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Both men went still, I glanced at them, and I didn’t even think they were breathing.
“Gave you?” Hank finally whispered.
“To use as he wanted. I didn’t know, but then he began to grope me, planned to rape me.” I shivered, even in the bright sunshine. “I had no intention of allowing him what he wanted. I… I kneed him in the balls and got away. I was why Barton Finch didn’t rob the Simms bank. He’d planned to be… busy with me.” I clenched my fingers together, wrung them as I spoke. “I knew Father and Travis had robbed the bank and knew which way they’d go to return home. I came across you and, well, you know this part.”
Hank cleared his throat.
“How many banks did you rob with them?”
My mouth fell open and surely flies could enter. “None!” I practically shouted. “I swear. I didn’t do anything with them. They wouldn’t let me since I was just a worthless woman. Not that I had aspirations to do so,” I clarified, ensuring they knew I wouldn’t have participated if they’d let me.
“And that fucker Finch?” Hank snapped.
“It was the three of them. Together. Except the Simms robbery.”
“Then why would you join him today? Why rob with a man who intended to rape you? Money?”
I shook my head. Again and again. “He threatened me when Emma, Ann and I were in the mercantile. Threatened—” I bit my lip again.
Hank reached out, turned my chin back and held it with his fingers so I was forced to look at him. “Threatened who?”
“You.” Tears welled in my eyes. Tears I’d not shed in years. My heart had been hardened; my life had been fucking hardened until I’d felt numb. Nothing. But now, these two men made me feel everything.
“He threatened me so you go off, by yourself, to rob a bank? To what, save me?” Hank snapped, tossed his hat down on the step beside him and ran his hand through his hair.
“He threatened both of you. I couldn’t let him hurt you because of me. Don’t you see? I’m a Grove. I’m… bad.”
“And you married us so you could have protection. Obviously, we didn’t put you in jail with the others,” Hank said. His calmness had chipped away until his anger broke through.
“I married you because I wanted you. Want you.” My words weren’t enough to express what I felt.
Charlie held up his hand. “You married us after he threatened you. The perfect protection.”
I shook my head. “I wanted one day of a real family. A real life. I knew I’d have to leave. Have to go with him otherwise he’d come to Bridgewater. Shoot you, shoot the others. Everyone would stay safe only if I went and did what he wanted. So I had the wedding I wanted, the wedding night I never expected. Two men I never dreamed would want me. Then I walked away.”
They were quiet, but I saw Hank’s eyes widen, his look change. “Oh fuck.”
A hand came out, hooked about my waist and I was pulled into him. I felt his hardness, his heat. Breathed in his male scent.
“You sacrificed yourself. You expected to go to jail. To be hanged with them.”
I looked away, but Hank’s hand forced my head back. “I’m a Grove.”
And with those words as the answer to everything that had happened, he leaned forward set his shoulder in my belly and stood so he was carrying me like a sack of potatoes.
He spun on his heel and carried me inside, up the stairs and into his room.
13
HANK
THE TRUTH WAS like a lightning strike. Sudden, severe and searing.
She stood before me and I grabbed both sides of her shirt, yanked. The buttons went flying across the room, fabric rented. I didn’t give a fuck; she was never wearing that shirt again.
“You robbed a fucking bank to keep me and Charlie, as well as the others at Bridgewater safe. Planned to hang.”
I glanced at Charlie, who, by the look on his face, had come to the same conclusions I had. He stood behind her, reached around and undid her pants. He dropped to his knees, got her out of them and her boots in seconds.
