Jesus, he’d even brought up the fact that he went to prison for Max. He wouldn’t have mentioned it, if not for having his ass against a wall with no way out. Desperate for Eva to see past his mistakes, he had nothing else to lay on the table.

“How have you known her for sixteen years?” Eva asked slowly. “There’s no possible way. No way.”

Despite her words of conviction, her eyes told Carter the pieces were falling into place. Her stubbornness was the only thing stopping her from seeing what was right in front of her.

“We met … in the Bronx,” Carter said quietly. “She was nine. I was eleven.”

Horror washed across Eva’s features, but it changed swiftly to emotions that were as indiscernible as they were fleeting. She was warring with herself now, battling with what she believed—he was a hardened, dangerous criminal—and the actual truth—he’d saved her daughter’s life.

“The news,” Eva stammered. “It was all over the news. Everyone knows where they were that night. Everyone knows what happened.”

Carter carried on, ignoring her accusation that he was a liar. “I heard a scream.”

Eva closed her eyes.

“I was across the street and I saw everything: the punks with the bat, Kat, your husband. Christ—it happened so damned fast. He … Your husband was on the ground. They hit him with the bat, kicked him. He tried to fight back, but there were too many of them for one man.”

Eva made a strangled sound and clapped a palm to her mouth.

“Kat was on the ground about two feet away,” Carter continued, lost in the memory. “One of the assholes had hit her.”

“Stop.”

“She was wearing a blue dress. It was dirty from the sidewalk, ripped at the sleeve. Your husband screamed at her to run. He begged her over and over, but she didn’t listen. And I knew that if those fuckers got hold of her, they’d kill her.”

Eva looked up at him finally, tears spilling down her face.

Carter put his hand on his stomach. “Something in here, deep in here, told me to help her. I just couldn’t watch them hurt her. It was so damned wrong.”

“You—you,” Eva hiccoughed, unable to form a full sentence.

“I ran to her,” Carter said. “Grabbed her arm and ran. But I had to drag her most of the way; she was small, but she fought, ya know? She was so strong.”

Eva wrapped her arms around herself, listening to him describe how he’d tackled Kat to the cold, wet ground.

“There was gunfire and she screamed, and all I could do was hold her and make sure that she didn’t run back. I figured I was doing what her old man wanted. I was doing something good.” He ran his hands across his hair. “Saving Kat’s the only good thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.”

Then they stared at each other for the length of two heartbeats, and he hoped they finally understood each other. They’d found their common ground. They both existed for the same reason, and, with that realization, he found it easier to breathe.

“Where did you take her?” Eva croaked.

“A doorway a couple of blocks down. Once she stopped fighting me, she cried until she fell asleep.”

“Then you left her?”

“No,” he replied. “I held her. Stroked her hair, talked to her until help came.”

“But … you disappeared.”

Carter gave a wry smile. “I already had a name with the police because of shit Max and I had done, and I knew if they caught me I’d have to answer questions. So …”

“You ran.”

“Yeah.”

“Where did you go?”

“Back to my friend’s place. Max calmed me down, helped me through the shock of what happened.”

Eva cast her eyes toward the doorway. “She knows?”

“Of course. I had to tell her.”

“How did she take it?”

Carter smiled. “In her own way. But I’m here, right?”

“Yes, you are.”

Carter exhaled and rubbed his face with a weary hand. “Look. I know we’re never going to be the best of friends. I know you’ll never see me as good enough for her, because I know that myself. And I didn’t tell you this to win points. I told you because I wanted you to see I would never ever hurt her. She’s everything to me. I want to give her everything she wants or needs. And I want you and Kat to go back to the way you were before I got involved. I hate that I caused this.”

Eva’s face glimmered with hope of the same thing. “It wasn’t just you. We’re all to blame in some part.”

“I need you to know that I’m not here to do anything but love and take care of your daughter.”

A timid smile played across Eva’s mouth. “You know,” she said wistfully, “you sound like Kat’s father when you talk like that. He had to convince my dad he was good enough for me.”

“And did he?”

“I think so.”

“Have I convinced you?”

Eva stood and walked across the room to the large window. The silence and anticipation caused Carter’s heart to race like a fucking V12 engine.

“My daughter is too much like me for her own good,” she began. “You were right about that, and I can see how much she loves you.” Her cheeks washed with an embarrassed pink. “I didn’t want to see it, but it’s clear as day. Still, having said that, I can’t overlook the fact that Kat’s putting a lot at risk by being with you.”

Carter opened his mouth to protest, but Eva held up her palm, halting his words.

“I need you to know that Kat is the most precious thing in my life. She always has been. If anything happened to her, I don’t know how I’d survive.”

He knew exactly what she meant. If Kat ever ceased to be, so would he.

“But you saved her, didn’t you?”

Carter swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.”

“You saved her when her father couldn’t. And if you hadn’t been there, then I’d have lost them both.”

“Yeah.”

“So where does that leave us?”

Carter shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s a start, right?”

Eva’s face gave nothing away.

Carter peered toward the doorway again before slowly getting to his feet. He pushed his hands into his pockets and gestured with his head in Kat’s direction.

“I’m—I’ll go and see if she’s okay.”

Eva didn’t reply, but kept her eyes on him as he walked across the room.

“Wes.”

Carter stopped and clenched his eyes shut for a brief moment, then turned back to her, a rock in his gut and a desert in his throat. “Yeah?”

“Thank you,” she whispered. “From the bottom of my heart, Wes, thank you for saving Katherine’s life.”

33

Once Wes left the sitting room, Eva was lost in thought, staring out of her mother’s front window, watching the snow falling to the ground, crisp, clean, and beautiful.

She blinked slowly, picturing the face of the man who had been her everything. She loved Harrison with all of her heart, save for the one piece that would forever belong to Daniel Lane.

Eva wiped away tears and glanced over her shoulder when she heard the faint sound of laughter and the closing of a door. She had to give Wes his due. He’d stood his ground, never wavering. He’d spoken articulately—save for a few curses—and showed unquestionable love and protective loyalty for Katherine. Eva wasn’t lying when she told Wes she hadn’t wanted to see the love between them. It’s what scared her most.

Her daughter was head over heels in love with Wes Carter. It was a love that many never found and no one could ever extinguish. It was a love that was far-reaching, powerful, and all-consuming. Eva could see it in Kat’s eyes when she looked at him and when she glared at Eva in his defense. It was the same look Eva had given her father innumerable times when she’d first introduced Danny to the family.

Eva wanted nothing more than for Katherine to be loved in passionate, breathtaking ways. She wanted her consumed by love, desperate with it, unafraid to be made fragile by it, and filled with its strength. She wanted her to soar and spin and lose herself in a man who would love her just as much. She wanted it all for Katherine, and Katherine had it. But Wesley Carter couldn’t be further from the man Eva had imagined.