Page 116 of Deacon

‘See ya, Dad,’ he whispered. ‘Love you.’

‘Not more than I do.’

Blinking tears away, he whirled off, grabbed his gear, and raced upstairs.

Goodbyes were always brutal on us.

I tore my eyes away from his disappearing silhouette and turned my full attention to Ana.

‘You take care of yourself, beautiful.’

She nodded, linking her slender arm with mine as she led me toward the front door.

We stood under the frame, lingering in the cool evening air, our eyes locked.

‘I’ll see you soon,’ she murmured.

There was a mountain of truth I wanted to level with her, but the timing was shit.

With a sigh, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her flush against my chest.

We held each other for a long, quiet minute, then I pressed my lips to either side of her eyes, honoring our resurrected intimate ritual.

She took a jagged inhale, tears welling in her eyes.

I bit back a curse and let her go.

Turning on my heel, I strode toward my waiting satin-black Bronco Raptor, turned on the V8 engine before I lost control, and pivoted back to kiss her senseless.

Chapter 23

ANA

The next morning, after dropping Raff off at school, I drove home the long way.

In part, to work through my churning emotions about Deacon.

Since he left last night, I was a bundle of nerves.

I was still working through the reality of my impending divorce and the absurdity of falling back in love with my first husband.

Blinking back tears, I realized I needed someone else to talk to about the conflict raging inside me.

On a whim, I scrolled through my contacts on the car display until I found the person I was looking for.

I tapped the call button and moments later the phone on the other side picked up.

‘Ana?’

‘Hi, Shalini.’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Not sure. Divorcing Max while freaking out about Deacon, maybe?’

Shalini Seth, my best friend, was stunning, mixed-race, with Australian and Swahili heritage from Zanzibar.

She was the COO of Kingsguard Securitas, a subsidiary of the King-Knight conglomerate that handled all of Six Sinners’ concert security and logistics.