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“You’ve done enough damage in my life, Bradshaw,” she said his name like it was a curse. “What more can you possibly want?”

“Well, since we’re all uncivilized beings here, I suppose it doesn’t matter if I tell you here or somewhere else.”

“What?” she finally snapped.

“Your mother took something from me, something I needed very much– “

She interrupted him, again. “Oh please! Like you didn’t take everything from her? How dare you come here looking for anything from me!”

“If you would get some manners that I know were beaten into you at that school and let me finish, you would know what I’m trying to say.”

“Well, get on with it, old man,” Case announced. “I got more meds to take.”

“You associate yourself with drug people? Such a disgrace.” He shook his head in shame at them.

“You son of a bitch!” She went to run at him but Dom caught her around the waist before she could get more than a foot away.

“Not yet, Princess,” he uttered into her ear.

Hearing sirens in the distance, Bradshaw and his bodyguards looked startled and slightly worried, so he asked, “You got permits for those weapons?”

“You’re gonna be someone’s prison bitch, Englishman!” Case sang.

Fucking meds.

“So crass. We’ll be leaving now,” Bradshaw announced.

“Good idea,” Dom told him.

“I’ll be in touch about just what you owe me, Deidre. This is far from over,” was his parting shot. They loaded up and left before the county sheriff could get there and question them or arrest them on whatever Dom could have thought up to make stick.

“Oh, shit,” they heard Casey mumble as he fell over right after the SUV took off. “That hurt,” he grumbled from the ground.

Fucking meds.

Nineteen

Her heart was still racing out of control three hours after Bradshaw left, and an hour after the sheriff had gone. She was confused and angry all at once, wanting to be done with everything and move on. But it felt like things were going to get worse before finally getting better.

They’d gotten Casey settled in the guest room for the night, not long after everything calmed down. Dom was currently tending to the animals, and she sat on the living room sofa obsessing over what Bradshaw could possibly think she owed him. It was driving her nuts.

Intent on talking to her mam, she had to know if she was safe and if she knew what was going on here. Did something happen to her? Was she even alive? The questions were burning a hole in her gut the size of Texas. For every answer about something she seemed to figure out, she had fifteen more questions.

“Arrr!” she yelled into the empty room. “Where are you Mam?”

It seemed as if her question echoed around the room for the same amount of time it bounced around in her head. She had to know everything, yet she was terrified to hear the answers.

Deciding to give her brain a break from the constant back and forth, she went out to the barn in the hopes that Dom hadn’t tended to the horses yet. She adored Honey and Goldie. They were the sweetest creatures she’d ever encountered.

Raine still scared the crap out of her, but that had more to do with his size than his personality. He had a really sweet disposition when it came to her and Jaxson. Dom seemed amazed every time she was near the black beast. He would watch them with such a ferocious intensity that she often thought she was doing something wrong, but he always had this light in his eyes. Satisfaction, contentment. That she could make such a brutal and fearless man feel those things left her experiencing the same amazement.

Never did she think she would be able to say Bradshaw had brought something good into her life, but where Dominic was concerned, he’d done her a huge favor. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that what they felt for one another was an ordinary occurrence to the rest of the world.

What they had was special. A once in a lifetime love that would leave such a deep searing mark on their souls that nothing and no one could ever replace. She only hoped that whatever Bradshaw had in store for them didn’t ruin everything they’d been working so hard towards.

*****

He was still reeling from everything that had taken place over the past few days. Case being shot. Dee running away. Then Bradshaw showing up unexpectedly. So much new information was being tossed at them, and he hated not being sure what was going to happen next. For a man of his caliber, it was a hard pill to swallow. He needed to be in control, to know how everything was going to work out.