single word. Well, damn it, give me some magic now. Talk to me now. Tell me how to protect Candace and not lie to her. Tell me how to be honest with her and not ruin the wedding for her. For long minutes, that’s the battle I fight within myself.
Suddenly, Candace is beside me, pressing close to my side, all soft and sweet, her hand settling on my belly. “Hey,” she whispers.
Time’s up.
The truth or a lie.
The time of decision has come.
I turn to her, hands on her tiny waist, and pull her to me. “Hey, future Mrs. Savage.”
She smiles, and damn, she has an angel’s smile. I can’t lie to her, no matter how good my intentions. Good intentions haven’t served me well with Candace. I have never lied to her. I won’t start now.
“That’s me,” she says, “and I can’t wait to be Mrs. Savage.” Her fingers brush my jaw. “You haven’t shaved since you left. You’re about a beard instead of a goatee. You should let me shave you.”
I capture her fingers and kiss them. “Tomorrow.” My hands settle on her shoulders. “We should talk.”
“You’re very serious right now. And considering you are you, that feels rather ominous.”
“Only because I dread telling you anything that isn’t perfect right before our wedding. And I considered not telling you what I’m going to tell you at all, not until after the wedding, but that’s not who I want us to be.”
“But you want to protect me,” she supplies.
“Hell yes, I want to protect you, Queen Candace.”
She laughs. “Queen Candace? That’s new. And that makes you king, right?”
“Was that ever a question?” I tease, but I’m already leading her toward the couch and the coffee table, where there’s a bottle of wine and two glasses, that at one point, a few days back before I left for Tennessee, we meant to drink and never touched.
We sit and I reach for the bottle and open it. And while I’m pouring, she studies my magic moon. “It’s beautiful,” she says, “so close, and yet so far away.” Her gaze shifts and she angles in my direction, her eyes meeting mine as she adds, “A bit like our wedding.”
I hand her a glass. “Nothing will stop us from getting married if that’s what you’re afraid of.”
“I don’t know what happened when you were away. But I wish you would have said no to Max.”
I sip from the glass I’ve filled for myself. “I wish it were that simple.” I draw in a breath and shake my head. “I’m not sure this situation is what it seems. And I’m not sure it wouldn’t have ended up on our doorstep no matter what.”
“What does that mean?” she asks. “I mean, Tag is dead. And I thought Max was your friend.”
I set my glass down and she does the same with hers before we face each other and both settle a leg on the couch between us. “Max wanted me to grab a data drive and drop it at another location. Simple. Easy. Fast. Except we got to the pick-up location, and there were a group of men waiting.”
Her eyes go wide. “For you? Were they waiting for you?”
“One could assume so. Now did they want what I was after or did they just want me dead? I can’t say. And neither can they. We killed them all.”
“My God,” she whispers. “What else?”
“Max stopped taking my calls. I had no way to make the drop he wanted me to make. I hid it on the property where I was supposed to make the drop. That way if he calls, I can tell him where it is.”
“I thought you were taking him money after the drop?” she asks.
“We got to his cabin in Colorado to do just that and there was no Max. The cabin was in disarray, a cup of coffee shattered on the ground. Someone was there and left. Again, one can assume it was Max.”
“Okay. But if Max set you up, surely he wouldn’t have given you the right address to find him.”
I blink. “So did Max set you up or was he set-up?” Candace asks.
“I’d like to think Max is a good guy—he saved my life—but I can’t make that work in my head. How did those men that attacked us know when and where to go if he didn’t tell them?”
“So obviously you found the data drive. Did you look at it? What was on it?”
It’s a question I’d hoped she