Page 61 of Savage Outlaw

Tad cursed on the other end then she heard him banging on a door and shouting for someone. “Of all the people. Fucking cartel. Stay there, I’m on my way, shouldn’t take me long.”

She heard him moving again, a door slammed. An engine started. All the while her heart clanged, teeth rattling together with cold and she fought to keep the vomit in her stomach.

Her voice cracked. “Tad…”

“Baby, I know. I’m coming to you as soon as I can, okay? Stay strong, don’t lose your head. This will go away, but I need you to keep your shit together and don’t get seen.”

How could her killing someone go away? But she let the hardened timber of his strong voice sooth her fears and self-disgust.

“Not even thirty minutes and I’ll have you, baby.”

“I don’t know how it happened, Tad. I killed someone.I killed him.” She whispered hoarsely.

“Roux, keep it together.”

Breathing through her nose, she huddled against the wall offering no protection against the elements and she got her shit together. “Please hurry.”

“I am, baby. Coming for you.”

She was prey out here alone.

And that’s how she felt. So alone like never before. Willing for a man she loved more than her own life would appear in front of her and make this whole night go away. She didn’t want the money anymore, it was stained, soiled in murder. She just wanted this night to be a horrific nightmare.

For someone who always talked a big game, it was humbling to know she had zero.

Roux took a breath.

And then she took another.

She’d always thought she was this tough bitch who could handle her own business. Turns out she was the damsel in distress, and she didn’t care, she was hoping Tad drove like a speeding train. She needed him here now.

She’d think about her weakness another time. A calmer time. A time when her fingers weren’t stained in blood and a bastard wasn’t losing his insides out on the ground.

Yeah, Roux hunkered there, breathing like a petrified girl.

With a corpse at her feet and rain coming down in heavy sheets, there wasn’t anything Roux could do other than wait.

So, she waited.

SEVENTEEN

“Covering up a murder and cuddles.” - Roux

Having taken this same route from Armado to Fort Springs millions of times, the twenty minute journey had never felt as slow before. He jumped out of the truck at neck breaking speed when he pulled up to the curb.

Not even giving a glance to the prospect pulling in behind him in one of the unmarkedSoulsSUV’s.

He didn’t see her at first, but this was the street, he recognized the archway into the small plaza. “You sure this is it?” Slider behind him asked.

And then there she was, pushing herself up from the ground, her eyes already locked on him.

Butcher hardly gave a second glance to the stiff on the floor because without checking, he knew the guy was long dead. His gaze was all for his girl, examining her over as best as he could while his steps ate up the space separating him from her.

“Tad,” she croaked.

“Come here, Cookie.”

She flew at him and he braced for her lunge. Then she was in his arms and he could breathe again as he ran his hands up and down her back.

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