AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Etta was full of fire. She wasn’t afraid of anything. Nothing was impossible to her. She was a force, and I was instantly drawn to her. Sure, I kept my head about me for the first few days, but she made me forget what the fuck I was supposed to be doing. That girl had me forgetting who I was with one of those sweet smiles of hers.
“I knew I had to protect her, but I wasn’t sure how to do it without getting us both killed. She didn’t know who I was. I didn’t tell her. I was afraid to. I knew who she was, and she had been honest with me from the beginning. Warning me who her father was. She made me chase after her, telling me that she was afraid for my safety. I told her we could be secret about it, and for a short moment in time, I had all I’d ever wanted.
“Etta became my world. I was ready to move heaven and earth to have her. I thought of going to her father and telling him I needed help getting free of the life I’d been born into. I wasn’t just a member of the gang, I would be expected to take over after my father. I was willing to be a soldier for the family, go into the shit no one wanted to deal with—whatever he wanted from me if I could just have Etta.”
Liam sighed and rubbed his forehead, as if retelling this was difficult.
“I never got that chance. I’d underestimated Eli, and that was a mistake. He had a closer eye on Etta than I’d realized. Than she even realized. She was told who I was and why I’d been at the track. That she was my mark. That she was going to be used as revenge for the death of one of our guys.”
Liam crossed his arms over his broad chest and sighed.
“Young love in a fucking world of monsters. I only know what I’ve told you because I spent years searching for her. It wasn’t until she’d been gone for five years and the gang that I belonged to had dissolved in their own internal war that I met a guy whose name I won’t repeat. He was part of the family. He was who informed me that Etta had been pregnant with my kid when she ran and they’d never been able to find her. Goddammit, I’d thought losing her had hurt. But knowing I’d lost my kid too …” He pressed his lips together. “I became a man possessed, looking for her, for you. But nothing. She had left no trace.
“It wasn’t until six weeks ago that I finally got some relevant info. One of my guys who manages one of the strip clubs heard another organization in there, talking about the fact that Blaise Hughes had a weakness. The monster had fallen in love. He’d already killed five men who had tried abducting her.”
“It was two,” I told him.
Liam smirked. “No, sweetheart, it was five. The two that his boys had taken out when they rescued you hadn’t acted alone. They worked under someone, who worked under someone. Hughes walked his arrogant ass into their places of business and put bullets in every one of their heads.
“You think you know him, but you know the man that loves you. I heard him on that phone. He was a man who would raise every hell on earth to get back the woman he loved. But you need to understand. The gentleness he offers you is singular. He is known for his brutality. He is feared for it. Don’t ever forget that.”
I sat there as Liam’s words sank in. Blaise had never told me he’d gone after and killed other men involved with my abduction. What else did I not know? The man Liam was talking about didn’t sound like the man I knew. Sure, Blaise had killed and I knew he had a dark side but he wasn’t cruel.
“I didn’t see how Hughes having a weakness affected me or this club. But then my man went on to say that Blaise had been stalking her for years, making sure she was safe. That she was the granddaughter of a former boss and her mother had died when she was only three. But when her father tried to sell her for money, Blaise put her father and her brother down.” Liam held my gaze then, and I saw emotion in them that made a lump form in my throat. “There hadn’t been a Hughes granddaughter in over eighty years. Besides, if Blaise was in love with her then she wasn’t his blood relation. What I did know was that there had been a boss who had filled in for Garrett Hughes until he came of age, and that man had a daughter.
