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Amalie's blue eyes hit mine as she shivers, but she presses her lips together, remaining silent.
"You’re afraid of something. Now, you can tell me what it is and let me help you, or you can keep running.” I pause, wondering if I should save time by throwing her over my shoulder and carrying her to my cruiser. It's tempting, but I need to give her the option to make the right choice first.
More silence.
"You don't need to run anymore because you've landed in the best place. You're under my protection now.”
Amalie's hands shake as she pours two plastic pots of creamer into her coffee and takes a sip before she looks at me. “You don’t know me, who I’m running from, or the hell you’ll unleash on this town if I’m found here.”
My eyes narrow at her words. “Eat your biscuits and let me explain where you’ve ended up. This isn’t some out-of-the-way, nowhere town. It’s a haven for people who need peace and to be left alone. I'm an ex-Marine, my buddy Jace is ex-Army, and Mal is an ex-SEAL. And there are more of us, all with military backgrounds. So when someone needs help? The whole town shows up.” I pause, chewing a bite of my sausage biscuit and swallowing. “We don't turn tail and run when someone shows up with a bigger gun than ours.”
That last part is to emphasize that I understand what kind of trouble may be following her.
Amalie purses her lips as she picks up a country ham biscuit with cheese. She won't look at me, and I sense that comes from a place of shame. When she speaks, I know I'm right. “I still don’t think you understand. My father is forcing me to marry a man I don’t know. A man I don't want to marry. He’ll do anything, pay any price, to get me back.”
I look at her, seeing her dejected posture. She doesn't know it yet, but I'll do anything to keep her safe. Anything.
Placing my finger beneath her chin, I lift her face so she has no choice but to meet my gaze. “He can’t force you if you’re already married.”
Chapter Five
Amalie
I stare at Lucas, wondering if I've lost my mind or if he has. His words repeat on a loop.
He can’t force you if you’re already married.
“What are you suggesting?” I ask, though it seems obvious. I want to be sure I'm not hallucinating.
“Exactly what I said. Marry me, and you can’t be forced to marry someone else,” Lucas says, his face a blank slate.
As far as proposals go, it's not the most romantic.
“Are you serious?” I breathe, seeing a solution within my grasp. But I'm uncertain he means it. And would it prevent my father from dragging me to the altar?
“As a heart attack,” Lucas replies with a shrug. His eyes flit toward the window, but not before I see the traces of past pain. “I learned a long time ago that marriage isn’t what we’re told it is when we’re kids, but it’s not against the law to marry someone to keep them safe.”
"A woman hurt you," I say intuitively.
Lucas's gaze swings back to me. "What makes you say that?"
I shrug. "People who've been hurt sense it in others. Your mother sounds like a terrible parent, but someone else betrayed you, didn't they?"
His jaw flexes, and his gaze returns to the small window. "The woman I was with for four years,' he finally says. "I joined the Marines when I was eighteen and went off to war. I was gone a lot, sometimes for months at a time, sometimes longer, and came home a wreck. I did things in war that still give me nightmares about. Saw things no one should see. I thought I was coming home to someone who would support me, help me get back on my feet, help me forget the nightmare I’d just lived. Instead, I returned from my last deployment five years ago to find she'd had a child with another man. She kept it from me. Amazing what you can hide on a video call."
My eyes widen, and my heart breaks for him. I stand and move toward him, wrapping my arms around him from behind. "I'm sorry. I can't imagine how rough it was to be betrayed by the woman you loved in such a way."
Lucas turns, cupping my face. "That's the thing. It took that to realize I didn't love her. She knew that even if I didn't at the time. But I didn't want to come home to an empty house after the horrors of Afghanistan. And that's no reason to stay in a relationship."
“Oh, right.” I'm unsure why that knowledge fills me with relief, knowing he's not pining for a woman in his past.
His warm hands send tingles down my neck, and my nipples tighten. I can't deny I'm attracted to him, although it feels like so much more than that.
I look at him, noting a few stray gray hairs in his neatly trimmed beard and the faint lines around his eyes. He's just offered to marry me purely to save me from a forced marriage to a man more than three times my age.
Lucas has seen and done things most people can't imagine. He's ex-military and the sheriff’s deputy, so he's safe, right? Could he be my solution?
I bite my lip, realizing how close we're standing. My blood sings through my veins as he strokes his thumbs over my cheeks. “If we do this… what exactly do you expect from me in return?"
