Once Upon A Half-Time 2(147)

“He’s…prostituting her?”

I hadn’t admitted it to anyone and only now realized she was the only one who wouldn’t judge us for it. I should have trusted her from the beginning.

“He’s got her convinced she’s his mistress, but he needs money to leave his wife and kids. Chelsea so goddamned infatuated with him she doesn’t understand that he’s threatening us both. If I can’t get him enough money, he’s going to take her swinging again.” The thought burned me. Like Chelsea hadn’t suffered enough. “I have no idea if she’d even survive it, not with the amount of drugs he pushes on her to make her fuck those men.”

Josie closed her eyes. “And you knew about this?”

“Yeah.”

“For how long?”

“Two years. I paid him enough to keep her from whoring, but I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop him from touching her.”

“You thought he was responsible for the fire?” It wasn’t a question. Josie put two and two together, only she didn’t have to sit in a jail cell for a year and obsess over it.

“He knew I was close to getting evidence. One of his friends had pictures of her with him from a party. I paid for them. A shit ton. I was about to expose him for what he was, and I think he set fire to your shop to frame me. He couldn’t risk his reputation.”

“And the money was the only way you could protect Chelsea. You needed to take the jobs.”

“I never, ever wanted to hurt you,” I said. “I wanted to keep you away from the chief and Nolan and that part of my life.”

Her grip tightened on the blanket. I hated that the rain blew sideways, misting over her. We both ignored the cold. “You should have told me. I would have understood. I could have helped.”

“No one would believe me without proof. The chief is respected and important and my sister and I…” Weren’t. “We’re not even a family. I’m a wallet to her, a last resort before she whores herself out to someone less reputable than John Craig. I couldn’t let that happen. Our childhood was robbed. No reason her adult life should be miserable too.”

Josie pulled me inside, tugging the wet coat off my body. I dripped onto her floors and shivered from the rain, but anywhere she touched me was as comforting as a damn mug of hot cocoa—her gourmet recipe, the one that was more melted chocolate bar than milk.

She cast the blanket over my shoulders, and she sat me on the couch.

Comforted.

Loved.

Nothing I deserved. Not now.

“I will never keep any secret from you again,” I promised. “Never.”

“Shh.” Josie placed a delicate finger over my lips. I kissed it, instinctually, just a way to show deference to the woman who controlled more of my life than my pride, the law, or any of my bad decisions. “I’m sorry I ever doubted you.”

“I gave you reason to doubt.”

“Not a good one. I knew better. I told everyone else to look harder, to see the man you really were.”

She leaned close, gently shifting over my lap to straddle my legs. Her arms wove behind my neck, and I stared at her beautiful cinnamon lips.

Christ, what did I have to do to get this woman to drop the apologies and just kiss me?

“I doubted you at the first sign of trouble,” she said. “I let myself…think horrible things.”

“It’s my fault, Sweets. I’m not the man you should have fallen in love with.”

“There’s no one else for me.” Her lips pressed mine, gentle and soft. “No one else excites me as much as you. No one that challenges me as much. No one understands me as much as you do.”

“Believe me, Sweets. I haven’t figured you out yet.”

“I think you have. Long ago. When you saw me all innocent and naïve and sheltered.”

“Don’t kid yourself. I wanted to exploit that.”

Her eyebrow rose. “You didn’t.”

“Wow. You’re still naïve.”

“Is that a problem?”

I rested my hands on her hips, grasping her curves just to tease my restraint. “I like that you’re innocent. I need that, or I’d never believe this world wasn’t the first step to hell. You see things differently than me. You’ve had good things happen to you.”

“You’ve been the best.”

“That’s a lie, but it sounds sweet coming from you.”

“It’s no lie. I needed to know the world had that edge.” She brushed my cheek. “You taught me to be cautious. To recognize when men like Nolan wanted something more from me than I was willing to give. We balance each other, Maddox.”