Page 14 of Bombshell

“A friend of her mom put him in jail,” I said aloud as I remembered her telling me about it.

“Liam Walsh. The man who raised me after my dad died. He’s the president of The Judgment. He wanted to be sure I got to see my sister after Dad passed. He and Pep’s mom kept in contact for our sake. When it happened, Liam made sure Canyon paid for it and used his resources to put him behind bars for five years.”

Micah and Pepper had different mothers. She had said his mom died when he was a baby. His dad had made sure they grew up close even though they didn’t live together. Micah would come stay at Pepper’s for a week at a time throughout the year and then for a month in the summers. After he turned sixteen, his visits became few and far between. The last time being when we were fifteen and he picked Pepper up from school. He’d taken me, too, and we’d stopped at Sonic to get milkshakes and tater tots.

I wrapped my arms around my stomach as a sick knot formed. How had this happened? The same man had met both of us without the other ever knowing. He’d hurt my best friend, and I’d let him touch me. Kiss me. I felt ill, thinking about it.

Was this a coincidence? Was that even logical? Or had he…

Oh God. He had set me up. He’d followed me. Put himself in my path. But why? To get back at Pepper? Why would he do that? Regardless of the whys, I had thought I was in love with the man who had hurt my best friend and taken something precious from her that she could never get back.

I dropped my head down into my hands and covered my face. I was so stupid. Maybe I deserved to grow old with a bunch of cats. I ought to just go adopt my first one this week.

7

Micah

Pepper was going to hand me my balls for this. She had made me promise to let her explain all this to Dolly, and I’d let my temper get the best of me. Blurting out the truth to her had not been the best idea. She was still hunched over, covering her face, not saying anything. Dammit, I was an asshole, but she had been so insistent on telling me how fucking safe the bastard was.

“This your apartment complex?” I asked her, already knowing it was.

Pepper had sent me the address. I wasn’t thrilled about its location, but that wasn’t my business. It could be worse.

She lifted her head, and thankfully, there were no tears. Just complete devastation. Yep, my sister was going to kill me.

“Yeah,” she replied softly. “Park to the left side. I’m over there on the second floor.”

I pulled in beside Pepper’s black Mustang and turned off the truck before looking over at Dolly again. She reached for the door handle, and for the first time in my life, I didn’t know what to say. Normally, I had all the words when it came to women. I knew how to make them smile, laugh, come while screaming my name. But with this, I was clueless.

“Wait, let me help you down,” I told her while opening my door to get out.

She didn’t ignore me, but I figured that was only because she feared breaking her ankle if she hopped down in those fucking heels. She held out her hand to me, but I grabbed her waist instead. Damn, it was tiny. My mind instantly went to what she’d look like naked with those hips, tits, and little waist of hers. Fuck, I had to stop that.

But the idea of Canyon’s hands on her body pissed me off in ways I didn’t want to think about.

I preferred to believe he hadn’t touched her yet. That they hadn’t made it that far. If they had, then she was handling it better than I’d imagined. Still no weeping or even a sign of a tear.

I let her go when she was steady and stepped back. Her gaze lifted to me, and for a brief moment, there was a flash of something. The kind of something I was used to seeing in women. Oh, hell no. Not this one. She did not need to look at me like that.

I jerked my eyes off her and nodded toward the building. “Lead the way,” I told her.

She seemed to remember who it was she had been giving that heated look to and shook her head slightly, as if to clear it, then stepped past me without a word and headed toward the complex. It took every ounce of my self-control not to look at her ass as she walked. She even walked prissy. I’d never met a female as fucking feminine as Dolly Dixon, and I doubted I ever would. There was no way that Canyon had kept his hands off her. I might have to cut them off just to get some peace. Knowing he couldn’t touch her again. Making him suffer for taking advantage of her. Dolly was an easy target, and the bastard needed to pay for using her.

I followed her into the building and up the stairs to the second floor. She finally stopped at apartment 205 and pulled out a set of keys from her purse. Before she could put them in the lock, the door swung open, and my sister stood there, looking fierce and relieved, all at the same time. She barely glanced at me before throwing her arms around Dolly.

“I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad day,” she told her.

I heard the sniffle then, and Pepper’s eyes darted up to glare at me, as if this were my fault. Well, the fact that Dolly was about to cry might be my fault, but the day in general was not. I had not forced her to date that son of a bitch. I had saved her from him.

“It’s okay. Come inside and get off those heels. I’ve already opened a bottle of your prosecco, and I brought the caramel doughnuts you love from Seventh Heaven,” Pepper told her, taking her hand and pulling her into the apartment.

“I’m sorry,” Dolly choked out, and Pepper paused to study her a moment.

“You have nothing to be sorry about. Not one damn thing. Do not apologize to me or anyone. Do you understand me? I am here for you. You need me, and I am here to take care of you.”

Pepper’s eyes darted back up to me then, as if accusing me of something. She was right, of course, but she didn’t know it yet. Fucking know-it-all.

Dolly wiped at her face and sniffled again. I hoped she had something stronger than a sweet, bubbly wine. I was going to need it.

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