revolted at the sight of the burger Cooper had placed in front of me. I was staring at Anaya thinking about how much my friend had changed. And not in little ways—big, huge, life-changing ways.
I’d known Anaya a long time. She did not touch people and she hated to be touched. Knowing how she grew up, her history, her aversion to any physical closeness was not a surprise. It was the opposite actually, seeing her lean close to Ivy on her own volition in a familiar way was shocking. It was also a blessing. I also knew it was all Kyle’s doing and I would forever be grateful he never gave up on Anaya and found the woman she really was under the layers of scar tissue. He’d peeled it all away and now my friend shined. The proof of their love in my arms. Baby Maxine with fuzzy blonde hair, and a cute little nose, and always-puckered lips. She was the testimony that love heals.
At some point during my musing, the topic of conversation had flowed to Anaya’s vacation to Cheyenne and her smile died.
“I’m still mad Kyle didn’t tell me before we left. I wouldn’t have gone.”
“Don’t be,” I said and Anaya’s gaze shot to mine. “What I did was stupid and it potentially put you, Piper, Kalee—hell, anyone close to me in danger. Kyle was right to take you to Wyoming. He knew you’d take my back and that would’ve meant you’d have been in serious danger.”
“I would’ve,” Anaya unnecessarily confirmed. “And it wasn’t cool you were in danger and no one told me. It was totally uncool you didn’t tell me what was going on before you left California.”
Damn. She was still mad at me.
“I thought we talked through this and you weren’t mad at me.”
Anaya righted herself in the chair and gave me a squinty-eyed, pinched face look that told me she pretty much thought I was dim.
“I’m not mad at you. I never was mad at you. I’m mad that you always think you have to take on life by yourself.”
Pot meet kettle. But I didn’t remind Anaya that she’d kept secrets from me and from Piper about her past. Her reasons for doing so were understandable; mine were selfish.
“I didn’t tell you because I knew what I was doing was wrong. Phantom told me not to look into what happened. Kalee told me to leave it alone, she was home and happy and just wanted to put it all behind her. It was me who couldn’t live with what happened. It was selfish and stupid. I put Kyle in a position to lie to you. I got Gabe hurt. I pissed off Zane. And now Kevin and Myles are on a wild goose chase trying to find a woman who is a total stranger, who means nothing to any of them, but Zane—having a heart under all that asshole barking—is using his resources, time, and money to find her. All my fault. It’s a shitshow and I created it all because I couldn’t sleep at night knowing someone was responsible for Kalee’s misery and they were walking around free while she was walking around with demons.”
Ivy waved her hand, then said, “Don’t worry about my husband. He’s perpetually pissed about something. And the guys get antsy when they’re stateside with nothing to do and no one to shoot. They’re happy to be on a mission. And seriously, don’t worry about the money. Zane’s loaded—as in load…ed. He bitches about it but he doesn’t mean it. You know how most men save money for their daughter’s wedding? Well, after Olivia and Leo went through their thing, and Violet and Jax had theirs, then of course there was mine, Zane saw the trend and put money aside. He calls it the Prophylactic Fund. It was put to good use with the Gold Team. Owen and Nat dipped into it. Now, you and Gabe have. But don’t worry about that either. Abrams is sending Zane a big fat check for his troubles.”
“What? He’s blackmailing them?”
That didn’t sound good. Actually, that sounded like Zane was asking for a heap of trouble.
“Blackmail’s such an ugly word. This is more like reimbursement for endangering your life. Personally, I think Zane should’ve gone for more because you almost died like five times. Which in my book is worth more than half a million, but I wasn’t part of the negotiations so I didn’t have a say.”