Chapter 3
THREE
CASH
I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble.
Her words spun through my head on a loop. Garbled and distorted.
My greatest fucking fear.
All while I stood there staring at the three kids who were on the opposite side of the clearing, up high and tucked beneath the shade of the trees. My spirit felt like it was going to fail as Daisy kept her hand locked around my bicep.
So warm and right and…
I whirled toward her. The movement ripped her hand free. I couldn’t handle her touching me. Reminding me of who I once was.
Though, apparently, I was a fucking masochist because I dipped in close to her face and got slammed with the scent I could never forget.
That sweet floral aura that was dosed with a shot of vanilla.
My guts tangled in a fit of memories. The way she’d sneak into my room at night through my window. My arm wrapped around her as she rested her head on my shoulder.
My nose pressed into her hair.
My best friend who I’d sworn to never touch.
Razors slashed at my throat as I swallowed the reaction down, and I hissed, “Tell me what the fuck is going on.”
Daisy’s face blanched and her hand remained suspended in the air, like she was frozen in the spot where she’d been holding onto me.
Pleading.
Begging.
Fuck.
Why did she have to be even more damned beautiful than she was then?
Cheeks high and carved, her jaw almost sharp except for the dimple in the middle of her chin. Lips pouty and plush and twisted in a delicate, tempting bow.
All her angles were now sharper, but there were still hints of that softness that promised she was just as sweet as she’d ever been.
Kind and shy and a little goofy, one of my favorite things about her.
The way she came stumbling out of the river was like a shot of the past plucked right from my memories.
Though I could see she was written in traumas now. Could sense the fear that emanated from her soft, delicate flesh.
I nearly buckled at the thought, but I let the rage that forever simmered keep me standing.
“I…” She blinked those cornflower eyes. “We need to talk.”
“Obviously, which is why I’m asking you to tell me what the hell is going on.” I kept the words low so the three freaking kids she had on my property wouldn’t overhear.
Apparently, retribution was standing on my doorstep.
A penalty for my sins.
All the things I could never have dangled in front of me.
Daisy glanced at her children who danced around on the blanket, giggling and squealing since Duke had made his way over to them, the little traitor licking their faces and acting like they were welcome.
“You got a dog, mister man?” the youngest girl called, screeching with joy as Duke basically mauled her with love.
I couldn’t even respond.
My throat closed off and my chest stretched so tight it was impossible to draw air into my lungs.
Daisy inhaled a staggered breath, and her head tipped to the side. Those pretty features pulled in desperation as she tried to get through to me.
To reach me.
That hand was back on my arm again. “I didn’t know who else to go to. My ex-husband…”
A rush of possession slammed me from out of nowhere. Heart a squall of repulsion at the thought of someone else touching her.
At the thought of someone else having her.
Only I was a selfish enough prick to consider her mine.
I tried to get my shit together. To focus on what was important.
The fact she had come here for help.
My mind had already sprinted into the abhorrent, rage clouding my sight at the thought of someone doing her wrong, though if I were being rational, she could be here for any number of things.
But right then, I wasn’t feeling so rational.
“Are you in danger?” The question ground out like shards of glass, and my gaze swept the perimeter, hunting for anyone lurking in the canopy of the forest.
When I was satisfied I didn’t feel anyone else there, I forced my focus back to her.
Anxiety gripped her expression, that sexpot mouth that was really fuckin’ distracting tweaking at the side as she chewed the inside of her cheek the way she always did when she was upset.
“I…”
Fear clouded her features.
It sent fury blistering through my insides.
She looked back at her children, and her throat trembled as she whispered, “Can we stay with you? I don’t want to talk about it out here when I’m half naked, and we don’t have anywhere else to go.”
She looked down to bring attention to the fact that she was still standing there wrapped in a thin towel, hair dripping wet, her pale skin pebbled with goosebumps.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I did not need the reminder.
Irritation lit me up like a flame, and I scrubbed a palm over my face.
What was I supposed to do? Turn them away? I’d committed my life to protecting the vulnerable.
But I didn’t need to take them on myself. I had options. I could pack them up and take them to The Sanctuary, where Theo could keep watch over them until we hashed out exactly what was happening and set up a plan to protect them.
Place her under Sovereign Sanctum’s wing.
I knew that was exactly what I should do as I felt that connection pulling like a magnet. Tugging me in her direction.
Motherfucking compulsion.
One I could never heed.
I looked up at the deep blue sky stretched overhead. The sun was beginning to set, its rays turning to a glittering gold as it dipped toward the spires of the trees.
A slight chill had begun to fill the air as the day faded away.
It would be night soon, and there was no chance in hell I could leave them out here.
I found myself mumbling, “Fuck, Daisy.”
The words were complete surrender.
Succumbing to the one person I had never been able to say no to.
“Get dressed, and I’ll take you back to my cabin. Temporarily.” I emphasized the last.
A warning.
One I pretty much directed at myself.
“Until I understand what’s happening and we can figure out a plan.”
Relief blasted through her being, and her shoulders sagged with her exhalation. “Thank you, Cash. I know you didn’t expect us…I mean…I haven’t seen you in years.” She laughed an unsettled sound. “But I…” I watched her gulp before she whispered and peeked up at me. “I need you. We need you.”
I couldn’t stop the way greed smacked through my being at her words.
I need you.
That right there should be the inciting factor. The one thing that had me packing up their things and dumping her at The Sanctuary.
I could not afford the reaction she incited in me.
I leaned closer, trying not to breathe her in. Or maybe that was exactly what I wanted to do.
Gulp her down.
Devour her.
Consume her in a way I’d never gotten the chance to do.
“Once we get to my place, you’re going to answer every fucking one of my questions.”
Her nod was choppy, and she peeked up at me with those cornflower eyes that did something stupid to my senses.
On bare feet, she spun around so she was facing me as she fumbled backward in the direction of her kids, holding that towel to her body as she tossed me one of those playful looks like she used to do.
“I see you never stopped being bossy,” she mumbled before she turned around and hurried for the tent.
“You have no idea, Daisy. Not one fuckin’ idea,” I grumbled to myself as I stood there wondering what the hell I was getting myself into.
“Whatcha doin’?” The tinkling voice came from the little girl who crouched beside me, so low her butt nearly touched the ground.
She had her tiny arms wrapped around her knees as she grinned over at me with far too much interest.
I rolled the flimsy tent into a ball so I could stuff it into the bag. “Packing,” I grunted.
“Why you packing it? We not camping anymore?” she asked in a slight babble.
Frustration lining my bones, I grunted again, this kid cute as fuck and messing with my head. “No.”
“I wike camping. Do you wike camping?”
Air huffed from my nose. “Yeah.”
One-word answers were the most I could get out. Hell, one-word conversations were normally my forte. I lived out here for a reason. No one around me for miles.
Isolated.
Solitary.
I didn’t like people in my space.
But shit…
“Did you know my name is Eva, and I am fee?” She held up three fingers. “How many are you?”
That time she only got an exasperated shake of my head as I shoved the tent into the small bag and forced the zipper closed.
I stood, and the little girl did, too, that smile unending and canted in my direction, which meant she basically had her head tipped all the way back.
Soft curls the same cinnamon color as her mother’s framed her cherub face, the brown locks tinted with wisps of shiny red, though the strands were messy and tangled.
Her shirt was smudged with dirt and debris. No doubt from being out here camping on my property.
Disquiet stirred through my being. My mind whirled through every scenario that might have brought Daisy to my door. What would have led her to take these drastic measures.
I was sick at the thought that she might have been in pain for even a day of her life after I left her.
It wasn’t supposed to be that way.
The child hopped from foot to foot. “Now we get to go to your house?”
Agitation stirred through my middle. “Looks like it.”
To my great misfortune.
“I wike that idea,” she drew out.
I didn’t. I didn’t like that idea a bit, you know, considering it was a terrible one.
Torture.
But I was owed this sentence.
I glanced at where Daisy knelt to help her little boy put his things into a backpack.
The older girl, Addy, who was the fucking spittin’ image of her mom, slung her bag onto her back and proudly stated, “All done.”
“Good job,” Daisy told her, soft encouragement from the woman, while a halo of turmoil whipped around her being every time she peeked over at me.
A disturbance pitched through my spirit, and I tossed the tent bag strap over my shoulder and snatched the blanket from the ground. “We need to go. It’s getting dark.”
Blue eyes going wide, Colin popped onto his feet. His wavy, short hair was lighter than the girls’. A golden brown that emphasized the freckles smattered across his nose and cheeks. “Are there monsters in the forest at night, Mr. Cash? I need to be ready ’cause I gotta take care of my girls.”
He held up two little fists and kicked an awkward foot into the air.
Duke barked, doing a circle around the kid, his tail wagging like he was offering his approval.
What the kid didn’t know was there were monsters everywhere.
Night and day.
Or maybe he did know. Maybe he had seen it. Witnessed it. Bore the ramifications of it, which was why he thought he needed to take care of his family.
Couldn’t fucking stomach the thought. The idea of Daisy falling into jeopardy.
She was supposed to be better off without me. The danger that I was removed from her so she could live without the tragedy I wreaked.
She was supposed to be happy.
“No,” I mumbled, eyes blinking toward the ground for a beat before the words were spilling out. “You’re safe with me.”
“Because you’re a giant, and you got the biggest muscles!” He flexed his skinny arms, grinning with those wavy locks fluttering around his face.
Eva danced on her little feet. “We found a giant! We found a giant!”
Addy rolled her eyes. “He’s not even a giant. You have to be like seven feet tall, and he’s probably only six.”
Was that an insult? I couldn’t tell, and I sure as hell didn’t understand why I had the urge to stand a little straighter so she could tell she was way off.
“Six-five.” Daisy mumbled it under her breath from where she was kneeling on the ground gathering the last of their things.
It was right then that those eyes took a path from my boots and up my legs, dragging all the way up like a slow caress until she was peering into my eyes.
Like she knew me.
Like she remembered me.
She was in for a sore surprise because I wasn’t close to being that same person.
“Well, he’s really big, and I think it’s a good idea to have him on our side. Mommy said he was gonna be,” Colin peeped, tossing a stick from over his shoulder that Duke went blazing after.
Daisy’s gaze softened to a plea. Like she was begging me to be.
On their side.
How the fuck was I supposed to handle this? Didn’t she fuckin’ remember what I’d done? The way I failed? But she didn’t know, did she? Didn’t know the spiral that I’d fallen into. Didn’t know that I was responsible for everything.
But she was here, now.
In need.
I didn’t think it was possible for me to turn my back on that.
It didn’t matter how bad this was going to hurt.
I knew standing right there that I would fight for them. Protect them. Fix whatever had gone bad in their lives.
Whatever it took.
Even if I was tormented every second of it.