Page 89 of Dare to Love Again

Chapter 19

“IWANT TO GO HOME.”

Val glanced up from the notepad she’d been doodling on while trying to pass the time. “You’re on lockdown, Esme. We don’t know Carlos’ motivation yet—revenge against Keiran, the club, you, all of it, or maybe the connection is merely Gerald Reinhart. Whatever it turns out to be, you’re safer here until they have him in custody. Besides, it’s Keiran’s orders, honey.”

“I did this to him.”

“Who? Gerald?” Her wavy blonde hair bounced around her shoulders as she emphatically shook her head. “You didn’t make Carlos pull the trigger.”

“No, Finn.”

“What are you saying?”

“Everyone I love, my parents, Andrew, Pax, and now Finn, they all wind up dead.”

“I come back to check on my patient, to see if she needs more medication, and what do I find? A submissive in need of a spanking.”

Val and Esme both gasped at this comment from Thomas as he walked in the door, black bag in hand—a doctor’s bag, not a dom’s. He set it down on Finn’s desk then stood over her chair, glowering down at her, arms crossed over his broad chest.

“Ryan Paxton isn’t dead; he’s on a mission, you know that. And Finnegan is going to be fine. He’s not good at his job, Esme, he’s the best, and when he tracks down Carlos, the two-bit, H-pushing, scum of the earth, motherfucker, won’t know what hit him.”

“H?” Val asked.

“As in heroin, Hernandez is a drug boss. Or he was until we busted his crew. They were small scale but making inroads into the LA drug market.”

“Is organized crime everywhere?” Esme asked bitterly.

“I wish I could say no, girl, but I can’t,” Master Thomas replied. “But back to the bullshit you were spewing when I walked in. A drunk driver killed your parents, which has nothing to do with you.”

“Who told you that?”

“I read your file,” he stated.

“But I didn’t put that in my Decadence application. I kept the personal to a minimum.”

His glower deepened. “Yes, which is why we had to run another check while you were sleeping this afternoon, a very thorough one.”

Not herself, and living dangerously because of it, Esme glowered back at the surly doctor dom. “That’s just perfect. I suppose everyone at Rossi knows my blood type and when I started my period as a teen.”

“O positive and age fourteen,” he stated matter-of-factly. “That is a little old these days. You were a late bloomer.”

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