“No. I hated what I felt for you. I didn’t want to. You had lived a shit life. Saxon was perfect for you. He’d give you all the things you never had, and he wasn’t the future boss. He was just part of the family.”

  Wait. What?

  “You wanted me for Saxon? You didn’t even know if I’d like him. If I could love him. You can’t decide that for someone.”

  Blaise sighed. “Trust me, I know.”

  “What changed your mind?”

  A small smile touched his lips. “You.”

  He squeezed my hand again. “You’re not even bringing up the fact that you’ve been told that the family is organized crime. We are the mob. I will be the boss in the next few years. This will never change.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, but I had started to piece some of that together anyway.” I looked over at Huck and Gage. “I heard more than you all realize,” I said. “Huck hung them on a cross after shooting them. That’s not normal.”

  Gage chuckled and tried to cover it with a cough.

  “The men who took you, they did it because of me. You became something I had never had before. A weakness. You’re a target. My claiming you made you that. It’s why I’d tried so damn hard to stay away from you.”

  “They were another mob?” I asked.

  He snarled, “No. They were fucking lowlife dealers. We have enemies. That happens in this life.”

  I felt like there was more to that than some drug dealers, but right now, I had too much to process. “How did they find me? How did you?” I asked him.

  “Your phone. Melanie gave it to you, but I’d bought the phone. I’d put the tracking device in it. They took the phone, of course, and turned it off. They wanted something from me, so they wouldn’t destroy the phone. They kept it to contact me directly. But the device wasn’t in the phone. It was in the case.”

  It was all starting to fall together. His insisting I take the phone. His number being in it that time he had texted me.

  “How does horse racing fit into this world?” I asked.

  “It’s how the family was started. It’s also a big part of who we are. Gambling, politics, controlling drugs inside and outside of the track.”

  I knew something was being left out, but I didn’t push.

  “That’s everything?” I asked him.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  I didn’t say anything, and I heard the chairs move as the others stood to leave. The kitchen cleared out, and when it was just the two of us, I looked at Blaise.

  “I wouldn’t have run from you if you’d told me,” I told him. “But I understand.”

  He studied me. “Can you ever love me? Knowing all this?”

  I laughed at his question. “You are worried about me falling in love with you? What about you? You’re not only beautiful, sexy, and wealthy. You will also have power. You already do. Women are drawn to that. They’ll throw themselves at you. I see them do it now. I should be the one worried about you falling in love with me.”

  An arrogant smile curled his lips. “You think I’m beautiful and sexy?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  Blaise cupped my face with his left hand. “Baby, I’ve been in love with you for fucking years. I fell in love with you before you ever laid eyes on me. Truth is, I was in love with you when you were jailbait.”

  My mouth fell open. “What? You didn’t know me. You couldn’t have loved me.”

  He leaned in and pressed a kiss to my lips. “You were that damn special. So strong and loyal. I almost killed that fucker Hank when he cheated on you. I hated him for having you, but to have you and not realize how damn lucky he was? The shit didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as you.”

  “I need a moment,” I told him. “Maybe give me time to process all this before you tell me any more.”

  He kissed my lips again. “Take all the time you need.”

  “There is one thing you should know,” I told him.

  He frowned. “Okay.”

  “You’re my home. And I realized that when I thought I was going to die. You were the only thing I didn’t want to lose. Nothing else mattered but you.”

  He kissed me again, then whispered, “I love you too.”

  Thirty-Five

  The next month, things all began to make sense. I didn’t feel like I was being kept out of something or being lied to. I convinced Blaise to let me get a job. It was working for him, of course, and I was enjoying it. I didn’t clean stalls at Hughes Farm, but I did start helping with bookkeeping and running the stable offices. Blaise moved Empire back to the farm too.

  Trev came around some, but he treated me differently. He no longer flirted or tried to get me alone. We talked, and he made jokes about me and Blaise. It was nice to feel like I fit in. Garrett brought my mom’s pictures to me and told me to keep them. It was Eli’s albums, and he said my grandfather would have wanted me to have them.

  Angel came downstairs more often now, and she watched me quietly more than anything. I thought we were getting closer to a breakthrough—or maybe it was wishful thinking. I wasn’t giving up on that though.

  Blaise had left early this morning to handle some family business, and I showered and dressed before heading upstairs. When I reached the top step, there was a large envelope sticking out from under the door. I opened the door, then picked it up. My name was written on the outside. Thinking Blaise had left it for me, I smiled and went to the kitchen. It was empty.

  I walked over to the island and leaned against it while I opened the envelope. There was a thick stack of papers inside, stapled together, and photos further down. I pulled them out and set them on the counter. The first thing I saw was a picture of my dad and Cole. That hurt. I’d struggled with the fact that he wasn’t my father and Cole wasn’t my brother. I had decided that just because they weren’t my biological family, they’d still been mine. Our life hadn’t been easy, but there had been good times. Especially when I was younger. Before Dad got further into the world of alcohol and Cole wasn’t using.

  Picking them up, I flipped through the photos, seeing they were all of my dad and Cole. Some together, some alone, some with people who looked shady. There was one of my dad with a needle in his arm, and I froze. My stomach twisted, and I put it down.

  What was this? Blaise wouldn’t have left this for me.

  I grabbed the papers and began to read. They were copies of text messages at first. From my dad to some number I didn’t know. Then between Cole and Dad. My world started to spin as I began glancing through the papers. Then, there was the one that would shatter the only happiness I had ever truly found.

  The papers and photos fell from my hands, and the image of my father and brother with gunshot wounds to the heads, lying on the ground, stared up at me.

  I shook my head.

  The words below it read, It’s done, boss.

  I covered my mouth, but the scream came anyway. Moving away from it, my entire body began to shake.

  I was in a nightmare. A horrible nightmare. I had to wake up. That wasn’t how my dad and Cole had died. They were in a car accident. My dad was drunk, and he ran a Stop sign. I had been told all of this by the sheriff.

  I heard my name, but I was staring at the floor as another scream came from me.

  Gina called my name again, and I looked up at her, feeling frantic. She had to know what this was. She could explain it to me. I wasn’t seeing this. This was not real.

  “Maddy, breathe. I called Blaise,” she said calmly.

  Blaise. She had called Blaise.

  I pointed at the papers and photos on the ground. “That’s—” I cried. “That is my dad. My br-br-brother. That’s them. They were in a car accident. They were,” I said, shaking my head. “But that’s them. There are gunshot wounds in their heads.”

  “Shit,” she whispered and bent down to pick up everything.

  “Someone followed them. They had their text messages. They had pictures of my dad shooting up. He didn’t do drugs. Not like that.”

  Gina glanced up at me, and I saw pity in her eyes.

  Why was she looking at me like that?

  “That was them,” I said more for myself than anything. Because that was my dad and brother. They were dead by gunshots to the heads.

  I stepped forward and grabbed the papers from her hands.

  “Maddy, no.”

  She reached for them, and I screamed. She jerked her hand back, startled. Her eyes wide.

  I searched through the papers until I found the text again. I slowly read it. Not once, but three times. My body was numb. The place where my heart should be felt empty. Hollow.

  When I heard Blaise’s voice say my name, the pain from it sliced me to shreds. That voice that I loved so much. That I had trusted. He had betrayed me before I ever saw his face. I lifted my eyes to meet his, and I saw the horror I felt reflected in those beautiful green eyes I loved.

  “Madeline.” He said my name, and the agony in his voice was more than I could take.

  I swallowed the bile in my throat. “I’m calling a cab. I’m leaving. Don’t follow me. Don’t come after me.” My words were void of emotion, yet every horrible emotion one person could feel was coursing through me.

  “Please, baby. You’ve got to listen to me,” he said, taking a step toward me.

  I backed up, shaking my head, feeling like I would splinter into a million pieces if he touched me.

  “Madeline, don’t do this. Please, you need to let me explain.”

  “SECRETS! YOU SAID I KNEW EVERYTHING!” I screamed at him, throwing all the papers I had clasped in my hands at him. “I didn’t know that you had my father and brother killed. That was something you didn’t tell me.”

  Blaise’s nostrils flared, and he ran his hands through his hair like a man who was close to falling apart. I was already there. I had fallen apart, lost in my own reality.

  “Jesus, how did she get these?” he roared, looking at Gina.

  “How doesn’t matter. What matters is that you let me fall in love with you. You had taken my family from me and lied to me. I’ve been living this life, being happy, fucking you, wanting you, and you killed the only family I had left in this world. NO! NO!” I backed away. “I am leaving, and you, boss”—I spit the last word at him—“will let me go.”

  I walked away then. Without my phone, without a purse, without anything but the clothes on my back. I opened the front door and walked out into the August heat. Down the stairs. Down the long drive. When I reached the iron gate, I pressed the keypad to open it. I watched it swing open slowly, then stepped through and onto the dirt road. I had to leave. Get away from this place. From these lies. I had accepted and embraced.

  I didn’t get far when a familiar truck pulled up beside me and stopped.

  I looked up at Saxon, then kept walking.

  I heard his truck door open, but I didn’t look back. I knew why he was here. Blaise had called him, and Saxon always did what he was told. A good little soldier. Like they all were. One of those soldiers had killed my father and brother. My stomach rolled, and I paused, sure I was going to throw up.

  “Maddy, I didn’t know. I still don’t know much. Blaise called me, and he was not okay. He asked me to pick you up and take you wherever you wanted to go.”

  I bent over and heaved. Staring at the dirt and wishing I’d died on that concrete floor. That would have been easier. When the heaving ended, I spit, then stood back up and turned to look at Saxon.

  “You didn’t know Blaise had my dad and brother murdered?” I asked him.

  Saxon’s face told me more than words could. He hadn’t known. His horror reflected my own. But then Saxon was good. He would never do anything like that.

  “Oh God, Maddy,” he whispered, looking like he might cry.

  I couldn’t walk forever, and I had no way to get a cab, hotel, anything.

  “I don’t want to go to Moses Mile. I want out of this town,” I told him.

  He nodded. “Anywhere you want to go.”

  I walked back to his truck and climbed in.

  He started the engine, and we turned around and drove. Neither of us said anything. We sat in silence. It was over an hour later when he pulled into a service station.

  He looked at me when he stopped. “You need something?”

  I shook my head.

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  Those two words seemed to crack something open inside of me. A loud sob broke free, and I wrapped my arms around my waist.

  How could a heart hurt like this and not kill you? I felt like I had just lost my soul.

  Saxon moved over to me and put his arm around me. I didn’t lean into him. He couldn’t comfort me. All I had ever loved in this life, I had lost.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he said.

  No. It would never be okay.

  I took a deep breath, trying to stop my breakdown. Get control of myself. This wasn’t going to help me. There was nothing that could make this go away.

  “Even now,” I whispered, “knowing this … knowing what he did … I feel like I left my soul back there. I’ll never be the same.”

  Their story isn’t over…

  FIREBALL

  coming May 15, 2023

  Sneak peek

  My eyes flew open and I laid there in the dark looking around. The moonlight was enough for me to see the bedroom clearly. Footsteps. I sat up in bed and tossed the covers off before grabbing my phone. Was I imagining it? Had the footsteps been what had woken me up? They were soft but I heard them again. I pressed Saxon’s number then ended the call. He was hours away from me. Possibly even back in Florida. I needed to call 9-1-1.

  Tip-toeing to the bedroom door, I stepped out to peek over the balcony overlooking the living room and kitchen. I pressed 9-1-1 and held my finger over the send button waiting to see if there was actually someone in this cabin or if my imagination was out of control. I didn’t want this to be like the rental car drop off yesterday. I moved closer to the railing and held my breath for fear of being heard.

  “Put the phone down,” a deep voice said behind me.

  Startled, I screamed and dropped the phone then spun around to find Huck standing a few feet away at the top of the stairs. Huck was here. He wasn’t here to kill me. I was almost positive he wasn’t. Maybe he was. Maybe my knowing about Blaise killing my dad and brother had put me on their kill list. Assuming they had one of those. Why hadn’t I thought about that?

  “For fucks sake, Maddy. Stop backing up. If you fall over that damn railing then Blaise will put a bullet in me,” he drawled then held up an unlit cigarette. “Mind if I smoke this?”

  I stared at him but said nothing. Why was he here? If Blaise didn’t want me to fall over the railing, then he didn’t want me dead. Yet Huck was here, in this cabin, miles away from Ocala, in the middle of the night. I was confused.

  Huck shrugged when I didn’t answer and lit the cigarette between his lips and took a long pull from it. “Go back to bed,” he said with a grunt.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him instead.

  He raised his eyebrows as if that was a stupid question. “Did you honestly think you were up here in the fucking mountains alone, without protection?”

  Yes. I did think that.

  “Fuck,” he drawled and took another pull from the cigarette. “You’re a naïve one. Go back to bed. I’m just headed to my room.”

  Frowning. “Your room?” I asked confused.

  He pointed his cigarette toward the room to his left. “Yeah.”

  I shook my head then. There was no way I was letting him sleep in this cabin with me. “No, you can’t sleep here.”

  He chuckled. “Maddy, honey, I’ve been sleeping here since you arrived. Apparently, you’re a light sleeper when you think you’re alone.”

  “You’ve been here the whole time? Does Saxon know?” I asked.

  Huck smirked at me. “Yeah, he knows. We take care of our own. You may be pissed about how things were handled but that doesn’t change shit.”

  My fear had turned to anger. He acted as if my family’s death wasn’t a big deal and I was overreacting. “I’m not pissed! My dad and brother were killed! I am…I’m destroyed.” I was also in this alone. Saxon had lied to me. If he was my friend he would have told me Huck was here. He was loyal alright, just not to me.

  Acknowledgments

  Those who I couldn’t have done this without-

  Britt always is the first I mention because he makes it possible for me to close myself away and write for endless hours a day. Without him I wouldn’t get any sleep and I doubt I could finish a book.

  Emerson for dealing with the fact I must write some days and she can’t have my full attention. I’ll admit there were several times she did not understand and I may have told my six-year-old “You’re not making it in my acknowledgments this time!” to which she did not care.

  My older children who live in other states were great about me not being able to answer their calls most of the time and they had to wait until I could get back to them. They still love me and understand this part of mom’s world.

  Annabelle gets a shout out because she read this in its unedited form for me in one day. I needed feedback and she put down the Jennifer L. Armentrout book she was loving to help her momma out. Love you big! Even if Armentrout is your fav.

  My editor Jovana Shirley at Unforeseen Editing for not only doing this last minute because I suck at deadlines but also for helping me make this story the best it could be.

  My formatter Melissa Stevens at The Illustrated Author. Her work always blows me away. It’s hands down the best formatting I’ve ever had in my books.