Worth It (Forbidden Men, #6)(125)

I held her gaze, just as grateful, before remembering Rock and my suspicions of him. Glancing toward the stage, I saw him take a drag from some pipe-looking thing and exhale before Asher noticed it. He yanked it out of Rock’s hand and waved it in his face in a reprimanding way before throwing it in a nearby wastebasket.

As Asher stalked off, I watched the way my former brother glared after him. Rock didn’t retaliate though, so I wondered if he was all talk about his hatred of City’s family. Maybe he’d never been any real danger to her after all.

“Since we’re all confessing shit,” Pick spoke up. “Parker...it’s bugged the hell out of me all these years why you ever pled guilty to forcible rape. So...why?”

I froze, staring at him, and wondering why he wanted to bring this up...in front of City.

She slid against me and hooked her arm through mine. “It was for his family,” she explained. “I mean...” Her gaze moved to me. “It had to have been, right? It’s the only thing that ever made sense. He threatened to do something to your family if you didn’t...”

Her words trailed off as she kept watching me, and I could tell my expression was giving me away because her blue eyes widened with worry and surprise. “Oh my God. Knox.” Warning filled her voice. “Why did you plead guilty?”

I couldn’t tell her it was because of her. If she had found out back then, she would’ve fought harder for me, waited longer for me. And if she knew now, she’d be filled with nothing but guilt. What had happened was in no way her fault; I didn’t want her feeling culpable in any way.

With a glance toward Rock, I realized I couldn’t confess the truth in front of him either. He’d really think I was a traitor for being more loyal to her than I’d been to my own family.

So I settled for a half-truth. “I made him agree to take care of Bentley financially for the rest of his life.”

I must’ve stalled too long before answering, though, or maybe my woman just knew me too well. She shook her head. “No. That...that can’t be all. Maybe you got him to say that, but you knew...you had to have known he’d never keep his word. There had to be something else to really get you to agree to such horrible terms.”

I blew out a frustrated breath, hating how I could never keep anything from her. Glancing around me, I saw everyone else also watching and waiting for the rest of my explanation. So I shook my head, glanced away, and said, “He threatened to hurt you.”

Her mouth fell open as devastation lit her gaze. “And you believed him?”

“I didn’t know what to believe. He’d already slapped you. I wasn’t taking any chances.”

“Oh, Knox.” Covering her mouth, she backed away from me and shook her head. “You stupid, stupid man. I can’t believe you lied and confessed to...not because of me?”

I took a step toward her and lifted my hand. “I would’ve agreed to anything on the off chance it helped you.” When I caught a piece of her hair, she didn’t pull away. She just shuddered while tears filled her eyes.

So I tugged her forward, against my chest and she burrowed into me, hugging me tight. “If only you’d been honest, everything would’ve turned out so differently.”

Kissing her hair, I closed my eyes and relished getting to be with her here and now. “Everything turned out fine.”

“But everything in between—”

“Doesn’t matter,” I cut in, not even wanting to think about the shit that had happened in between. “I’m with you now, and that’s all I care about.”

She relaxed against me, and I kissed her hair again, just as something hit me hard on the back of the head.

A couple of the women screamed.

With pain blaring through my cranium, I tugged City behind me and whirled to face the threat.

Face red, teeth bared and sweat gushing from his pores, Rock glared at me. “You...f*cking traitor.”

“Felicity!” Aspen darted forward and yanked her away while Noel covered his wife and made sure both women were pulled to safety.

As all the other couples in the room reared backward from the confrontation, Asher hurried forward, lifting his hands. “Rock! What the f*ck, man? How many different drugs are you high on?”

Rock ignored him as he pulled a knife from his pocket, flipped it open, and advanced on me. “You left us broke and starving...for that bitch?”

“You need to put the knife down,” I said in a calm, level voice.

“And you need to shut the f*ck up, Knox! I should’ve known you were nothing but a Bainbridge lover. But you want to know the real kicker in all this? I’m the one who started the fire.”

I jerked to a stop, unable to believe my ears. “What?”

“But your goddamn precious Bainbridge family should’ve taken the blame for it. That’s how I planned it. But no…they always get away with everything.”

“You...” I stalked toward him. “You killed half our family?”

“Fuck, no. I didn’t know they were home. They were supposed to be in town. This is all those Bainbridge bastards’ fault. They were supposed to take the blame, and we were supposed to move away, to someplace better.”

I growled, unable to believe what I was hearing. “How could you?”

His eyes flared with hatred. “How could you, you goddamn traitor? Crawling into bed with a f*cking Bainbridge. You dishonor the Parker name.”