He pressed a dry washcloth to his arm. It was still bleeding a bit. But he’d gotten damned lucky.
It was just going to be another scar. Well, he had plenty of those.
He found the woman of his dreams in the small kitchen at the back of the house.
She just looked at him. Dom studied her.
He’d never forget one of the first times he’d seen heroutsideof the TSP. He’d been called out to her mother’s house. A B&E that had turned deadly.
His own father had been there to protect Madison’s mother.
There Madison had been, helping Cherise tend to the wound on his own father.
Dom had never forgotten how those two amazing, beautiful women had been that night.
He’d known Madison for over a year by that point. He’d made a point of staying away from the prickly little beast. For his own sanity, for one thing. He’d been hot for her for months by then. Hell, from the moment he’d first seen her in the lab, and she’d just smirked at him over something long forgotten.
He’d taken one look at her and wanted to just carry her off to his cave. Keep her forever.
Well, he’d done just fine pushing that urge away for years.
He could get through tonight. He’d been afraid of ruining what relationship they did have. But after what had happenedbetween them, he didn’t know how much longer he could do that. Or if he even wanted to. This was the only woman he would want for the rest of his life. Did he really want to keep her at a distance now?
“Sit.” She was good at ordering him around at times. Dom just let her this time. He knew it was what she needed to feel in control. Madison was a bit more anxious than she used to be. Since…before…the choir hall shooting. The Wilson attack had only made it worse again. Just as she was starting to do better.
Damn that bastard. Dom wanted nothing more than to rip Wilson apart with his bare hands. For what he had done to Madison. And little Hope Coleson. And for Heather. The man was one of the few on the planet Dom fully believed didn’t deserve to live after what he’d done.
But that wasn’t Dom’s place to decide.
“This kitchen is small. I don’t know how they got a table in here with so many kids.”
He looked around and saw what she meant. It was neat, in decent repair, but the room was small. “How many lived here together?”
“I think they all did at one point, Hope said. Bonnie and the ten girls. After her parents died, and then her sister, and then what happened with Zoey’s sisters and everything.”
“I bet there were little girls practically coming out of every corner.” Hard to imagine Heather Coleson as a little girl, but he supposed it was believable. That woman was the kind who made men tremble from fear. And other things. There was a reason his pal Jarrod had called her Scary Heather a few times or dozen.
“Hope has told me stories. She definitely liked it better here. I think she doesn’t really understand life in a city, even one as small as Finley Creek. Sometimes she says things that make me think she doesn’t feel she fits in.”
“No, I don’t suppose she does yet. She’s still new to Finley Creek. But…she’s ours now. Especially…Mig’s. If she ever figures that part out.”
Madison snickered. “That’s going to be hilarious to watch. She seriously hasnoclue he’s interested in her. I love how doofy he looks at her sometimes. We need something good around here, now, don’t we? I get so tired?—“
“Honey?” Hell, he couldn’t stand it. She was hurting. And that damned near destroyed him. “We’ll get through this shit, too. It’s just…darkness. It’ll only be temporary.”
He knew the words he spoke were a lie, but she was breaking his heart. All he wanted was for the world to be a better place for her. Somehow.
He sat still while she buzzed around him, fixing the graze in his arm with the steri-strips she’d found. “I…am going to sit up for a while. I want you to go rest. Master bedroom. I can defend that one best.”
“I don’t want to live a life where I even have to think about defending a bedroom, Dom. I just don’t.”
And then he just did it. Dom stood up, and pulled her closer. And held her as she cried.
69
She was aboutto do something stupid here. Madison knew it. Somehow, they ended up in the small living room. There was a long couch. And he was guiding her there.
“I’m sorry. I’m crying like a great big wimp. And you don’t need to be using that arm.”
