“And you won’t out him,” Roe concluded.
“I promised him I’d never tell a soul. I’m breaking that promise to tell you because you deserve to know and I trust you.”
“Thank you,” Cara whispered, leaning forward and kissing me on my cheek.
“You said before that Gauthier knows,” Roe began.
“You’re the only people I’ve told, but he made it pretty clear that he suspects something was going on between Minns and I. He was speaking as if he knew what the score was between us, and he’s never once doubted me.”
Cara confirmed what I already knew. “He’s a good judge of character.”
Roe got out of bed and paced the room. He was stark naked, his soft cock hanging long between his legs. His muscles weren’t quite as cut as mine, but he was fast and strong, two combinations that didn’t always go hand in hand. I didn’t think he’d ever hurt a fly, but having seen what he could do to a punching bag, I wouldn’t want to come across him in a dark alley.
I admired the way he moved even as tension coiled in his back, his spine going rigid. “Can we go back to them not standing up for you?” Roe asked through gritted teeth. “You’ve been alone this whole time with only Gauthier and Hewitt on your side. I heard your teammates after that practice in Brisbane when Mironov tried to attack you. They were assholes about it—”
“They didn’t know the truth. You thought exactly the same thing when you saw the photos and read the spiel.”
“No, I didn’t,” Roe responded, his tone softer and more apologetic.
He moved around to my side of the bed and sat down. Then he grasped my hand, and I stared at where we were joined and begged my heart to stop going nuts in my chest. I wanted to kiss him, but I didn’t dare. Roe had given me his dick, but I wouldn’t mistake that for him actually wanting a relationship. Not again.
What kind could we have anyway? We’d been doomed from the beginning.
My time here was winding up. I was down to a couple of days.
Yet, I was already a lost cause. I’d gone and fallen for both of them.
But I wouldn’t make the mistake of assuming my feelings were reciprocated.
Monroe explained, “I lashed out as much as you did. I said it to hurt you, but I never believed it. And they should know you better.”
I shrugged, playing down how isolated I’d been after my teammates wrote me off. “Most of them just iced me out. It’s probably better than what I would have done if I were in their situation.”
“Mironov is a piece of work,” Cara said, her nose screwed up and her lips pursed like she’d tasted something foul. “And I don’t have words for how awful Minns and his wife are.”
We fell silent then, and Roe rubbed my knuckles with his thumb. “I’m sorry they hurt you. It’s not easy losing someone important to you, and it’s worse when they betray you.”
I asked, “Is that what happened to you?” before I could stop myself. Then I cringed and added, “Forget about answering that. It was insensitive of me.”
“No, it’s okay.” He gave me a small smile and began speaking. “My wife and son died, as you know. They went out one day and never came back. It was as if they disappeared into thin air. There was no trace of the yacht or them. A few days later, my son’s foot was found washed up on a beach. But that was it.” Roe clenched his jaw tight, and he held my hand like it was a lifeline.
I nudged Cara so that we could make room for Roe. When she moved, I turned down the cover and patted the bed between my legs. Roe shifted between them, and I hissed at the feeling of his cold skin against me. I tugged the blanket high over him and rubbed my hands down his arms to warm him up.
He threaded our fingers together and snuggled in closer. I wrapped my arms around him, holding him tight. He leaned back and rested his head on my shoulder, breathing slowly. Cara wiped his cheeks, brushing the tears off them. She pressed herlips to his face, first his cheeks, then his forehead, and ran her fingers along his jaw. He forced a smile and spoke again, his voice barely more than a broken whisper.
“We never recovered their bodies. I never got to say goodbye to them, not properly, anyway.” He sucked in a wobbly breath and continued. “Rosa’s company went under after she died, and we nearly lost everything. I was buckling under the weight of grief and pressure. Then I found out that Rosa had debts I didn’t know about. I had to sell our house to pay them off. If it weren’t for my friend Kristie—Ry’s mum,” Roe explained to me, “fronting us the money for a rental bond, we would have been on the street.”
He was quiet for a time, and then he shook his head. “I was a mess for so long. I was barely holding it together, barely existing for Zali when she needed me most. Thank God for Kristie and Ry being there for us. Without them, Flynn, and one of the teachers at Zali’s school, I don’t know that either one of us would have survived.”
“Zali never doubted for a moment how much you love her,” Cara murmured with complete certainty. I was so grateful that she knew his daughter—she could give him the truth he needed to hear. “After having lost Rosa and Asher, she needed you to love her, and you did that. You’re a great dad to her, to Flynn and Ry as well. Both of them look at you like you’re their hero.”
Roe sighed and leaned on me, soaking up my strength. Then he threaded his fingers with Cara’s, holding onto her like he’d done with me only moments earlier. Jesus, he’d been destroyed. He’d been to hell and back and had survived through sheer grit and determination. I shook my head and murmured against his temple, “I can’t imagine.”
“He’s been gone now for longer than he was alive,” Monroe whispered, his voice cracking. “Some days I still can’t believe I’ll never see him again. I’ll hear his laugh in my head and I’ll lookover my shoulder, expecting him and Ry to come barrelling into the house like they used to when they were kids. Then it’ll hit me again. I forget sometimes. But I always remember.” He sucked in a shuddery breath and dashed away his tears again.
My heart shattered into a million pieces. Tears tracked down my cheeks as I listened to the broken man in my arms confess his greatest heartbreak. In that moment I knew—I’d do anything to give him love again, to make his lips turn up in that carefree laugh he had.
I held him tight and pressed kisses to his temple and hair, rocking him as he fought back his tears. Cara climbed between his legs and curled into Roe, the two of us surrounding him with love.
