She could see his conflict. Out of everyone, he knew exactly how fragile Mo could be. She bawled right there, hands covering her face, forehead leaned against his chest. The weak spot he had for this girl made no sense. She had him completely caught in her web. Morgan had to be karma for the many hearts he had broken because she stayed fucking his shit up.

“Shit’s that bad? It can’t be that bad, Mo. Talk to me. If you can’t talk to me, I can find you someone, but whatever the fuck is going on that got you shutting me out, we got to settle that.”

Morgan trembled. This man holding her daughter in his arms was offering solutions to problems she hadn’t even admitted to herself. There was no hiding place when matters of the heart were concerned. Her eyes told all, and they screamed to Ahmeek for help. Morgan wished she could let him. The truth she was speaking was a lie, and he knew it. It was like no one else in the entire mall existed. Just them and this corner. Just him staring in her eyes. Morgan knew she was see-through.

“There’s nothing to settle, Meekie. It was cool. You were something to do, and now I’m done. I’m bored, so just let it go. I can’t fuck with you, Ahmeek. I don’t want you.”

Why the hell couldn’t she control her emotions? She wished she could stop crying. Her inner bitch would be so much more believable if she could at least stop her voice from quivering, but damn, without him, she was mourning. She was grieving a loss of love. A loss of trust. Ahmeek had not only wooed her body but the finesse of her soul had been extraordinary. He had mind-fucked her, exposing a level of intimacy that felt like a secret only best friends would share. They had spent so much time together that he had unknowingly become the person whose gaze she sought when she found something funny in a roomful of people. He was the one who reached for her hand when she felt anxiety creeping up her spine. He was the person who finished her sentences before the words could leave her thoughts. The friendship beneath the sex and passion was so solid that the void he left behind was debilitating. Ahmeek was her inside joke, and now she had to let him go. To keep Ethic safe and to stop herself from losing it all, she had to give this up. Return it to the forbidden place it had come from.

He blew out a sharp breath. The tears gutted him. He wanted to hold her at her word. It was fuck him, so it should be fuck her, but he hated the discomfort that accompanied fighting with Morgan Atkins. Her tears had always done something to him, even before she was his concern.