over the bridge of her nose had creased. Whether it was from anger or confusion he couldn’t be sure.

“I just thought that—” Her sexy pink lips pressed together in a firm line. “With everything that’s happened… Frankly, I hesitated to call you at all because I never actually expected you to show up.”

He exhaled a tight breath. There was no one to blame but himself for Laia’s current state of TPO—totally pissed off. Between his parting shot at the wedding, then his disappearing act, he’d unintentionally created that monster, and there was no slaying it now.

If he could go back in time and do anything differently, would he?

Nope. There had only been one path to take, and it had led him on a straight line away from Laia.

He dug the keys from his pocket and opened the front door. Inviting her and Rosa to stay with him was the exact opposite of what he should do, but their safety came first, and this was the best option. For now. As soon as he figured out what was behind the burglary and the people following Laia, they’d go right back to where they were before.

Apart.

At the thought of never seeing her again, he curled his fingers tighter around the straps.

Smoke trotted past them, heading inside and going straight for his water bowl in the kitchen and taking noisy slurps.

Kade opened a closet and stowed his rifle in the gun safe, then headed up the stairs. “I’ll show you to your rooms.”

Behind him, Laia closed the front door. Kade paused on the landing, taking in a view he never expected to see. Laia Velez in his home. Evening sun backlit her hair, making it gleam like volcanic glass and casting shadows beneath her high cheekbones.

“I didn’t realize Smoke needed an entire house,” she said.

“He doesn’t.” Kade continued up the stairs and stopped in front of one of the bedrooms. “But he does need a fenced-in yard and room to exercise, and it’s my duty to make sure he gets it. He might seem like my dog, but he’s actually the property of the U.S. government, and Uncle Sam pays me a stipend to care for him.”

“Well, isn’t that thoughtful of the federal government.” There was no mistaking the sarcasm in her tone, not that Kade could blame her for it. The Big G hadn’t exactly been kind to her.