Madeline turned around and looked at me with wide eyes. “But I am alive. I met my father. Nothing bad happened to me.”

  “But it could have,” I replied. “And Gina fucking knows it.”

  “I don’t know his name,” Gina said.

  “Liar,” Huck drawled.

  “I swear. I didn’t exactly ask for it. We were at one of Mattia’s parties, and Levi hadn’t looked at me all night. I was going to make him jealous by flirting with this guy I didn’t know. We talked, and I found out he was in security. We went to the back, and I gave him head, then told him some other things I liked to do, but first, I had a few questions for him.”

  She had sucked and fucked a guy to tell her how to mess with my security system. Damn slut. Levi was never going to want her. He had only been messing with her because he liked threesomes and she was willing and convenient.

  “Garrett isn’t going to let you live.” I told her what she already knew.

  Madeline was going to beg me, so my saying it was more for her sake than Gina’s.

  Gina nodded.

  Madeline was looking at me like she wanted to punch me in the face.

  “Seeing as how only the three of us have seen her,” Huck said, “don’t think anyone has to mention it. Madeline will take it to her damn grave. Fuck knows I don’t want to see a bullet in Gina or be the sorry fucker ordered to do it.”

  I shifted my gaze to Huck. He shrugged. Damn asshole had known if he said this in front of Madeline, he was making it near impossible for me to do what needed to be done. I shook my head at him.

  “Your call, boss,” he said, although his eyes were telling me he wanted me to let him drive away and take her somewhere far from this place.

  “Blaise.” Madeline’s pleading tone sliced through my chest. “Please. I’m safe. I got to meet my real father. We have no secrets between us now, and you know I love you completely, knowing it all. Is what she did really so bad? I think she made us stronger.”

  There were unshed tears in her eyes. I still had my secrets. I’d always have my fucking secrets. In my world secrets were a part of life. I would fucking lie to the Pope than tell Madeline all the shit I’d done.

  “Come here,” I told her.

  She looked hesitant.

  “Madeline,” I said, then held out my hand.

  She looked at my hand, then at me.

  “Do you trust me?” I asked her then.

  She turned back to Gina and hugged her tightly. I didn’t hear what she said before she stepped out of the vehicle and walked over to take my hand.

  I threaded my fingers through hers and lifted her hand to my lips and kissed it. “Let’s go.”

  She frowned. “Go where?”

  “Inside,” I replied and started walking.

  She kept up beside me as I pulled her along.

  “What about Gina?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “She ran off. We can’t find her.”

  Madeline stopped then and pulled her hand free of mine before throwing her arms around me. “I love you,” she said fiercely.

  I wrapped my arms around her and held her to me, burying my face in her hair. The SUV’s engine started, and I continued to hold Madeline while she lifted her head and watched it drive away over my shoulder.

  Thirty-Five

  Madeline

  I stood inside the entrance of … our house. The ceiling was high, and there was a chandelier that hung much like the one at the Houstons’. A wide spiral staircase was to my right, and everything was bright and cheerful. It smelled like fresh paint and shone as if it was brand-new.

  The past month, Blaise had brought me over here several times while they worked on the house. He’d had me choose paint colors, and we had gone shopping for furniture several times. It took a lot to fill a house this size. My favorite part had been decorating the nursery.

  Knowing that our little boy would be brought home to this house after he was born made my heart swell. He would have more opportunities than I could have even dreamed up as a child, but more than that, he would know he was loved by his parents. He’d never experience a day when he was scared, or lost, or felt alone.

  The fact that he would one day be a Mafia boss? I didn’t want to consider that right now. That was the one thing that I had struggled with since they had told me it was a boy. He was the heir. But first, he was my little boy.

  The door opened behind me, and Blaise stepped inside, smiling at me. He was wearing his cowboy hat and jeans that hung on his hips just right. The butterflies were still there at the sight of him. I wondered if that would ever go away.

  “You lose your shirt?” I asked him.

  “It’s hot as fuck out there,” he replied.

  I reached out to run my hand down his abs.

  “Easy, baby, unless you want to be bent over those stairs,” he warned me.

  I looked up at him and smiled. “You say that like it’s a threat.”

  He pulled me to him and covered my mouth with his. I sank into his sweaty chest and inhaled him. Even after working in the heat with horses all day, his smell still turned me on.

  “I’m distracting you,” I whispered. “What was it you came inside for?”

  Blaise kissed me one more time, then nodded his head to the far right of the house. “Water,” he said. “But this was much better.”

  “I’ll go get it for you,” I told him.

  He frowned. “I can get it.”

  I placed a hand on my hip and smirked. “But I want to get it.”

  A slow, sexy grin tugged at his face. “I’ll go with you.”

  I turned to walk through our house, taking in everything and still trying hard to believe this was where we would live. Where I would live. It was beautiful; however, I didn’t require all this. I just wanted Blaise. I stopped to turn on the lights in the kitchen.

  “How are you enjoying the first day in our new home?” he asked me, stepping up to grab my waist and kiss the side of my neck.

  “It’s just a house,” I told him.

  He stiffened, and I looked back at him. I knew this was something he had wanted to give me. He had needed me to have a house like this, and I’d accepted that odd compulsion he had with grace. No fighting him on it.

  “Would you rather be back in the cave?” he asked me, looking concerned.

  I lifted my hand and cupped the side of his face. “This is just a house, but it’s not a home. You, Blaise Hughes, are my home.”

  Book Three Teaser...

  One

  Trinity

  Perhaps the word I was looking for was ironic. It seemed a harsh word and made me feel as if I were looking at this with no emotion. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In the past week, I had suffered from every emotion known to man—or at least, it’d felt like it. Regardless, ironic was a good word. One that encompassed all that had happened in the past six months.

  The soft whispers, hushed voices, even crying that I could hear on the other side of the wall I was leaning against reminded me that I should be out there. People expected me to be. They wanted to tell me how sorry they were, that they were praying for me, what a good man Hayes had been, and best of all, that it was God’s plan. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to endure listening to it. They knew nothing.

  I wasn’t sure how long I could stay in this dark prayer room until someone found me. My stepmom, Tabitha, would come looking soon enough. She wouldn’t want me to embarrass her in front of the church. There had been no one more thrilled than Tabitha when Hayes proposed to me. The pastor’s grandson, who would soon be a minister himself. He was loved and respected in town. He should have been. Hayes had been the most genuine, kindest, warmest, person I’d ever known. Somehow, he had chosen me.

  The door opened, slamming against the wall, and I jumped, startled. My gaze shot up from the handkerchief I had been twisting in my hands, expecting to see Tabitha. My excuses were on the tip of my tongue when I froze. That was not Tabitha.

  It was a man. A very large man. A slightly terrifying man. His eyes locked on me, and he watched me for a moment. I couldn’t tell much in the darkness other than the silhouette of his face was defined, masculine, most likely attractive. Not that it mattered.

  “You must be the missing fiancée,” he said in a deep voice, letting the door close behind him.

  I nodded, but said nothing.

  He walked over and sat down on a bench across the room. I watched him, wanting to ask who he was and what he was doing in here. His intimidating presence, however, kept me from speaking. He had to be at least six foot four. The suit coat he was wearing seemed tight across his wide shoulders, as if it were ready to rip apart with the wrong move.

  The man reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a flask. My eyes went wide as he opened it and took a long drink from it. When he lowered the flask, his eyes met mine again.

  “You want a drink? Might help you face that out there,” he said, holding it out to me.

  I looked at the flask and considered it. The fact that I was even thinking about it reminded me of all that Hayes had never truly known about me.

  Finally, I shook my head. “I can’t have the Baptist folks smelling liquor on my breath,” I said softly.

  He nodded, then twisted the top back on it before putting it in his pocket. I found myself wishing there were more light in here. The only window was stained glass and small. With the dreary day outside, it didn’t shine much light into the room. I was curious about what he looked like. His voice was deep, and there was a drawl to it that was oddly familiar.

  “Got to fucking go out there sometime,” he said, shifting his gaze from the colorful window to me.

  I knew that. I was going to. As soon as I convinced myself I could survive it.

  “He ever tell you about the time he shot the window out of the parsonage?” the man asked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

  Was he talking about Hayes?

  I shook my head.

  The man smirked then, and even in the shadows, I could see the way it curled his lips. I dropped my gaze back to my lap. This was Hayes’s funeral. I would not sit here and appreciate another man’s good looks.

  What was wrong with me? Scratch that. I knew what was wrong with me. So much that I didn’t have enough time to list it all.

  “He was seven. Damn, he was a strong-willed hothead back then. Thought he knew it all.” The man chuckled. “Fucker didn’t know shit.”

  I was officially intrigued. How did this man know Hayes? They weren’t friends. I had met all his friends. Yet something about him made it clear he was struggling with Hayes’s death as much as I was. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.

  The door opened again, and light filled the room. This time, it was Tabitha. Her red hair was styled and sprayed so much that it wouldn’t budge in a windstorm. Her frantic eyes met mine, and then there it was. The fury, the resentment—all the things she had always felt for me were once again bursting wide open. Hayes was no longer here, and she had no use for me. Except right now, and I was letting her down. I wasn’t out there for all the church people to see.

  “What do you think you’re doing? Being a selfish brat, like you always have been. Get out there right this instant, Trinity. I will not let you embarrass this family,” she spit at me with the disgust and hate in her eyes I hadn’t seen since the day Hayes had walked me to my car after church and asked me out.

  I started to stand up.

  “She’s not going anywhere until she’s damn well ready to.”

  The deep voice startled Tabitha. She hadn’t noticed the man in the darkness.

  She opened the door further so that the light filled the room and shot her angry glare toward him. “Excuse me, sir,” she said in her haughty voice. “You do not have a say in what she does or does not do. She will go to the sanctuary and stand there like her fiancé would have wanted her to.”

  The man stood up, and Tabitha had to tilt her head back to look up at him.

  “She’s a grown-ass woman. She can do what she wants to do. And you, lady,” he said, nodding his head toward Tabitha, “don’t know shit about what Hayes would have wanted.”

  Tabitha’s eyes flared, and her lips thinned. She wasn’t one to be talked down to. Even before she’d married the mayor, my father, when I was ten, she had looked down her nose at the world. Tabitha felt important, but I had no idea why.

  “You don’t belong here,” she stated. “I have never laid eyes on you in my life, and I’ve known the pastor’s family for over ten years. I’m going to go get Officer Randal to escort you out. You shouldn’t have been in a room alone with a young girl, and language such as yours is not accepted in these walls.”

  I wanted to groan and cover my face. I didn’t know this man, but Tabitha was embarrassing me anyway. Being connected to her was just another one of the things to add to why my life had been hell. Bad luck had struck on the day I was born when my entrance into this world killed my mom, and it had never stopped.

  “Damn, I sure hope you try,” the man replied with amusement in his voice rather than anger.

  I lifted my gaze up to look at him now that the light was illuminating his face. Although I immediately wished I hadn’t. I’d guessed he was attractive, but this wasn’t something I had expected. Sure, I had noticed the defined angles of his features in the darkness, but good Lord, this man looked like sin. I swallowed hard and thought about praying for forgiveness, then remembered I wasn’t praying anymore. I had given up my belief in God when I got the call that Hayes was dead.

  He didn’t look back at me though, and I found myself relieved. I wasn’t sure I could handle seeing his eyes. Not if the rest of him looked like that.

  “Trinity, now.” Tabitha’s voice was sharp and clearly near hysterics.

  She wasn’t used to being spoken to that way. I, however, would pay money for this to continue.

  Hayes wouldn’t want this though, and I knew it. He had wanted me to try and find peace with my stepmom. I stood up and walked over to her, not looking at the stranger, for fear I’d see disappointment in his eyes. He didn’t take orders. He was his own person, and he’d just witnessed how weak I was.

  Tabitha grabbed my bare arm so hard that her nails bit into my skin. I winced, but said nothing as I went with her out of the room. Perhaps if she squeezed hard enough, it would hurt so bad that I could go into the sanctuary with tears in my eyes. Because they would want me crying. They would want to see me completely broken and devastated.

  What none of them understood was, I had been broken and devastated so many times in my life that it took more than the death of someone I cared deeply for to make me cry. Tears didn’t come easy for me. I was twisted inside. Hayes had seen something else in me that I wanted to be. I truly wanted to be the girl he had thought I was.

  Unfortunately, I never had been. There was a darkness in me that I couldn’t flush out. It wouldn’t go away. It called to me and made me think things. Terrible, sinful things. It was no wonder God had never once answered one of my prayers. Hayes had been the only break I’d ever gotten, and God had only allowed me to have that for six months before snatching it away too.

  “You are a disgrace,” Tabitha said through her teeth as she dragged me toward the entrance of the church.

  I didn’t argue with her because I probably was. She stopped when she saw Officer Randal and dropped her death grip on my arm.

  “Officer,” she said in her fake voice. The one she used here at church and in town. The one that made everyone think she was a God-fearing, church-going woman who loved the Lord. “There is a man here who doesn’t belong. He went into the prayer room, where Trinity was trying to be alone to grieve. The profanity out of his mouth and disregard for the house of the Lord was awful. You need to get that man out of here. I fear he is dangerous.”

  It took every ounce of self-control I had not to roll my eyes. She sounded ridiculous.

  “What man? Did you get a name?” Randal asked with concern in his tone.

  She opened her mouth, then shut it again. Neither of us knew his name, but even if I did, I wouldn’t have shared it with her. I was a fantastic liar. Her gaze swung to me, and I shrugged. Then, I saw her eyes narrow, as if she thought I was lying, but she wouldn’t treat me bad in front of witnesses that mattered. The man in the prayer room did not matter to her.

  “There!” She pointed, and I turned my head to see him walking down toward the sanctuary.

  His dark hair was cut short, and I could see from here that his eyes were a lighter color. Not boring brown, like mine. I wasn’t sure though since he wasn’t looking at me. His entire body seemed to flex with each move he made. I wondered if he was one of those guys that had muscles all over. Hayes had had more of a runner’s body, and he had not been built like that.

  “Oh,” Randal replied, and his tone dropped. “I’m, uh, sorry, Mrs. Bennett. Uh, I can’t ask him to leave.”

  I studied Officer Randal as he shifted on his feet nervously. The large Adam’s apple in his throat bobbed.

  “Who is he? Surely, Pastor Darren and his family do not know this man,” Tabitha said, sounding close to losing her cool.

  She rarely lost a battle. If she didn’t get the massive, good-looking man kicked out of the church, she’d have lost in her eyes, and that would not sit well with her.

  Randal ran a hand over his slightly balding head. “He, uh, does indeed know the family,” Officer Randal said. “That’s Huck Kingston, Hayes’s older brother.”

  Acknowledgments

  WHEW … this is a ride, y’all, and I am not getting off it anytime soon. Thankfully, there are people in my life who let me lock myself away and write the stories playing out in my head. It doesn’t seem to stop with this group of characters, and in this book, you will see it just gets deeper, and the possibilities are endless.