The hall cleared after the elevator doors closed, and I stood there staring at the empty space, wondering what I should do next.

“What’s going on?” Sheldon asked from her room door.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

She lifted an eyebrow and propped a hand on her hip. “Shouldn’t you be running?”

I stepped into her space until my hips were pressed against hers and curled a finger around a glossy lock. To a passing bystander, it would look like a simple embrace between lovers and not the assertion of power it was.

“I hope you have as much mouth when I have you alone and naked.”

“We’re alone now,” she challenged. “But you won’t be getting me naked, ever.”

“What I’m going to do to you won’t bear having witnesses. Nothing will give me more pleasure than punishing you past your limits. I’m going to make you scream for me, Shelly, and when you do, you’ll be begging.”

Just like you made me beg.

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “You sound like your brother.”

“I am my brother.” The grittiness in my tone was unrecognizable even to me. The proof of my claim lay in what I helped him do not twenty-four hours ago.

“I’m going to hurt you, Sheldon, and not just where it cuts deepest.” I touched her collarbone and then trailed a finger down her chest while cursing the gown for keeping me from touching her completely.

“So do you actually expect to just pick up where we left off?”

“Second chances can be deadly, but I set you free once. Now you’re mine.”

“I won’t love you again, Keenan. It’s not something I can survive a second time.”

I laughed because I didn’t know how else to react. We had unfinished business, but the only thing I felt for her was anger and lust. Love didn’t have any place here.

“I don’t want your love. I just want you.” I didn’t realize how true it was until I’d spoken the words.

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

“Not anymore,” I whispered reluctantly.

She made a show of hiding it, but I didn’t miss the anguish that flashed in her eyes before they turned into cold, angry flecks of amber.

“Stay away from me, Keenan… and my daughter.”

“I’m going to find our daughter, so get well, Sheldon. I’ll see you both soon.”

I disarmed her and stole her breath simultaneously as I sealed her lips with mine and fuck me if she didn’t still taste as good as ever.

I was going to make it my mission to ruin that.

CHAPTER EIGHT

SHELDON

IT’S BEEN A week since I’ve heard from or seen Keenan, and I still felt his kiss as if he were standing here kissing me senseless at this moment. A huge, frightened part of me hoped he had changed his mind, gave up, and went back to whatever hole he crawled out of—or knowing Keiran, he had been forcefully persuaded from hiding.

The knowledge reminded me that Keenan’s being here was his fault anyway. If he hadn’t insisted on finding him, I wouldn’t be so terrified of myself.

Only angry was more like it because despite what my mouth said, my heart still beat for him. I knew it the moment I laid eyes on him again—that everything about us may have changed, but my feelings remained.

The thought of him still owning any part of me was enough to drive me insane.

I felt as if I were dying inside but living again at the same time.

But I was no longer a naïve teenager. I was also a mother who had a child to protect, and I’d been through too much to give in again.

Sometime over the last four years, it became less about his affair with a teacher and more about the fact that he ran away and left me with the broken pieces of our love.

“I can’t believe how long this is taking,” Dash growled as he paced back and forth. I sat on the couch in my living room, feeling like a scolded child awaiting punishment.

Keiran still had not been released from jail and the investigation was going nowhere. We have been combing every street, alleyway, and sometimes going as far as breaking into places that look abandoned in search of Kennedy.

I helped with the search despite everyone’s protest. The doctor had ordered me to take it easy because, although the bullet had only grazed my temple, any trauma to the left side of the brain could affect my vision, speech, and mobility of my right side.

Our only hope now was that Keiran could lead us to who had taken her. Bail was denied and visitation was limited when the private investigator pressed charges. He had been pretty adamant about burying Keiran after suffering a small skull fracture but an even bigger blow to his ego.