“Yeah.” I did. Since the day my mom started dating Ashton, Ford treated me and Theo like we were blood.
He rubbed my arms. “You don’t want to be married to him anymore, do you?”
I gave him a quick shake of the head. “Definitely not.” I threw my arms around him. “Thank you.” I reached for Holden, pulling him into the hug.
He let out a soft laugh. “I did nothing.”
“Not true. You’re the best uncles in the world.” After a few seconds, I sniffed and fanned my face with the folder, not excited about what I had to do now. “Looks like I have some business to take care of.”
“Hold up.” Holden pulled a pen out of his suit jacket and handed it to me. “We’ll come with.”
I nodded. “Okay. But give me a little distance?”
“Sure thing,” Ford said.
We walked wordlessly through the barn and out the other door. Lorne was in the center of the riding ring, his eyes darting between Cash and Jeff who were keeping watch from opposite sides of the fence.
“Don’t even think about it,” Cash hollered, his expression hard. “Iwilloutrun you.”
I flung myself over, not bothering with the gate. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as four men who loved me more than life spread out around the ring. My own personal sentries.
When I reached Lorne, he wouldn’t look at me. His hair was greasy, his skin greasier. When was the last time he’d showered? Or put acne cream on his face? Just like back in the barn, his eyes were on the ground. His hands trembled at his side and he looked even skinnier than the last time I saw him.
The last time I saw him.
The image burned through my mind, searing and suffocating. I was on the floor—a filthy tile floor in a place I never should have been. Because of him. I couldn’t get up. Could barely breathe. I thought I was going to die right there. And my husband? The man who swore to love meallmy days? Gave me one last look like I was roadkill. Then, like the coward he was, he bolted from the room, leaving me there all alone.
Dragged here by a bounty hunter because he’d never have the courage or desire to come on his own, surrounded by people who would take him down if need be, I finally saw Lorne for who he truly was.
“How are you?” I asked. The words sounded like they’d come from someone else. I’d thought this conversation through a million times and it never started that nicely.
“Good.” His hand ran through his dark, oily hair. “It’s good that you came home. Finally.”
“I wanted to all along. You know that.” He wouldn’t let me. Twisted me up and made me believe that my family was against us. And maybe they were, but obviously for good reason. They’d seen what I couldn’t.
“Y-yeah. I’m sorry about that.” But he didn’t sound sorry. He just sounded like he wanted to run away.
“They wouldn’t have left me like you did. Do you know what happened to me? Do you even care?”
He stared at my shoulder. “I stayed away to protect you.”
So he knew.
That revelation was almost as painful as the fact that he’d left me for dead.
“To protect me?” A bitter laugh scraped my throat. “I was in the ICU. I almost died. Somehow I managed to pull through. But even after that, I had to stay in the hospital for months.” His hooded eyes told me he’d known. He’d known and still chosen to stay away.
“Do they know?” he asked. Even now, he was more worried about himself than me. His gaze darted to each of the guys standing guard.
“Holden knows. But no one else. And I won’t tell them. Because they’d probably do something that would land them in jail and I love them too much to put that temptation in their way.” There was no telling what Cash would do if he found out.
Lorne kicked at a rock in the dirt. “I didn’t think things would go sideways like that.”
“No!” My hand sliced through the air. “You didn’t think. Period,” I hissed. “You definitely weren’t thinking about me, that’s for sure.”
His hands flung out. “I thought you’d be okay. You’re tough, y’know? You always were.”
“For better or for worse,” I whisper-shouted. “In sickness and in health.”
