Page 106 of Cash

“Is this one of those times when a woman says crazy shit and I’m just supposed to keep my mouth shut and go along with it?”

Suddenly and without warning, Stella’s whole face lit up and she graced me with a smile I’d never seen—megawatt with a dash of mischief.

Good Christ, she was gorgeous.

“Yes, Captain, this is one of those times.”

I heard the words. I watched her lips form them, but they were beyond comprehension.

It felt like everything in our lives were spiraling out of control. Yesterday we had to flee our home. Penny was wrapped up in something dangerous. Damion had to be neutralized. We needed to assess then get Cara help to process and deal with the death of her parents, deal with any residual fear of being in that saferoom, her Lolo being hurt, me coming into her life, and the fallout from last night.

But with all of that circling, I’d never felt more content.

More at peace.

And when Stella’s face gentled and her lips tipped up—not into the megawatt smile, but a sweet, soft grin, I knew she felt the same.

My woman was going to find it in her to be brave.

To stick.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

We’d decided to move back to Annapolis. Obviously, not back to Cash’s since there was construction underway, but also because he was afraid of how Cara would react going back to the place where he had tackled her onto the floor, then had run out while she was clinging to him in fear.

It had taken me a week before I’d found the courage to ask Cash if Cara had seen me shoot those men.

I found I didn’t need bravery when it came to talking to Cash. For a man who was rough around the edges, foul-mouthed, bossy, and arrogant he was infinitely gentle. Not only with me but with Cara.

Incidentally, Cara thankfully hadn’t seen anything. He’d kept her face covered while he’d run back into his bedroom and told her to keep her eyes closed and her face hidden. Something she had done.

Small mercies.

It had taken another few days after that, when Cash had drawn one of his bubble baths and pulled me in with him, that I told him I was struggling with letting Lore go after the shooting. Once again, he was gentle when he told me that everyone had two sides to their personalities. It was just that people like us, people who did what we did, lived in the grey where our pendulums had more room to swing—the distance between on and off was farther apart.

He also spent time during that bath kissing the remnants of Damion’s beating. After that he pulled me back, careful not to reopen any wounds, and told me that day of the shooting, I had not reawakened Lore. I had turned into a lioness protecting her cub. Maternal instinct at its most primitive. I heard Cara scream, danger was present, and I’d moved in to protect my child and mate. He said that last part with a smile in his voice and with his erection pressing into my back.

An erection I can unhappily report he had not used or allowed me to use in any way.

For a once-upon-a-time man-whore, Cash was surprisingly stingy with his cock. Anytime I tried to touch him, he refused. I’d utilized every seduction trick I knew and he’d deflected each one.

The stiches were now gone. My back was mostly healed. Penny was safely in Wyoming with Black Team. Damion was still running but hadn’t made contact with me. Cara had adjusted to finishing out the school year being homeschooled with Asher, Robbie, and Eric.

No. Adjusted wasn’t right—she was over-the-moon happy. She loved her teacher, Amy. The bonus was that before Molly came to work for Z Corp, she was a guidance counselor at an elementary school. She’d been happy to work with Cara. It didn’t happen every day, but at least twice a week, Molly came up with ways to get Cara to open up. Most of the time it was through drawing and storytelling. Cash kept every picture Cara drew. After I learned that Cara was expressing herself using fairytales, I asked Molly to record the stories so I could save them. Sometimes she slipped when the Snake entered the story and said Zane and sometimes when the beautiful Good Witch floated down from heaven she called her Mommy. And once when she excitedly told Molly about an epic battle against the trolls, she didn’t make up names and it was Cashy and Daddy, the toughest Troll slayers in all the universe.

She wasn’t wrong.

First, her Daddy had helped me slay my fears.

Then her Cashy had picked up the mantle when I lost her father and guided me to a place I never thought I’d live—the real world.

Openly.

Or as openly as I could, considering my past.

But I was Stella Phillips.

I had all the paperwork to prove it, including a mortgage on a new house I bought with Cash.