6. Cash #3
Lilly-Rose’s mouth curves. The sheriff doesn’t find it amusing, but he hears the truth beneath it.
He kisses her forehead and tells her to call when she’s ready to go home.
She doesn’t promise when that will be. He gives me one final look, then walks to his vehicle and leaves the compound.
Judge sends the brothers back inside. Gray closes the gates, Tank returns to the garage and Kane takes the remaining old records into church.
Everyone played the part Kane needed, but nobody celebrates.
Kingdom Come corrected one piece of King’s damage without becoming something respectable.
The yard settles around us as dawn begins to lighten the sky beyond the trees. The adrenaline leaves Lilly-Rose in a small tremor I feel through both our bodies, so I sit on the edge of the garage workbench and draw her between my knees.
“Let me see your wrist.”
“It’s sore, not broken.”
“You’ve used that line before.”
She gives me her hand. Corbin added fresh red marks over Doran’s bruises, and the sight makes my jaw tighten. Lilly-Rose touches my split knuckles.
“You put the chief deputy on the ground twice.”
“He was clearly too slow to understand you.”
“You weren’t.”
That lands harder than either fight. I slide my hands to her hips and pull her between my knees.
“I stayed away because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep this casual.”
“Good.”
“Good?”
She steps closer. “Because I don’t want casual.”
“I’m not asking you to give anything up.”
“I know.”
“Your job, your house, your father. I want all of it to stay exactly where it is.” My grip tightens. “I just want to be part of it.”
Her hands settle on my shoulders. “Then stop waiting for me to change my mind.”
“You know what comes with me.”
“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.
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