Page 29 of Billionaire Lumberjack's Bride

Martin Bolton doesn’t play fair. He doesn’t even play the same game anyone else does. His is evil. Depraved. Sinister. So twisted that once you get caught in it, there’s only one way out…

I thought I had escaped, but I’ve been drawn back in by guilt and some deep-seated need to ensure he doesn’t hurt anyone else. And it could end up hurting the woman standing in front of me. The one who just made mefeelsomething other than pain for the first time in my entire life.

There’s very little I can do to protect her from what’s coming, but I can protect her fromme.

Lyla twists the material of her lacy white dress between her hands, nervously glancing up at me every few seconds with her bottom lip between her teeth.

Fuck.

This is so damn fucked up.

I turn to fully face Ronald, stepping closer while Whiskey moves to Lyla, apparently more concerned with her right now than me. “So, what’s the next move?”

He inclines his head to indicate we should leave and have this discussion elsewhere as Jon Franks, the Millsburg justice of the peace, returns with the signed paperwork.

Jon offers a tight smile, undoubtedly uncomfortable with the awkward ceremony we had. Especially since he and I have never shared a word before in all the time I’ve lived here. “Here you go, your finalized marriage certificate.”

I reach out and take it, trying to hide the fact that my heart still beats a rapid tattoo from that single kiss. “Thanks.”

“Good luck, you two.” He says it with a wary look, almost like he knows exactly what’s happening—the fakeness of this wedding.

But that’s impossible. Until this ceremony, no one in Millsburg knew my last name. Even now that he does know it, there’s no way he suspects I am one ofthoseBoltons or why I’m doing this—our entire plan depends on that.

If the truth gets out and back to Uncle Marty before Ronald and I can get everything in place, it will doom our attempts and draw him from his cave of depravity to place a target on my back—and Lyla’s.

Ronald opens his arm and wraps it around Lyla’s shoulder. “Come on, dear.”

He ushers her toward the door, and she pauses to grab her bag from the bench. Her hand tightens around it until her knuckles whiten.

I know how you feel.

Everything about this is wrong—the person, the timing, why we’re doing it.

Marriage was never on my radar for too many reasons to count, and now this poor girl is locked into it with me.

Fuck you, Father, for putting this stupid requirement in the trust.

Though I can understand why he did it. He and Uncle Marty were notorious womanizers who tore through anyone who had somewhere to stick their dicks. That kind of lifestyle would eventually tarnish the company beyond repair.

If Father was really trying to protect the future of Bolton Steel, he needed me to have a different life, a real family with a solid base to stand on as CEO. He probably didn’t formally disown me because he held on to some hope that when I left there, I found just that and would reconsider my distance from him and the company, eventually. But thatneverwould have happened if Ronald hadn’t shown up with this wild plan…and brought this unsuspecting woman up to the mountain.

I glance over at a silent Lyla as we make our way down the front steps and out of the courthouse. Her silence eats away at me the same way it did last night and this morning on our drive to town.

Why are you doing this, Lyla?

She’s far too beautiful and intelligent to be selling herself like this, but whatever brought her to this place in her life, it’s enough to make her as desperate as me.

I try to stop staring at her while we walk, but Whiskey rushes ahead toward her, trying to rub his head on her hand. It forces me to keep an eye on her.

Yeah, that’s why you’re doing it…

The eyes of everyone out on the street follow me, suspicion hardening their gazes. It isn’t like me to be back in town so soon after my last trip, and they sure as hell have never seen me with anyone like Ronald, or Lyla, for that matter.

My stomach churns, thinking about the gossip that’s no doubt already spreading through the entire population of our tiny mountain oasis. It won’t be that for long.

Ronald pauses beside his car parked on the street in front of the courthouse. “I’m heading back to Pittsburgh to start on some of the things we discussed, Silas.”

I narrow my eyes on him. “What am I supposed to do?”

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