“Yup.” I jerked my chin toward the three cop cars headed our way. “Confess your crimes to the police, do your time in jail, and stay the fuck away from Victoria. Or else you’ll wish he’d pushed you off the mountain today because your deaths would’ve been a hell of a lot less painless.”
Each of the men gave me a jerky nod, and I had no doubt they’d do as Arthur and I had suggested. Almost dying tended to scare the shit out of most people.
14
VICTORIA
Everything happened so quickly, my head was spinning. It felt as though one minute I was chilling with a book on the couch, and the next, my dad and Whit were taking care of the bad guys so the sheriff could slap handcuffs on them before whisking them off to jail.
I was happy to have the dark cloud of danger lifted, but I was also sad that my time with Whit at his family’s cabin had come to an end. And a little uncertain where we went from here since we hadn’t talked about the future in concrete terms yet, other than to say we both wanted our relationship to work. I’d thought we would have more time to figure those details out, though.
I still didn’t know how things had escalated so quickly, but I figured someone would fill me in eventually. And I wasn’t even a tiny bit surprised to see my dad in the thick of the action. But for the first time in my life, he wasn’t the one I raced toward. Whit had that honor now.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I flung myself into his arms.
“I’m fine, baby,” he reassured me, stroking his hand down my back. “There wasn’t much for me to do. Your dad had thesituation under control. Which is a good thing since you were supposed to wait inside until I came to get you.”
I lifted my phone and showed him the text my dad had sent, giving me the all clear.
“And for all my trouble, you’re the one she ran to,” my dad grumbled.
I pulled out of Whit’s hold to give my dad a hug, too. “I knew you’d be okay. You’re too ornery to get hurt.”
“Uh-huh. I see how it is.” He brushed a kiss against the top of my head. “How about you show me where you’ve been holed up all this time?”
“Sure.” I led him into the cabin and gave him a quick tour, cringing a little when I remembered the lack of sheets in the bedroom I’d used when we first came to the cabin.
It was almost as though my dad heard my inner thoughts when he asked, “What’ve the two of you been up to while I tracked down those scumbags?”
My cheeks turned bright red as I looked around the room, searching for an answer to my dad’s question but only seeing all of the different places Whit and I had sex. “Ah, I see.”
Whit cleared his throat. “Mr. Ashe, sir.”
“I thought I told you to call me Arthur.” My dad punctuated his correction with a point of his finger.
“You did,” Whit confirmed with a nod. “Sir—”
My dad didn’t let him get out whatever he’d been about to say. “You gonna make an honest woman out of my daughter?”
“Oh, dear lord.” I slapped my hand over my eyes and squeezed them shut. “Someone please tell me this isn’t happening.”
My dad chuckled. “C’mon, Victoria. It can’t come as any surprise to you that I’m gonna put Whit through the wringer. It’s a part of my job as your dad.”
“Nope. Nuh-uh.” I dropped my hand and propped it on my hip, opened my eyes to glare at him, and shook my head. “Whit gets a pass after rescuing me. Twice.”
“No can do, Tori.” My dad focused on Whit as he said, “You’ll never be good enough for my daughter.”
I groaned in disbelief, but Whit squeezed my hand and smiled at my dad. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know, sir. But I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing whatever it takes to make sure she never regrets settling for me.”
“Okay, seriously, guys. You need to stop because I’m feeling a little emotional here, and I might start crying any minute.”
I thought my warning would scare Whit and my dad into behaving because they couldn’t stand my tears, but I was wrong. They carried on as if I hadn’t said a word.
“She has a knack for getting into trouble,” my dad warned. “If I give you my blessing, it’s with the expectation that you’ll keep me in the loop when necessary.”
Whit nodded. “You’re a good man to have at my back.”
“Well, then.” My dad grinned and held out his hand. “Welcome to the family, son.”
