Chapter 13 #3
Sloane laughed, but the sound was strained to her own ears. “You don’t believe in those.”
Lily stared back at her. Serious, intent Lily. Finally, she said, “He understands me completely. There is nothing he would not do for me.”
Huh. Was that a soulmate? Interesting. “I have plans for Preston Byron.”
“I know. That’s what worries me.”
“I need him.” And that was all she could say.
“Be very careful with that man. I suspect that he is far more dangerous than the rest of the world understands.”
But she understood him. She understood him just fine. She knew exactly what he was capable of doing.
And that is why I need him.
“You run hot and cold, don’t you?” Atlas yanked the hospital door shut. “One minute you’re all… ‘Hey, lock up the best thing that has ever happened to my fool self. I don’t care if she saved my ass and was in the grave with me. Cuff her. Toss away the key.’”
Preston was quickly coming to realize that Atlas Bennett was a sarcastic sonofabitch.
“And then in the next minute you’re… ‘I want to be in the group. I’ll protect her. Let me whisk her away and spend every waking moment protecting her.’” Atlas’s eyes narrowed. “Make up your mind. You’re either all-in and completely on Sloane’s side, or you’re just in my fucking way.”
“I’ve heard the rumors about you.”
“Good for you.”
“You get your hands dirty.”
The faintest curl of Atlas’s upper lip. “I get them bloody.”
Yes, that was what his intel had suggested.
“But you’re not exactly Mr. Clean and Innocent, either, are you?” Atlas tossed at him.
No, he wasn’t. Not even on his good days. Though his good days were often few and far between. “I will not hurt Sloane.”
“You will not hurt her…any more than you already have,” Atlas corrected.
“Because I saw her eyes in that stupid conference room. I saw her when she was cuffed. Sloane was fighting tears. Real tears. Not the BS she can turn on when she wants to get her away. No one makes her shed real tears. The fact that Sloane cried because of your dumb ass? That will just piss off Lily. I can’t have my Lily pissed off.
That won’t be good for her or our babies.
” The faint lines around his eyes deepened.
“Getting shot is also not good for her or our babies.”
“I will protect Sloane. You know I have the resources to do it.”
“Where the hell were your resources when your ass was taken? Taken while you were on your own property?”
“Didn’t realize I was being hunted at the time,” Preston gritted back as he fought to hold onto his patience. “Thought that threat had long been eliminated. Now I’ll take corrective action.”
“Great. But I don’t trust you. Sloane is important to Lily, so that means she’s important to me. I’ll have my own guy keeping a watch from the shadows.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black box. “Plus, you need to get this on her, stat.”
Preston took the box. Opened it up. A necklace waited inside. One with a small, golden lily charm held on a delicate chain.
“Was going to be a gift for my Lily, but time is sort of the essence right now, and Sloane needs a tracker. I noticed she was missing her bracelet, and that’s just not good. If she goes missing again, we need to be able to find her.”
Preston snapped the box closed. “Do you always ensure that your wife is wearing a tracking device?”
“Yes, I do.” Zero hesitation. “Sorry, not sorry. Am I supposed to be civilized about this shit? You try being civilized when one woman holds your entire world in her hands. I have enemies. She has enemies. No one will ever take her and put my Lily someplace where I can’t find her.
No one.” He glanced down the hallway. A doctor was heading back toward them.
The same doctor who’d been there before.
“I’m about to see my babies. We’re doing the ultrasound.
” His sharp stare returned to Preston. “I would do anything to protect my family.”
Preston didn’t have a family. He didn’t have people to protect. People who mattered. People who—
I will protect Sloane. “I have Sloane. You take care of your family.”
Sloane opened the hospital room door. “It’s time for us to leave,” she told Preston.
His stare met Atlas’s for a moment longer, and Preston realized that, once again, he was jealous of the bastard. Jealous because Atlas did have a family to protect. A wife that he loved. Children on the way. A real life.
Not just darkness. Not just pain. Not just evil lurking inside.
Atlas Bennett had all that, when the rumors said…the rumors said…He should be just like me.
Only he wasn’t, and the reason?
Sloane took Preston’s hand. He felt the impact of her touch surge through his entire body. He’d felt the same response to her in the coffin. The same response in his home. The same response here. He touched her, and he felt the connection in every cell of his body. He ached. He needed. He yearned.
Yet even as that happened, he could have sworn that some of the heavy tension left his shoulders. His body leaned toward her, as if he were physically pulled to her.
I will protect this woman. I will guard her.
And…
I will discover all of her secrets.
Because he knew that she held them. Just as he held tightly to his own secrets.
He parked the car out back, far enough away from the building that he knew no cameras would pick up the image of him jumping out of the red Honda.
He had to hurry. Had to be quick. No one could see him.
I caught their attention. Now they’ll come after me. That was exactly what he wanted. He wanted the attention of the sheriff. He wanted the attention of Preston Byron. He wanted Sloane Armstrong.
He wanted them all focused and hunting. They all needed to understand what he was doing. They needed to understand that he would not stop.
They needed to understand…
Before they all took their very last breaths.