For His Honor by Kelly Favor Page A

been such a whirlwind.”

    “What whole thing? I’m sort of lost,” Nicole said, suddenly going from feeling confused and anxious to annoyed in record time.

    “Well, I’m not even sure where to start.”

    Red folded his arms. “Why not start at how you ended up going to The Cayman Islands with Kane Wright?”

    “Oh my god! How did you know? Did Kane tell you?” Danielle asked, giddy.

    “Just a wild guess.”

    “Please tell me you didn’t,” Nicole said. Her stomach felt sick and this time it wasn’t morning sickness.

    Danielle perched her Prada sunglasses atop her newly braided hair and looked at both of them. “I didn’t want to go with him at first. I thought he was a total jerk.”

    “He is a total jerk,” Nicole replied.

    Danielle’s lips pursed and she seemed to be trying to bite back a nasty retort. “I understand,” she said, her voice shaking just enough to betray her emotion, “that you and Red have a lot of reasons to feel hostile towards Kane. But you don’t know him.”

    “I hate to tell you this, Danielle. But you don’t know him either. Did he sweep you off your feet, buy you expensive things, stroke your ego?” Nicole asked her. “None of those things are difficult for a man like Kane. Spending money is no different than breathing air for him.”

    “It’s not about the money, Nicole. And you, of all people, should know better than to make it into that.”

    “I’m sorry. I just can’t figure out what happened. When I left, you wanted nothing to do with the guy. And then—“

    “Then I spent some time with him,” Danielle said. “And I don’t really feel like justifying myself to you right now. Excuse me, I should put all this stuff in my room and then I need to get some rest. Kane’s coming to pick me up later on for dinner.”

    Danielle collected her bags—although she could only barely carry them all at once—and walked into her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

    Red looked at Nicole. “Did that really just happen?”

    Nicole sighed. “Shit.”

    “Well, as long as she’s happy, right?”

    “Yeah.” Nicole didn’t know what to say or think. She was conflicted. On the one hand, she was judging Danielle in much the same way others had judged her about Red. On the other hand, she actually knew Kane Wright, she knew him enough to be fairly certain he wasn’t a good person. And regardless, he’d done too much to hurt the father of her child.

    “Do you want to get out of here, come home with me tonight?” Red asked her.

    “I don’t know. I’m worried about her. I still want to make sure she’s really okay.”

    “Babe, she’s okay. Liking a jerky guy isn’t a federal offense, last I checked.”

    “The thing is, I feel totally responsible. If it wasn’t for me—“

    “You didn’t do anything wrong, Nicole.” He came over and wrapped his arms around her. Then he kissed her full on the lips.

    Instantly, she felt better. Her entire body relaxed. She rested her head against his chest. “What about that money you wired? Is he just going to keep it?”

    Red sighed. “I have no idea, but we can deal with it later. Come home with me.”

    Nicole shook her head. “I need to talk to Danielle a little more and try and make sure she’s really okay. And I should probably apologize for treating her the way I did.”

    “You did nothing wrong.”

    “Also…I want to get up early and head into work. I’m giving my notice tomorrow.”

    Red pulled back and looked her in the eye. “Why are you giving notice?”

    “Well, you said we’re starting that new company. I don’t want to work for your chief rival.”

    He smiled. “I’d love to have you come and work with me. My first employee!”

    Red picked her up and twirled her around, making sure to put her down gently, so as not to hurt her sore ankle.

    “I love you,” she told him, kissing him.

    Their mouths molded around each other, their tongues intertwined. She put a hand