Page 99 of The Bluffing Game

My heart breaks for her that she thinks this is a transaction, like we want to take from her like every other man has. I wish she knew I was better. That I wasn’t that man. I wish she knew I could be chosen against the bear, but I don’t blame her for thinking we are just like the others.

“It’s not like that, Louisa. I promise. We just want to help you.”

She sits up, looking dazed and scared, and my mind races to Sage. To my darling, trusting Sage. To the man she would want me to be. To how I would want her treated.

“We’re here for you, Louisa. We’re not going to let anyone else hurt you.”

I was made to be a protector—I know that. And I realize at that moment that my care and concern isn’t just for those I love.

“Okay, ma’am, you’re going to come with me.”

“What? You’re not taking me anywhere, you⁠—”

“Louisa,” he says. “You want to feel happy again, like you did when you were a kid before you were doped up?”

She stares for just a second, and then she starts crying. “I ain’t never going to feel like that again. Not a day in my life.”

“Let’s just try and see, okay?” He grabs her hand and pulls her up. “Sometimes in life, you see the deepest and the darkest, and you don’t think you’re ever going to get out of that, but sometimes, you see a light, and you realize it doesn’t have to be dark forever.” His voice trails off, and I wonder what he’s talking about, but I don’t ask him.

She holds on to his hands and shakes her head. “Fancy that. You two handsome men come in to save me, come in to look after little me, and I don’t even deserve it.”

“We all deserve a second chance,” Brett says. “Do you mind if we drop her off somewhere, Dalton?”

I shake my head.

“Are you going to come with us, Louisa?”

“What choice do I have?” she says. “You ain’t bringing me no dope.”

I chuckle even though I’m not feeling like laughing, and we leave the motel.

“Is there anything you want to bring?”

“I ain’t got nothing here,” she says as we walk out and down to my car, which I’m happy to note hasn’t been touched.

Brett slides into the back seat with her, and I slide into the front.

“Where are we going?” I ask him.

“If you don’t mind, drop me off at my place. I’ll put her in my Jeep. I have some friends who owe me some favors. We can get her in a center to try and detox her. Some new detoxes that they’re doing with new drugs that help. The least we can do is try, right?”

“Thank you, Brett.”

“It’s okay. I respect a man who does what he can to help.”

I start the car, and I drive away. I feel sad for Louisa, and I feel sad for Toby. I feel guilty that Toby doesn’t have a father or a mother, and that’s not necessarily my fault, but in some ways, it is.

“You look serious up there,” Louisa sleepily says from the back seat. “You should know something, Dalton,” she says.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t blame you for Igor dying, and you shouldn’t blame yourself either. He had it coming to him. There was plenty of men after him. Plenty. You just happened to be the man who took him out.”

“I didn’t take him out,” I say. Although, technically, those words are true, it was my fault that he was gone. “Thank you, though, for saying that. I appreciate it, Louisa.”

“Thank you for looking after my little boy. I lied, you know?” she says softly from the back seat, and I can see that she’s crying.

“What do you mean?”