• Thirty-Five •

  What in the world had I gotten myself into?

  Capri

  I took a deep breath and let Thatcher’s scent soak in. His hand tightened on my hip, and I glanced up at him to see his focus on the movie. He’d let me choose the movie, but I’d barely seen any of it. Curled up against Thatcher on the sofa with his arm wrapped around my body, like he was holding on to me so that no one could take me from him, was distracting.

  When I’d had to get up to use the bathroom, he’d locked his arm down so tightly that I couldn’t move. I’d had to explain what I needed to do, and even then, he had let go of me reluctantly.

  This was the end of day four up in the mountain cabin with him, and with each second I spent alone here, I was more attached. The sight of him made my stomach flutter, my pulse quicken. I felt warm all over. I hadn’t forgotten that he’d brought me here against my will, but I couldn’t honestly say if he’d come up to me and asked me to come with him, I would have said no.

  He had gone about it a way that was disturbing, but he had done it because he wanted me. He wanted me so badly that he’d snatched me up and run. I didn’t understand his thought process, but I also knew he wasn’t like everyone else. His brain worked differently.

  He didn’t scare me anymore. It was me that I was scared of. I was the one who had fallen in love with this man, and I knew that when it ended, when he no longer clung to me like his favorite toy, I would never recover. There wouldn’t be another Thatcher for me. No other man could make me feel like he did. He was one of a kind, and I was the lucky one to get his complete attention … or possibly obsession. I didn’t care what it was. I just cared that I had him.

  Under all the crazy and psycho that people loved to label him as was this vulnerable little boy who hadn’t been loved properly. He was different, and because of that, he’d been emotionally neglected. Thinking about it hurt my heart so much that I had to fight back tears. I wanted to weep for the boy who had thought he wasn’t loved. He wasn’t like everyone else, but it made him who he was. It made him Thatcher Shephard. Sexy, mysterious bad boy.

  “You’re not watching the movie,” he said in a gravelly tone.

  I grinned and tilted my head back to look up at him from where I had laid it on his chest, just below his shoulder. “How do you know that?” I asked.

  He flicked his eyes to the screen, then back to me. “What’s happening right now?”

  I had no flipping idea. I’d chosen Taken with Liam Neeson as a joke since he’d abducted me. He had smirked and pressed play. I hadn’t watched this in years, but glancing at the screen, I tried to figure out where we were at in the movie.

  “He’s gone to find his daughter,” I replied, knowing that was the plot of this movie and what was happening in about eighty percent of it.

  “Is that so?” he asked, reaching over with his other hand and running the back of his knuckles across my cheek. “You’re adorable, even when you’re being a smart-ass.”

  I started to tell him that I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be adorable when his entire body went rigid and his gaze shot from my face to the back window. Then, he was up, pushing me down on the sofa and reaching under the cushion of the burgundy recliner to my right and pulling out a pistol.

  His head snapped around toward the front door, and he moved so damn fast and quietly that I couldn’t even hear his feet on the hardwood.

  What was happening? Had they found us?

  Dread pooled in my stomach. What would they do to him?

  I saw his shoulders relax somewhat as he reached for the door and jerked it open.

  “You almost got shot,” he snarled, then turned and walked back to stand in front of me.

  I leaned over just enough to see who it was. King walked inside the house, followed by Storm, Sebastian, and a man I had never met.

  “It was Sebastian’s idea to check the back first,” King replied. “I told him you’d hear him.”

  “Five years?” the man I didn’t know said. “You’ve had this place for five years and told no one?”

  “Capri,” King said. “How are you?”

  Thatcher’s stance changed completely. His body was once again rigid, and I didn’t trust the gun in his hand. I sat up on my knees and reached for his arm to touch it. Calm him down.

  “I’m good,” I replied, keeping my hand on Thatcher’s arm.

  “You can’t keep her here any longer,” Sebastian told him.

  I wanted to throw a dang book at him. Did he not know his brother? This was a clear sign of him about to snap. I wrapped my hand around his arm and squeezed.

  “I think maybe it’s best if you don’t make suggestions,” I told Sebastian.

  Thatcher’s arm flexed under my touch.

  “Seems like a turn of events,” Storm said, sounding amused. “Might want to let her talk.”

  I wanted to flash him a grateful smile, but I was too concerned about how Thatcher would react to that.

  “She doesn’t have to say anything,” Thatcher said between clenched teeth.

  I patted his arm and let go to stand up. He spun around so quick that it made me jump back. His eyes had that wild look in them. He grabbed the blanket we’d been covered up with and held it out to me. I was in his shirt. Just his shirt. I had forgotten about my lack of clothing. It had gotten to be the norm here. I took it and hurried to wrap it around me. His eyes followed me as I walked around the sofa and over to stand beside him.

  I looked at the gun in his hand and wasn’t sure how I felt about being so close to one. He seemed to hesitate, then slipped it into the waist of his jeans before pulling me to his side with one arm. I was still too close to the pistol, but right now, that wasn’t the issue.

  “Thatch, she’s being searched for. Everyone is blaming you. People are demanding justice, bringing up shit from the past. We have to make a decision,” the man I didn’t know said.

  I placed a hand on his chest, afraid he was going to reach for his gun.

  “I will handle that,” I said. “I came of my own free will. I ran off with Thatcher, and I should have told someone, but I was thinking with my heart and didn’t. If I don’t press charges, there was no crime committed.”

  Thatcher’s chest rose and fell heavy under my hand.

  “You don’t have to explain shit,” he said.

  “Well, someone has to explain. The minister is all over the news. This isn’t going to just go away,” Sebastian said.

  King held up a hand. “Before you lose it, he’s right. She’s gonna be the only one who keeps you from facing charges.”

  I looked up at Thatcher. His jaw clenched up, and I could hear him grinding his teeth.

  “I want to. It’s fine. I will handle all of it.”

  He dropped his gaze to mine. “I don’t want you near them.”

  “Them who?”

  “Your parents.”

  I frowned. “Why?”

  His nostrils flared. “They’ll turn you against me.”

  I laughed then. I hadn’t meant to, but I couldn’t help it. My parents had no power at all over me. If he had been stalking me so thoroughly, he would have known that by now. His eyes narrowed.

  “My parents will most definitely not be able to do that.”

  He didn’t seem convinced.

  “If no one else is gonna ask, then I am,” Storm said. “What is this? I mean, Thatcher doesn’t get attached. To anyone. Especially a female. So, explain for the rest of us, so we understand what we are working with.”

  King glanced at Storm and gave him a shake of his head, as if to tell him to shut up. I was with King on that, but then I also understood where Storm was coming from. I wasn’t sure what to label this either. We had been in our own little bubble, and it had been easy to let the outside world fade away.

  But the outside world was back. Bubble popped.

  Thatcher said nothing.

  “I don’t think there is a definition for it,” I told him, and Thatcher’s hold on me tightened. I glanced up at him. “I mean, we, uh, um …” I had no idea what it was I should say.

  “She stays with me,” Thatcher said. “My house. My bed. With me.”

  King nodded. “All right. What about her house? Does she ever get to go back there?”

  “No,” Thatcher snarled.

  King’s eyes shifted to me. “You think you can handle … this?” I knew by the this, he meant Thatcher’s crazy that they all seemed to pin him with.

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  “Fucking doubt it,” Sebastian replied.

  Thatcher dropped his arm around me and moved toward him so fast that I barely had time to call his name.

  King and Storm moved between the two brothers.

  “Go the fuck outside, Sebastian,” King barked.

  Sebastian started to move, and Thatcher’s eyes followed him to the door. I stood there, afraid to move.

  “You got her,” King said to him. “She’s right there. Calm down and let him go.”

  He didn’t move.

  “Thatcher,” I called out, and finally, he turned his head back to look at me. There was that darkness there. Warring inside him. The one he fought to have control over. “It’s okay. He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t understand. I’m coming with you.”

  His eyes searched my face. “Staying with me.”

  I nodded.

  “My house.”

  “If that is where you want me.”

  His shoulders eased. His eyes cleared.

  What in the world had I gotten myself into?

  • Thirty-Six •

  Sorry, Dad, but we never wanted the same things

  Capri

  Standing inside the Shephards’ mansion, I twisted my hands nervously.

  Before we had gotten back, Stellan had been called, and the plan to disarm all that Thatcher had caused by taking me was set into place. Instead of me going to my parents to talk to them, they would come here. To the ranch. The law enforcement and media were also alerted. When we arrived, they were all in place.

  I was taken into library at the Shephards’ home and asked questions by the detectives on the case. All surrounding the day I had left with Thatcher, previous interactions, our relationship, my working here, et cetera. I answered all of it honestly—for the most part. They didn’t seem to want to pin anything on Thatcher, and the fact that I was telling the media and my parents that I had chosen to go with him seemed to relieve them. I had worried about this part most of all because I was sure they’d want to get Thatcher for something.

  Thatcher was waiting outside the door since he hadn’t been allowed inside. It had taken me pleading with him to calm down and to wait on me outside the door. When it opened, he pushed past the officer and came straight to me, pulling me to him and glaring at the others like they’d made it on his shit list.

  Texting Esther might have been a mistake. I’d thought she’d want to hear from me, but she was short with me at first, then went off on me. She said she couldn’t support me ruining my life. That I’d hurt my parents and I had changed. She said she didn’t know this person I had become. She had said a lot of other hurtful things, but I knew that it was nothing compared to what I would face with my parents.

  Knowing they were going to walk inside at any moment though, I was getting anxious. If they made any accusations toward Thatcher, I already knew I would say something that might shut them out of my life forever. I didn’t want that. I loved them. But they had always told me to tell the truth, and the truth I would tell them to shut them up wasn’t one any minister’s family wanted to hear their daughter admit. If it kept people from spewing lies about Thatcher, then I’d do it.

  “I’ll send them all fucking home now. Say the word,” Thatcher said, grabbing my hands to keep me from twisting them.

  “No, you won’t.” His father’s deep voice startled me. He’d been quiet, waiting behind us.

  Thatcher started to turn, and I grabbed his arm to stop him. If he wanted the world to think he wasn’t crazy or dangerous, he had to stop acting like he was ready to rip off heads.

  “He is right. This has to be done. But I need you to be calm. Please,” I begged.

  He stared down at me before sighing and looking back toward the door.

  “The media has been prepped. They’ve spoken to the officers. When the doors open, Clark and Charlene Jewel will enter, followed by the media we are allowing inside,” Ronan Salazar announced.

  I nodded my head and wrapped my arm around Thatcher’s for his support more than mine. I had this. I could do it. I was ready.

  “Maeme has done her best to soften them up, but she said they aren’t joyous about their daughter’s return and the news behind it,” he added.

  He grabbed the door handle and opened one of the tall, ornate double doors. Thatcher felt like steel; his body was so rigid. I had to get this done and quickly.

  My mother was inside first, and she paused the moment she saw the entry to the Shephards’ home. Her gaze shot up to the vaulted ceiling and chandelier. The wide, winding staircase and marble floor. My father was less impressed, and his eyes zoned in on me, then to Thatcher, where they narrowed, then back to me.

  “Capri.” He said my name the same way he had when I was in trouble as a child. “Come here.”

  I didn’t move. Thatcher started to, and I held on to him, putting all my weight into it.

  “Dad, I’m not a child. I’m a grown woman. I left town and told you nothing. I’m sorry. It was a mistake. But you don’t get to come into the Shephards’ home and act like they’ve taken your teenage daughter from you.”

  My mother finally stopped gawking at the foyer and looked at me. The firm line of her mouth told me that she was furious about my embarrassing them. In a small Southern town, the minister’s daughter, no matter what age, was to be above reproach. The entire family was under a microscope. Now that I’d run off with Thatcher Shephard and told no one, I had humiliated them. No God-fearing man would want me. I saw that as a blessing; they, however, would not.

  “You were raised better than this, Capri,” she said in a haughty tone. “Running off with a man and causing all this alarm. You cost the law enforcement man time and hours, searching for you. Do you not care about your community?”

  I hadn’t thought of that, but I hadn’t thought of much when I was with Thatcher other than him.

  “The law enforcement has been compensated for their time and effort. Along with a donation so that they may finish the new station,” Stellan said, walking around us.

  My mother’s gaze swung to him, and I saw the brief flicker of appreciation. Not for his actions, but because the man was attractive. Just like his sons.

  “That’s how it is handled then? You buy the law off? It all goes away?” my father asked angrily.

  “The law doesn’t have to be bought off. I left town with a man, as a grown adult, who lives on my own. I came back a few days later with him. We’d wanted to be alone. I didn’t want anyone bothering me or getting in my business. I’d had no idea it would cause such a big mess.”

  He threw up his hands and stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “How did you not think we’d be worried? You weren’t answering your phone. Your friends didn’t know where you were. Your car was at home, but you weren’t. That is cause for alarm, Capri!”

  Thatcher moved forward, and I was hanging on to him like a damn monkey, trying to stop him.

  “DON’T!” he shouted. “You do not get to talk to her like that.”

  “Thatcher,” I hissed. “Stop.”

  He was breathing heavy and turned to look down at me. The media wasn’t inside yet, but when they were, he had to be calm. Dealing with my parents was only the first step.

  “She is my daughter,” my father said, spitting his words. His face was red.

  “She is mine,” Thatcher replied in a cold tone.

  I couldn’t see his face since I was hanging on him, trying to stop him from moving. But I saw my dad’s face and my mother’s. She looked pale, and my father seemed to be properly terrified.

  “Thatcher,” his father said, but he didn’t turn to him.

  “Capri, have you been forced?” My father’s question pissed me off.

  I stepped in front of Thatcher. “No, Dad. But if someone was forced, you could say it was Thatcher. I chased him. I flirted with him. What we did and what we are doing now is because I wanted Thatcher Shephard. I wanted him bad. Do you want those details?”

  Thatcher’s hand gripping my waist didn’t surprise me. He didn’t like what I was saying, but I knew it would shut them down.

  My mother’s eyes widened in shock, and I could see the disappointment in my father’s eyes.

  Sorry, Dad, but we never wanted the same things.

  “Go ahead and send in the media,” my father said to Ronan, who was by the door.

  He didn’t look back at me once.

  Not when the media came in. Not when I apologized and assured everyone I was with Thatcher of my own free will. Not when he walked out and left.

  He hadn’t said goodbye. Neither had my mother.

  I felt a small sting, but not one that would have me running after them. What I had chosen might end up destroying me, but if I could be the one to reach Thatcher, show him love, then it was worth it. He would always be worth it.

  • Thirty-Seven •

  I wondered if I was the only one to see him this way.

  Capri

  They were all gone. It was over. Sure, the townspeople would talk, but they’d been making up stories about the Shephards for as long as I could remember. At one point today, the way the sheriff had looked at Thatcher, I’d almost thought he was scared of him. They truly believed the gossip.

  Thatcher walked me down to the stables. He wasn’t letting me out of his sight. It was odd, returning here. It had been days, but felt much longer. I’d left here one person and returned another. Everything was different. I stood, watching him talk to Miller, who had Zephyr out at the track. With all that had happened, I’d forgotten about him choosing Carmen to ride him. The race was a week away now. I was disappointed, but it didn’t sting like it had before. Carmen had experience that I didn’t.