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“Yep.”
“Think you could give some classes? I’ll bet the rest of the girls would love it, and maybe we can talk you into giving them at the club.”
It hit her in that moment that everything was going to be fine. That she had a family she could count on, and that maybe, just maybe, there was a happily ever after in the works for her.
* * *
Kingston Coltraine was pissed. He was not having a good day. Instead of flying out this afternoon to join his wife on her book tour, he was in the office.
“He’s not mad at you, baby girl,” Brock whispered to her, laying his hand on her knee under the conference room table.
She believed him, but it didn’t seem to help the jiggling of her knee beneath the table. She’d been on the run for four years. She’d actually begun to think she might be safe, and now Ewan was here and people she cared deeply about were having to cancel plans and change their lives just because of her. Maybe that happily ever after was still out of reach. Maybe she’d never get one.
“I wouldn’t like what you’re thinking, would I?” Brock said in a clearly audible voice.
King looked up, “Why, what’s she thinking?”
“That this is somehow her fault.”
“What is it with women who have been victimized deciding it’s all their fault and somehow they’re omnipotent and should have figured it all out so none of us will be inconvenienced?”
“That’s not fair, King,” said Alicia. “But you can’t deny if I’d been straight up with you guys that this wouldn’t be happening.”
“Yes, but not for the reason you think.”
“You don’t know what I think.” She glanced at Brock to see if he was pissed. He wasn’t. In fact, he seemed amused.
“Tell him,” he said, encouragingly.
“I think if you’d known I had this hanging over my head…” she started to trail off.
“Go on, Alicia,” said King, “tell me.”
“Don’t do it,” said Miley. “It’s a sucker play Doms use to get you to admit all kinds of stupid shit. The fact is, if you take a breath and think, you’ll know the only difference you might have made if you’d told us everything to start with, is we’d have gotten rid of this asshole sooner. Seriously, Alicia, you should have told me. I would have taken care of the problem.”
Seth chuckled. “The scary part is, she isn’t joking. She is also right, not about the sneaky Dom part—okay she’s right about that, as well, but still, however we got here, here we are. We deal with what’s in front of us. We’ll figure it out, take care of the problem and then get on with our lives.”
“Don’t you think that you’ve paid for whatever it is you think you did?” asked Brock gently. “Seriously, baby girl, you didn’t know Rennault was a psycho. If you had, you wouldn’t have let him get within ten feet of you. But guys like him are great con men. You’re not the first woman to get conned, and unfortunately, you won’t be the last. We’ll just take them down, one man at a time.”
She shook her head. “I know you’re right. I guess I just want to say that I’m sorry about not trusting you guys sooner. I should have believed in the character of the people I work with, and I didn’t. I won’t make that mistake again, either.”
“Good girl. Why don’t you tell them how you got us to where we are?”
“I told Brock, after Ewan…”
“Call him the psycho or Rennault,” said Miley. “It gives you some distance and makes it easier to kill someone.”
“Will you think of Damon as Knox the day he pisses you off to the point you decide to take him out?” asked King with an evil grin.
“Oh, hell no. I’ll think of him as my ultimate paycheck. I’ve seen the will. I inherit everything.”
“Does Damon know you feel this way?”
Miley rolled her eyes. “Yes, and he’s told me if he ever makes me so unhappy that I want to put a bullet in his brain, I should just do it, and he will forgive me.”
“And didn’t you feel like a nasty bitch for even thinking about it?” laughed Seth.
“I did. And it’s all his fault. I love the sonofabitch so much that if I even allow myself to consider a life without him, I can’t breathe.”
