Page 74 of Never Wed an Outlaw

“More trouble than you're worth, bitch,” he said, leering in my face. “Story of this whole fucked up arrangement I was fool enough to trust.”

I stopped moving just long enough to realize he'd put his blade against my neck.Slow breaths. You can't pass out again, or it's all over,I told myself, forcing my eyes to stay open, fixed on the monster leaning over me.

“Don't make me regret keeping your ungrateful ass alive, Hannah. I'm not an evil man. You think I like this? Think I enjoy carving bitches up, or figuring out what pimp to send them to next, while I hand off their kids to get burned like a bag of fuckin' leaves?” He snorted psychotic rage in my face. “You forced me into this. Pushed me too far. Don't keep pushing, peach. You'll find out I'm approaching my limitrealfuckin' fast. Keep kicking me in the balls, and I might decide you're not worth the trouble.I'll take the kid, cut my losses, finish what fever's started, and leave you to die on the side of the road.”

His eyes beamed hate, sick and brutally honest. Unmistakable evil.

He'd fed on enough pain for now. When I wouldn't give him anymore, he pulled away, his heavy shoe crunching a few stray seeds on the floor as he dragged his chair across the room.

I would have given anything to see Dusty's beautiful grey eyes one more time. Dom would kill me sooner or later, whatever gross incentives he offered in this game.

Regret ballooned inside me.

I'd made my mistakes, panicking and running when I shouldn't have. Hiding from the only man who ever loved me with his whole heart while our baby grew inside my stressed out body.

My life was about to be a total loss, and it killed me. Especially losing our baby without as much as a name to his little face. Much less a chance to let his father hold him, know him, love him.

More than anything, while I lay there tangled in the sheets, one hand cuffed to the bed, surrounded by these killers, I had one selfish regret.

I missed my husband's face more than my own life. Dusty's cool grey eyes, his expert lips, the salt and pepper stubble that used to scratch my face when he explored every inch of me.

I did everything I could to bleach it from my brain these last few months, on the run, and I'd failed miserably.

He was gone, but not forgotten. Robbed away by my own stupid actions.

Focusing on the mistakes wouldn't bring him back. So, I lay there in hell, struggling to remember every last detail of the man I'd loved with as much crystal clarity as I could get through pure delirium.

The next time Dom swore, barking an order to his men, I had a strange, sad smile on my face.

Dusty made me happy to the bitter end, and I wouldn't let anyone take that away.

The end was coming. I knew it the next time my eyelids fluttered open, and I heard a heavy roar outside, several loud engines, snarling and impatient.

Dom and his bastards moved around the room in a flurry. They were getting ready to load us up, and take us to the next world, one wicked way or another.

If there was any justice in the universe, it would be kinder than this one to me and my child.

14

Showdown (Dust)

Ibrought two guns to settle score. My trusty nine, which saved my life ten times over, and still might tip the balance for my crew when harvest time came. The other pistol hadn't been fired for a hundred years and...well, fuck, Dom would find out why soon enough.

I turned off the road, roaring into that beat up parking lot, as soon as I saw the two vans. Crawl pulled ahead, doing a quick survey, and radioed his confirmation.

They were there.

Very few businesses had tinted windows on their shit, especially out here in the sticks, where nobody cared if tools weren't strapped down according to code.

The cold rain picked up when we surrounded the main entrance. My boys fanned out quick, covering the soon-to-be battlefield like we'd done a hundred times, getting in between the fuckers and their vehicles so they'd have to go through us to leave.

Joker stood at my side. I turned to him, one hand on the nine tucked in my belt, ready for hot death if any of those doors in front of us popped up. “You go talk to the owner,Veep. Find out what room they're in. Tell them to take cover, and that there's ten big in cash waiting if they listen.”

He took off running. This place wasn't huge, and probably hadn't been remodeled since the seventies. Maybe a dozen units, more than half unoccupied. I walked up to the one on the corner, just a few paces from the slots where the vans were parked crooked, giving the assholes the fastest escape route 'til we'd arrived.

Where the fuck's Joker?Firefly and I shared a look across the lot when the Veep didn't show. We were about to go after him when a maintenance door popped open. He stepped out with a gun to his back, clenched in the hand of a nasty looking fucker in a rumpled button down shirt.

Shit!As if worrying about my woman and kid being hostages wasn't bad enough.

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