My lips twitched. “I see everything.” Then, on a huff, I mumbled, “And I see nothing. But in this instance, I actually did see the mail this morning when I was on my way to class.”
“The bastard just won’t let things lie.”
“That’s what bastards do.”
“I can’t believe she gave him my new address.”
Considering Anna was pretty much in a walking coma, I wasn’t sure how she had either. Was I happy that Cain knew where we lived? Nope. Did I think he’d harm us if he could? Yes. Was I going to worry about it? No.
What could he accomplish in prison?
“We’re not here for long,” I tried to comfort him.
“Long enough,” he muttered.
“Just until the house is ready and Finals are over,” I reassured him, smiling when he grunted, his arms tightening around me and he tucked his chin into my throat. “Maybe you should go visit him. See what he wants.”
“Why would I do a crazy thing like that? Jesus wept, that’s the last thing I need—to see him.”
I shrugged. “He keeps sending letters for a reason.”
“Because he’s an asswipe. I won’t let him—” Adam sucked in a breath, his tension turning into outright rage. “He doesn’t give a fuck about me, about us, about Freddie. All he cares about is himself. I had to deal with that all my fucking life. He almost broke us, almost took you from me for good. He deserves nothing—I owe him nothing.”
I slipped my hands along his forearms. “I never said you did. Wouldn’t you get a kick out of seeing him inside? It’s not a nice place, Adam.” I shuddered a little as I thought about the last time I’d seen Mother in there. I’d been to visit twice. That first time, and then, the second when I introduced her team of defense attorneys to her.
There was an ingrained chill to prisons that Cain totally suited.
“How very Old Testament of you,” Adam murmured, his voice amused at my suggestion.
“I’m not the Catholic in the family.”
He grunted. “I’m not Catholic either.”
My lips curved. “You went to Church last Easter.”
A huff escaped him. “Old habits die hard.”
I grinned outright, then twisted to look up at him. “You want to get married in a church. Don’t you?”
His nose crinkled, but he didn’t reply immediately, and I turned around, staring at my likeness on the wall, trying to wonder if I could live with that large a blow-up of my face peering down at me whenever I came into the room, when he eventually muttered, “I mean, it makes sense.”
“What does?” I’d actually forgotten what I’d been teasing him about, my mind veering off onto the studying I needed to do tonight.
“Getting married in a church.” He huffed. “Don’t you think?”
“I don’t really care,” I told him, and I didn’t. “I just want to be married to you.”
“That’s all I want too,” he admitted gruffly.
But he was tense again. “What is it? What’s wrong?” This time, I twisted around and rested my arms on his shoulders. As I stared up into his worried face, I asked, “Adam?”
“The reason I’ve not really wanted to set a date is… well, I was waiting on a reply from your mom.”
Ah.
I understood his tension.
It was safe to say that Mother, me, and Adam, didn’t have the best relationship. As in, we had none. She avoided us like we had measles, and I wasn’t altogether bothered by that. After all, the last time she’d seen Adam and I together—which just happened to be when she was walking down the courthouse steps, a free woman—she’d taken the time to say, “You’ll regret this union,” before she’d blanked us and had climbed into a taxi.
Oddly enough, I’d almost expected that. I’d known she wouldn’t be grateful, had known she wouldn’t accept Adam or I.
Adam didn’t get it.
He was angry and outraged on my behalf, which, to be honest, I loved him for. Fuck, I loved him for wanting to protect me, but I didn’t need it. I had him. I’d gone through hellfire to get him, and after that, being shunned by a mom I didn’t know wasn’t the most painful thing I’d endured in my lifetime.
Not that I’d tell him that… he’d get those sad eyes of his that made me want to weep.
But knowing Mother was out, free, made me happier.
And knowing Cain was the opposite?
Made me happier still.
I reached up on tiptoe and pressed my lips to his. “Don’t worry about