Page 74 of Vengeful Vows

She leaves for a minute, and I can tell he is not happy.

“She needs me!”

“She needs time, Declan.”

Eventually, the bedroom door closes, and she comes back and leads me to bed, pulling the covers over me.

Lara’s right. I need time. I need time to try and figure out how to warn them that my father is coming. If he was willing to kill their mother over a turf war, God knows what he’ll do to Declan for kidnapping me.

And I don’t think I can think about my father killing Declan. The man I’m falling for. The man who must think I’m as much of a monster as my father.

And he’s right. I’ve ruined everything. I used to think of myself as a princess, being captured and waiting in my tower for someone to save me. But now I realize they took me away from a huge lie, a toxic situation that I never would have known I was in.

Or maybe I’m not the princess at all.

Maybe I’m the dragon.

19

DECLAN

I spend the night in the guest room, and it’s all I can do not to go to Bree in the middle of the night.

I don’t sleep.

It’s not her fault that her father is the way he is. It’s not her fault that she didn’t know.

God, I think I am in love with her.

What am I going to do? She probably hates me for telling her what her father has done, probably hates me for kidnapping her.... Do I even deserve to want her love back?

The next morning, she isn’t at breakfast when I go down, and I stand up from the table, huffing out a breath.

Lara reaches up and touches my arm. “Don’t.”

“I have to check on her." I need to make sure she is okay.

“I’ll do it.”

“But I need to see her.”

“You don’t need to see her. You want to see her. She doesn’t want to see you.”

I let out a long breath. “But... she needs to know that I’m thinking about her.”

“She knows.” Lara pats my hand reassuringly and walks up the stairs. I watch her go for a moment and then start to pace around the kitchen.

“I’m coming with you and Gray next week,” my father’s voice comes from the open kitchen.

I glance over to see him eating a piece of bacon, walking into the dining room.

“You’re coming with us?” I ask, surprised and for once, distracted from thinking about Bree.

He nods. “It’s time I made an appearance.”

My father isn’t one of those bosses who makes everyone do his dirty work. He likes to be with his men, to be in just as much danger as he’s putting them through. I respect him for that.

“Are you sure?” It’s been a while since Da has been in the shit, as we call it, and he nods.

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