Heat Novels

The neighbor's voice carries through the door. "I told him you weren't home, but he's insistent. Should I call security?"

My brain stutters back online.

Evan. Downstairs. Coming up.

I spin toward Cade, who's still staring at the child's drawing on my fridge like it holds the secrets of the fucking universe.

"You need to leave." My voice is barely recognizable. "Right now."

His eyes snap to mine. Storm-gray and lethal. "What?"

"The back stairs. Go."

"I'm not—"

"Please." The word cracks. "I'll explain everything. I promise. But you can't be here when he—"

Footsteps in the hallway. Getting closer.

Cade's jaw works. For one terrible second I think he'll refuse, plant himself in my living room and blow my entire world apart just because he can.

Then he moves.

Fast. Predatory. He crosses to the window that leads to the fire escape, movements fluid despite the fury radiating off him in waves.

"This isn't over," he says quietly. A promise and a threat.

Then he's gone, slipping through the window into the October darkness.

I barely have time to close it before the knock comes.

Three sharp raps that make my heart seize.

I check Lily's door. Still closed. Thank Christ.

My hands are shaking as I smooth my sweater, try to arrange my face into something approaching normal. Like I wasn't just seconds away from kissing the man who destroyed me. Like his brother isn't about to—

Another knock. More insistent.

I open the door.

Evan stands in the hallway holding white roses.

Of course he remembers they're my favorite. Of course he does.

He looks exactly the same. Polished and perfect in a navy button-down that probably cost more than my rent. Expensive watch catching the light. That easy smile that made me fall for him six years ago, back when I was stupid enough to believe in safe choices.

The smile falters when he sees my face.

"Sloane." His voice is soft. Concerned. Everything Cade's isn't. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." The lie tastes like ash. "What are you doing here?"

"Can I come in?"

"This really isn't a good—"

"Please. Five minutes." He shifts the flowers. "I came all this way."

Every instinct screams at me to slam the door. But Evan doesn't do well with rejection, and I need him gone before Lily wakes up fully, before—

I step aside.

He enters my small living room, and it's like watching two different timelines collide. Evan Mercer, who I dated for two years with everyone's approval. Evan, who wanted to marry me, give me the life everyone said I should want.

Evan, who has no idea I fucked his brother five years ago and ran.

"Nice place," he says, looking around. His gaze snags on Lily's toys scattered across the floor. Confusion flickers across his face, but he doesn't comment. "I've been trying to reach you."

"I know."

"You blocked my number."

"I know that too."

He sets the white roses on my kitchen counter, right next to the drawing Cade was staring at. Lily's crayon masterpiece of our apartment building, complete with a lopsided sun and a cat that looks more like a potato.

"I moved here," Evan says. "To Millbrook. Got a position with Hartman Realty. It's a great opportunity, and I—" He turns to face me fully. "I wanted to be closer to you."

Oh fuck.

"Evan—"

"I know what you're going to say." He takes a step closer. "That it's been five years. That we're over. That I should move on." Another step. "But I can't, Sloane. I've tried. God knows I've tried. But you're it for me. You always have been."

The words should touch me. Once upon a time, they would have.

Now they just make me tired.

"You don't know me anymore," I say quietly. "You don't know what I—"

"Then let me." He reaches for my hand. His palm is warm, soft. No calluses. Nothing like the rough heat of— "Let me learn. Let me prove I can be what you need this time."

"What I needed was for you to leave me alone five years ago."

The words come out sharper than I intended. Evan flinches.

"I know I pushed too hard back then," he says. "The marriage talk, the timeline I had planned out. I know it scared you off. But I'm different now. We can take it slow. Whatever pace you need."

Behind me, I hear it.

The soft creak of a door opening.

No.

No no no no—

"Mommy?"

The word detonates in the silence.

Evan's eyes go wide.

I turn, and my heart just... stops.

Lily stands in the hallway, rubbing her eyes with one small fist. She's wearing her favorite pajamas, the ones with the dinosaurs. Her dark curls are a wild halo around her face.

She looks so small. So perfect.

So unmistakably not mine alone.

"Hey, baby." I force my voice to stay steady. "You should be in bed."

"I heard voices." Those gray eyes—Christ, those eyes—focus on Evan. "Who's that?"

"Just a friend, sweetheart. Go back to—"

"You have a daughter." Evan's voice is strange. Hollow.

I don't answer. Can't.

Lily pads into the living room on bare feet, completely unafraid. That's my girl. Fearless to a fault.

"I'm Lily," she announces. "I'm four and three-quarters."

The math is simple. Brutal.

I watch Evan do it. Watch the realization creep across his face.

We broke up five years ago. She's four.

"Lily, please go back to bed," I say, moving toward her. "We'll talk in the morning."

"But I want—"

The window slides open.

My blood turns to ice.

Cade climbs back through, all lethal grace and barely contained fury. "Left my keys on your—"

He stops.

Sees Lily.

The world tilts sideways.

I watch it happen in slow motion. Watch Cade's eyes lock onto my daughter—our daughter—and see everything I've hidden for five years laid bare in a single, catastrophic moment.

The dark hair. The sharp jawline. The storm-gray eyes that are an exact fucking mirror of his own.

Lily stares back, head tilted with that intense focus she gets when she's trying to figure something out.

The silence is suffocating.

Cade takes one step forward. Then another.

His face has gone completely blank. The kind of blank that means he's feeling too much to show anything at all.

"How old is she?" His voice is barely controlled. Deadly quiet.

I can't speak. Can't breathe. Can't do anything but stand frozen while my carefully constructed life shatters around me.

Evan looks between Lily and me, then follows my gaze to Cade.

I watch understanding dawn on his face like a sunrise. Horrible and inevitable.

"Sloane." Evan's voice is strange. Distant. "How old is she?"

Cade moves closer. Predatory. His eyes never leave Lily, cataloging every feature, every detail.

Every piece of himself reflected back.