Page 13 of Forbidden Bond

Their father exhaled. “That was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up. With the McDades rejecting her entry, she would be angry, maybe she’d seen more than they wanted her to see. The only way to—don’t you see they only wanted words, names, why would she endure—”

“They didn’t care about names,” she murmured. “Not as much as you want to think. Men like that don’t have finesse, they don’t have patience. They think with their fists, with their dicks, and that’s exactly what happened.”

“You weren’t raped,” he sneered, diminishing her trauma.

Was that meant to be a comfort? Odd the justifications her father could make. Maybe they were all guilty of it, believing what they wanted to believe just to get through the day.

“You let them put their hands on her,” Lachlan growled. “She could’ve died!”

“Not if she’d answered them! I was sure she would! How could I know she’d been seduced by that animal? That he forced himself on her?”

Lachlan whipped around fast. “Forced?”

“Connel never forced himself on me,” she said with renewed anger toward their patriarch. “Which I told you, Ronald, you know that.”

“He made you think you had a choice.” That her father could be so dismissive hurt more with the knowledge he’d just as easily shrugged off Conn’s life. “You’ve never been strong. Not strong enough to—”

The door opened. No knock this time, just a man filling the frame.

A man who breathed new life into her determination.

Without the cuffs hindering her this time, she leaped up and ran to him. “Strat!”

“You wanna watch your fucking mouth, Superintendent. You have no idea about her strength,” Strat said, locking an arm under her ribs to pick her up and carry her inside. “You don’t have a fucking clue!”

“Who are you to speak to me like that? You don’t know my family! How did you find us?”

FIVE

“I WOULDN’T HAVE found you without him,” Lachlan said. When Strat put her down, she came up against her brother who’d come to join them. “We found her together.”

Her? Had they been looking for Ronald at all?

They must’ve known father and daughter were together. Strat saw them together in his parking lot.

“You have no idea how amazing it is to see you.”

Burying her face against Strat, the tears that warmed her eyes were far more vulnerable than before. Her brother gave her security, safety, but Strat gave her acceptance, support. She didn’t have to wonder if Strat would let her grieve, approval and latitude were absolute with him.

“Conn,” she whispered, probing the new source. Laying a hand on Strat’s chest, she pushed back. “Have you seen Conn?”

Strat shook his head. “Haven’t seen him since before you ran off. You think he’s dead.”

“Can I have your phone?” She didn’t want to confirm, or even acknowledge, her fears. “Did you call the boss?”

“Called and called, voicemail every time. No one’s picking up.”

What happened when the leader was snuffed out? Where did that put Niall, the lieutenant, and those loyal to him? More than not picking up, if the phones were going direct to voicemail, they were off, that meant tracing them wouldn’t be possible.

“Did you go to the club? To Stag?”

“It’s open. Business as usual. On certain floors.”

“Did you—”

“No business there, club only.”

And she couldn’t press for details with her father loitering over her shoulder.

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