He kissed my neck again, lingered there, and right before sleep pulled me back under, I heard him say, “When I said same earlier. I meant I love you too, you know.”

The next time I woke up, Kane’s bedroom was bright, the curtains pulled back, and the sun was shining. Next to me, the bed was cool and empty, but lights were on beneath the bathroom door. I sat up and stretched, groaning at the ache in my thighs from the mid-night workout.

The bathroom door opened and Kane stepped out, wearing only athletic shorts like usual and a fresh white bandage on his bicep. Guilt curdled in my stomach and I sat up as he walked toward me, smiling softly.

“How’d you sleep?”

“Better the second time,” I admitted. “Is Gabby still here?”

“She woke up when I went downstairs. Sent her home about a half hour ago.”

“I should call her. Thank her for staying with me last night.”

“She knows. Said she had to get to work.”

“Okay. What are you doing up? Shouldn’t you be sleeping? Resting?”

I pointed at his arm. His other hand brushed over it, and he shrugged. “It’s a bit bruised, but it’s fine. Stop worrying about it.”

The last words I heard last night returned like a whisper in my mind, and I blinked and gripped the covers of the bed. He couldn’t have meant it. Could he? Now wasn’t the time to bring it up, so I slipped out of bed and grabbed the T-shirt I’d flung to the floor.

Kane gave me a kiss as he walked by toward the doorway. “Take some time and get ready. I have a feeling today isn’t going to be as relaxing as you thought it would be. I’ll go get breakfast started.”

Right. Reality slammed back into me. That didn’t stop me from enjoying the view while he walked away.

“So, what happens now?”

Kane filled me in on all the things Lincoln said to him and the way he behaved. He told me about the team’s crew being roofied and how he most likely paid workers at the LA arena to mess with his sticks. It was a good thing he forced me to eat my avocado toast first because had I waited, I would have lost my appetite and avocados were too expensive to go to waste.

“I don’t know. I’m going to call John’s brother, Jordan, today to see if he can give me any insight. He’s a defense attorney, but he’ll know more than I will.”

“Jordan?”

“Jordan Banks,” he confirmed with a nod. “He represented Dominick when his shit went down last winter, so he’d be a good starting resource. I could call Kimmy, Max’s girlfriend too, which I should do anyway since they were at the game last night.”

“Was he the one holding that Vipers Sucks sign you and Alix laughed with?” I saw it on TV while announcers were prepping the pre-game warm-up right before everything went to shit.