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“I will.” Very likely I’d do nothing else. Was it a mistake to turn him down?
Then my breath caught when he began nibbling on my earlobe. “Rest up, yeah? You have five minutes before I make you come again.”
CHAPTER10
Baxter
Iwaited until she fell asleep before I got up and dressed.
My mind raced over the events of the last few hours. Belle in my bed, Belle begging me to take her virginity. Belle’s sweet pussy wrapped around my cock. Jesus fuck, I was a lucky man.
A long-buried part of me had roared to life the second my cock slipped inside her. It had been primal and instinctual, turning me into a snarling beast who would be sated by only one thing: her.
And everything changed in that moment.
I felt the shift deep in my corrupted, jaded soul. She breathed new life into me, like waking me up from a long lonely nap. She was sweetness and joy and unexpected delights, my reward for scrabbling and scratching all these years to survive. I decided right then to keep her.
Belle was mine. I wasn’t letting her go, and I’d kill anyone who tried to take her from me.
We could make this work. She was miserable in her uptown prison, and I could help her spread her wings and fly. More undergarments, her own shop . . . whatever she wanted. I’d give her the fucking world on a gold plate.
Unfortunately, there was the problem of her father. She deserved to know what I did—and why. She needed to learn the truth about Honest Dan Kelly.
I didn’t regret kidnapping Kelly. I wouldn’t allow the hypocritical blowhard to become mayor. While lining his pockets off blackmail and graft, he campaigned that men like me ruined the city.
Which was ridiculous. Men like me kept Manhattan organized and neat. Without me, crime and lawlessness would run amok here.
Belle would understand. She was a logical, brave woman. I’d explain and show her the proof. She’d soon realize that her father was undeserving of any sympathy or compassion. She would see my side.
And from now on, I would only give her the truth. Her father had lied to her enough.
First, though, I had to deal with her attacker. The piece of shit was found in a Hell’s Kitchen alley earlier, shot in the hip. Matty dragged him into the saloon’s cellar to stew in fear and misery until I was ready.
After one last look at the woman tucked in my bed, I dragged on my boots and rose. Belle stirred as I crossed the floor. “Bax?”
Her voice was low and thick with sleep, and I longed for nothing more than to crawl back into bed with her. But I needed confirmation about who tried to kidnap her and why. There would be no rest until I killed every last man involved.
“Go back to sleep, sweetheart.”
“But where are you going?”
“I have some business I need to handle. I won’t be long.”
“Promise?”
My chest ballooned at the sweetly-spoken question.
I have to tell her. Soon.
“I promise, widow.”
Her sleepy gaze studied my face intently. “Be careful, William.”
Before I lost the will to leave, I forced myself out the door. When I entered the cellar, Matty was there, cleaning her nails with a knife, while Charlie stood against the wall with his arms folded. A man lay crumpled on the floor, wheezing. I knew the sound of that wheeze. Belle’s attacker wouldn’t live much longer.
Using my foot, I rolled him onto his back and waited until pain-filled eyes stared up at me. “Do you know who I am?”
The man’s lips moved but no sound emerged. I nudged the bullet wound with the tip of my boot, causing him to howl. When the screams quieted, I snapped, “Answer me.”
