Shit.He didn’t like that one bit.
“Not here,” Darren insisted.
“Fine,” came out on another sigh. “Let’s go to the house.”
Cam and Nolan reluctantly moved their vehicles and Kirk opened the gate so Hope could drive out.
Nolan and Cam shared a worried glance as she drove away and Darren followed in his own vehicle.
“I don’t like this,” Nolan grumbled under his breath.
“I don’t, either. But she’ll be fine,” Cam assured him.
Nolan wasn’t so sure. “What if he convinces her to take him back?”
“She won’t.”
He’d like to think the same, but he didn’t know how persuasive Darren could be. “How do you know? They were together a lot longer than us. In fact, they lived together. That’s serious. We don’t even have that. With him, she was getting all of his attention. Unlike with us.”
“Shit,” Cam said. “Do we need to go fight for her?”
“If there’s even a slim chance she would take him back. I don’t want to lose her, Cam. And not only that, I don’t like the way he’s acting.” Something about the guy was setting off his cop instincts, he just couldn’t put his finger on it exactly..
Cam grimaced. “I don’t, either.”
Not only would losing Hope feel like lopping off a limb, he couldn’t simply sit back and let Darren intimidate or possibly hurt her. “Then we have to make sure she knows that and we need to head to her place.”
“We should give her a chance to handle this first.”
“Cam...”
Cam closed his eyes and pulled in a sharp breath. “You’re right. We can’t just sit back and let him convince her that she should give him a second chance. And I don’t like that he’ll be alone with her. If something happens to her on our watch, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Nolan blew out a relieved breath. “Same. I’m going to grab my SUV and you return that truck. I’m sure they need it. Then we can head over to her place. I’m willing to fight for her and protect what’s ours. Are you?”
Cam stared at him for a second and then gave him a single nod. “Let’s go claim our woman. And if we need to, kick some ass.”
Hell yeah.
“You made the wrong choices.But so did I. I see that now, Hope, and I want to correct my mistake.”
Sure he did. Hope doubted Darren’s narrow views magically changed, especially in only a few months’ time. “And how will you do that?”
“If you allow me to move back into our home, I’ll let you work at that place, if that’s what you really want.”
Hope refrained from rolling her eyes.
Our home.
It hadn’t been their home for quite a few months. She had made sure to exorcise the house of everything that was Darren, except for two small boxes he’d left behind that she had shoved to the back of the closet.
If she’d had his forwarding address, she would’ve mailed them to him, but since he was there in the flesh, he could take his stuff with him when he left this time.
Hope did a double-take. “You’llletme?”
“A lot of people would love to make money from their hobby. You’re one of the lucky ones.”
“Lucky?” she spit out.
