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Cameron winced as I wrapped the clean bandage around his chest, his fingers digging at my hips while I looped the long cream strip over his shoulder.
‘Don’t be a baby,’ I jested, trying to lighten the mood. Every time I saw the raised red scar that was forming on his chest it tore me asunder all over again. I’d nearly lost him. At least I finally had him back home in our apartment, all mine to fuss over as he healed.
Cam laughed and pulled me toward him, nuzzling at my chest from where he sat in front of me at the edge of the bed. ‘I’d take pain all day every day if it means you’re by my side.’
‘Me too.’ We’d released the details of it being a trafficking deal gone wrong regarding Harold’s death, making it clear it had been a clandestine meeting between him and the dealers, and that no-one else had known. When the buyers had shown up, my brothers had meted out justice and staged the scene to make it look like a shoot out that had ended in tragedy for both Harold and the other guys. Their support meant the world, and slowly I was mending the bridges that had damaged over the past months.
‘I had something I wanted to ask you.’ I trailed a finger down his neck as he looked up at me, hooking me into those soulful eyes.
‘Anything.’
I fiddled with the edge of the bandage, having secured it once more. Nerves riddled my tummy as I tried to find the right words.
‘It’s about the kids.’
Cam’s eyebrow lifted, yet he remained quiet.
‘They don’t want to go back to the foster system. It’s brought them nothing but pain. The foster mother was the one who sold them to the men who brought them to your dad.’
‘Fuck,’ Cam inhaled as he said it, his eyes staying closed longer than on a normal blink.
‘She’s been dealt with.’ Steel gilded my words as I stiffened, the anger still coursing through me whenever I thought of what those kids had had to endure. They escaped being sold into much worse hardship, but the adults in their lives had failed them repeatedly. Trusting anyone would take a long, long time.
‘Princess, you don’t have to deal out punishments. I can take care of that.’
‘I wanted to. Plus, I’m sure you promised me equality in our running of the family business. Promised me power of my own. We’re going to pull up every root of their rotten fucking tree until I’ve eradicated the trafficking going on. If I have to torture them myself to weed them out, I will.’
Cam’s eyes widened at my words before he grinned at me. ‘Fuck, you’re even hotter when you’re mad.’
I swotted him playfully before planting a kiss on his forehead, his skin warm beneath my lips.
‘So where will they go?’
‘I... I know we haven’t really discussed kids, and if I’m honest, I don’t know if I want any of my own, but could we foster them? Help them find their way to a good life?’
‘They’ll have a lot of baggage, Maeve.’
‘So do we... who knows more about dysfunctional families than we do? We have the means to get them a top class education and to support them into a great life. We can use some of Harold’s blood money for a worthy cause.’
‘We are still a criminal organisation. I’m not sure that’s a great start for them.’
‘No. I don’t want them to follow us unless they choose to as adults. I want them to thrive. I want us to use the money your dad made from this to help kids in Scotland not to fall into these cracks. I know we aren’t above crime, and I know our families are involved in bad shit, but what if we could do good, too?’
‘You want to be a sexy little robin hood?’
‘Yeah.’
Cam smiled at me and pulled me down into his lap, shifting me with a grunt so my legs straddled his hips.
‘My power hungry little philanthropist. I could never say no to you. But give them a choice. If they want to stay, they can. If they don’t, then we help them find somewhere else.’
I brushed my hand over his heartbeat, my fingers stilling over the bandage where the scar lay hidden. ‘Thank you, my love.’
‘More scars to add to my father’s legacy,’ he said, his arms circling my waist as I leant my forehead against his, our breath mingling between us.
‘I love your scars. I’m going to spend eternity kissing every one of them.’
The press of his erection between my thighs didn’t go amiss. Longing gripped me as I tested a wriggle of my hips, his groan making me smile.
