Loyal by Default: Legacy of Carter Reed (Assassin's Heart #2)

by K.C. Mills

“I don’t give a damn about that anymore. I settled once, or at least I tried to. I’m not going to do that again. So unless you’re telling me that you don’t want this to work, we can figure it out. But if you decide you don’t want to try, you won’t get another chance, Carter.”

He was daring McKenna, challenging her, demanding that she understand his position since she had stated hers. She would never be free of having Carter in her life. He wouldn’t allow his total absence to be an option.

“You’re too comfortable,”

“You’re mine, Kenni, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Why did you give him anoth...

“There’s only one you. If I couldn’t have you then I had to figure out how to be happy without you. It didn’t matter who the person was because it wasn’t who I wanted. I tried, it didn’t work.”

She had Carter in her life again and this time his presence was connected to expectations she wasn’t sure he had the capability to meet.

“No one will get close enough to hurt you, Kenni. It’s why you’re here. They should have never had access in the first place. That’s on me. I’m rectifying the situation.”

Now wasn’t the time. He had no intentions of McKenna being forced back into his life. The goal was to show up when he no longer had the distractions and threats of his past. It didn’t fucking matter. She was here now and this time for good.

Carter left McKenna to get dressed so he could head out. The sooner he handled his business, the sooner he could get back to investing time in reminding McKenna that she was his.

Women and children were never an option for redemption or justice.

“I was always on the fence about what I wanted. This is what I do, it’s what I’m good at. I don’t know that I would have ever been able to completely sever ties from this life, but now that I have her…”

“She’s who you are.”

“I’m trying to figure this shit out.” The weight of that simple statement had Carter laughing lightly bef...

Your life isn’t the same, Carter. The woman across the hall fucked all that up for you.”

Brooks was right, but Carter wasn’t complaining. McKenna was worth the adjustments he would have to make.

He never wanted this because it never worked. His father thought he could exist in both spaces, but his life, the same one Carter chose, eventually caught up with him.

Carter never knew why his father wanted out. He always assumed that it got to be too much but it could have been more.

No matter what his decision would be, McKenna would never be left to figure out how to exist in a world he dragged her into without him.

“About fucking time. You two were weird together.”

“We were not…”

“Girl, you two were weird as hell. He was all ‘look at my bomb ass girlfriend who I don’t deserve’ and you were all ‘this nigga doesn’t match my fly or make me cum.’”

After he got rid of Jessup’s body, he was going home to the woman he chose over a debt being paid for the loss of his parents.

For years, he remained isolated, closed off from any type of future that included happiness. Wanting her was a first. Carter never wanted anything. Having her would be worth it, but that didn’t make the decision any easier to digest.

No matter how deeply connected she felt to him, she believed a man she knew very little about.

After she tossed it to the floor, he kissed a trail from her navel to her breasts and frowned when he noticed something different.

A butterfly tattoo. Under her left breast, near the heart.

“A black butterfly symbolizes death.”

“To some…”

“What does it symbolize for you t...

“Your life in my darkness?”

“Navigating my life after you took your darkness away.”

“But black also represents power, strength, ...

“And that’...

The photo, however, he kept close as a reminder that he had been loved once in his life.

Her heart felt settled but the apprehension from what that happiness might cost lingered.

Either way, she was here, and this time there were no outs. Not for Carter, not for her. They had to make it work.

McKenna loved her job. He wouldn’t blink at providing anything she wanted. He was more than capable. He had the means and the desire.

“You gave it to me. I have possession of it but it’s not mine, Carter. I didn’t earn it. You did and I also didn’t ask for it. This may not make sense to you but I like my job. I like knowing that I can take care of myself…”

“It makes perfect sense and you can take care of yourself. You’ve proven that so don’t be so fucking stubborn as to not accept that I might like taking care of you, regardless of your capabilities or how much you like your job, McKenna.”

“You’re mad because I don’t want to spend your money?”

“Did he know you were behind?”

“My exact fucking point. Men take care of home. You are my home, McKenna. Whether we’re together or not, you will always be good.”

He would never provide the exact number of the souls lost at his hands. Carter had a mental list, a count of each life he’d taken. It was his way of never losing touch with the two versions of himself, the killer and the man who killed.

She’d watched him kill a man, possibly the first of many, and she felt deep in her soul that Carter wouldn’t apologize for the things he did, ever.

“Life is about choices, Kenni.

Sometimes the choices you make carry consequences you don’t like but you have to make one, regardless. When you do, you can’t consider all the things you lost. The consequences are the consequences.”

“The consequence is you not finding out what happened to your parents and I’m the choice.”

“I’ll always choose you.”

Carter was darkness and bad decisions but he was still a man.