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“Fuck you,” Frank said, yanking Lilly’s wrist higher along her back, until she bit back a cry. His palm hovered, a continued threat. “You’re gonna give us the money. Say it. Swear it.”
“No,” Lilly said, thinking of Audra, thinking of Jojo and Miranda Thatcher, channeling their spirit. They wouldn’t let themselves be used. They wouldn’t want Lilly to let herself be used.
Alec would expect the woman he wanted as his someone to stand up for herself.
She sucked in a breath, staring up at her cousin. “No fucking way, Frank.”
Expecting the blow, she braced, but then, just as she saw his hand begin to descend, her cousin was wrenched aside. He stumbled a few steps away, where he was caught by a very pissed-looking Con Montgomery.
It was Alec who had seized her cousin and thrown him off. Even as he drew Lilly against him, he glared at the drunken man. “From this moment on, you stay the hell away from Lilly. You stay the hell away or I’ll kill you,” he said, fury in every syllable.
With the back of his jacket in Con’s huge fist, her cousin seemed to shrink. “She’s blood. My cousin. She owes us money.”
“She owes you shit,” Alec said with disgust. He shifted his gaze to Con. “Any idea what to do with a scumbag like him?”
“Sure. I can chuck him into the ocean.”
Frank cowered, spittle appearing at the corner of his mouth.
“He doesn’t swim,” Lilly said.
“All the better,” Con and Alec said together. Then Audra’s brother began hauling him along the path, Frank stammering and pleading.
That left Lilly and Alec alone. She shook her head, trying to make sense of the last few minutes. “Where were you?” she asked, knowing she sounded dazed.
“Coming after you. I could hear the conversation between the two of you, but I couldn’t find you in this fucking maze.” He looked frustrated and ticked off and completely out of patience, but he ran a gentle hand down her back. “Are you hurt?”
“You didn’t keep your promise to me.”
He hesitated a moment. “No.”
Frowning, she gazed up at him. “A man should keep his promises.”
His expression turned hard. “Not this man, not that promise.”
“Then I can’t trust—”
“Lilly,” he grabbed her shoulders and spun her to face him. “You can damn well trust me. You can trust me on this. I will always follow you because I will always have your back. Here, home, wherever.”
“Baby steps—”
“There’s not going to be any baby steps either, sugar. I was wrong to suggest it and it was wrong for you, too. What’s going to win you is the truth.” He sucked in a breath, then pinned her with his gaze. “I want everything. I want it all. I want it now.”
Her head jerked back.
“Listen, Lilly,” he said urgently. “Hear me out all the way.”
The pulse in her throat beat so hard and fast she found it difficult to swallow. “What?”
“I want everything from you. And in return I’m giving you my total commitment,” he said, then paused. “That is how much you are worth to me.”
Pressure built behind her eyes, her throat closed up tight. I’m worthless for a man like you, she’d told him, but he didn’t believe it.
“Remember how I said I might figure out what it would take for you to fall in love? I have, and that’s it. My total commitment, for however long I’m here on earth to promise it.”
She sniffed, understanding he meant no one knew how long they had to commit, to promise, to love, but he wasn’t going to hold back. She’d told herself the rich were different, that life and risk were somehow easier for them, but that wasn’t true at all. The Thatchers weren’t blessed, they were survivors, determined to reach for happiness, despite their experience with death.
“What if I don’t know how—”
“I’ll show you,” he said instantly. “And not because of how I was raised or who did the raising. But because I have a vision of what we can have in my heart and I’m going to share it with you. I’m going to make you believe in it. In us.”
