Page 22 of Cash’s Trouble

“The club. The danger. The fact my father may never stop glaring at you.”

“That last one could be a problem.”

“You’ll cope.” She leans in until her mouth is close to mine. “I choose you, Cash. All of you.”

I kiss her while the compound moves around us, one hand in her hair and the other holding her against my cut. She opens beneath my mouth without hesitation, warm and certain.

I kept my distance because Lilly-Rose Miller was never going to be one night.

Now I get every day after it.

EPILOGUE - SIX WEEKS LATER

LILLY-ROSE

Six weeks later, Cash is waiting outside the bank when I finish work. He’s parked beneath the sycamore across Main Street, his black motorcycle gleaming in the late-afternoon sun and his Kingdom Come cut open over a dark T-shirt. He looks as dangerous and out of place as the first time I watched him through the bank windows. Now he doesn’t pretend he isn’t waiting for me.

Marcy follows me into the lobby while I shut down my terminal and collect my purse. “Your ride is here.”

“I can see him.” I smile.

“So can half of Ransom.” She peers through the glass. “Your father drove past twice.”

“That’s an improvement. The first week, he parked.”

Corbin is awaiting trial, Doran and the second man are in custody, and Dad’s department is still untangling the cases Wade buried. My father hasn’t forgiven himself for trusting the wrong man, but he’s stopped apologizing for something Corbin chose to do. He’s also stopped pretending Cash will disappear if he disapproves hard enough. Mostly.

I step outside, and Cash’s gaze moves over me with the same slow attention that used to make me lose track of what I was doing behind reinforced glass. He takes the spare helmet from his saddlebag as I cross the road.

“You’re late,” he says.

“My last appointment ran over.”

“You approve the loan?”

“I did.”

He hands me the helmet. “Good risk?”

“Better than you.”

His mouth curves. “You still took me.”

I do more than that. I keep clothes in his room, my favorite shampoo in his shower and a charger beside his bed. Cash hasn’t asked me to give up my house or my job. Some nights he stays with me, though more often I ride through Kingdom Come’s gates and Gray opens them before I reach the call box. Dad’s police SUV turns onto Main as Cash checks my helmet strap. He slows at the hand resting on my hip, and Cash gives him a respectful nod that manages to be entirely unrepentant.

Dad’s expression says he’s still considering vehicular homicide, but he keeps driving.

“Progress,” I say.

“He didn’t stop.”

“He likes you.”

“He wants to arrest me.”

“For my father, those feelings may be very close together.”

Cash swings onto the bike, then looks back at me. “You always follow the rules, good girl?”

I climb on behind him and wrap both arms around his waist. “Only the ones worth keeping.”

His hand closes briefly over mine before the engine comes alive. We pull away from the bank, through the town that knows exactly whose daughter I am and which man I’ve chosen. Cash hasn’t become respectable, and I haven’t stopped being good. I still help people buy homes and answer my father’s calls. I’ve simply stopped mistaking obedience for goodness or caution for happiness. When Cash turns onto the river road, I press closer.

He was the trouble I was warned about. He’s also the rule I chose to break and the man I intend to keep.