Page 55 of Addiction

He was always in control.

“Who?” she pressed, closing the distance between them and reaching for his body in the shadows. “Who was it, sir?”

“Someone you don’t know.” His answer was one rushed lungful of air.

“Kenner?” She repeated the second name she’d heard him use.

“Yes.”

“Who’s Kenner?” she urged him to explain.

“A jerk-off with serious clout.” His muscles stiffened. “And someone who’s apparently been propping up your father.”

Alexander’s involved. Her body tensed at the inevitability of the outcome. Naturally, it was about Alexander. At the bottom of every bad result, there always seemed to be her father. I should have known.

“What d-did he say?” She didn’t know if she was referring to her father or Kenner, but in the end, it didn’t matter. One or both men had royally thrown Tucker off course. His was practically shaking as he spoke.

“He called to keep me up to date.” His voice dripped with sarcasm, but if she didn’t know better, she could have sworn she heard tears as well. “He’s good that way.”

“And?” Finding his hand in the darkness, her fingers enveloped his. The strong man she’d come to lean on was shaken to his roots, and she needed to discover a way to console him.

“It seems Daddy’s search party reached the cabin, but of course, we weren’t there.” He pulled in a breath as though whatever was coming next was painful.

In her mind, she was already putting together the terrible pieces of the puzzle. Alexander and the men they’d seen in the woods had found the place she’d been hidden away. She could only guess at how annoyed they would have been to find the cabin empty.

“So, they decided to leave me a little departing present by torching the place.” Emotion choked his voice, and the hand she was covering with her fingers balled into a fist.

“They burned it?” She envisioned the crappy little cabin going up in flames. The place had been her prison, and she’d loathed it when she was there, but since they’d left, she’d started to understand just how much the building meant to Tucker. Having built it from scratch, she could only imagine his pain at knowing someone had set it alight.

“Yes.” Anger pulsed through his body, and holding onto him, she could have sworn she sensed the waves as they passed through his sinews. “And God knows what else. Starting a fire in the forest could kill numerous trees, animals, and other habitats. Those fuckers don’t know what they’ve done!”

“I’m sorry.” She wrapped herself around him, curling her body around his back as the fury surged through him. “I’m so sorry they did that.”

And all because of me.

She bit back on the final line that waited at her lips, unable to vocalize it, despite its simple honesty.

This was all her fault.

“They want you back, little girl.” He turned her way, the warmth of his breath guiding her lips to the place he waited. “They think they can drop four million in a garbage can somewhere, and we’ll call it quits.”

“But that’s not going to happen.” Sensing where his thoughts were headed, she finished his sentence for him.

“Too fucking right, it’s not.” His hands were on her then, his body shifting as his hot fingers grazed over her skin and moved her until she sat with a leg on either side of him. “I’m not giving you up.”

“I don’t want you to,” she assured as she settled over him. “I only want to make sure my mum and Julia are okay. I don’t want to leave you, sir.”

“Thank you, little girl.” Two vast palms slid up her body and steadied her face, though she had the sense the act was designed to offer him stability. His face was wet from tears as he pressed a gentle kiss to her mouth, the soothing caress a stark contrast from the hateful anger she was sure was swimming in his veins. “That asshole, Kenner, is playing with fire.”

“I know, sir.” She kissed his stubble. “I know.”

“I’m going to make sure you’re safe, little girl.” His kisses were hot and heavy as he continued. “Then I’m going to burn his whole world to the ground.”

The End