Page 98 of Westin

He fixes those bright hazel eyes on me, and my chest heaves.

“I have to go back, don’t I?” I whisper, tears welling up.

He’s at my side in a second, pulling me into his arms. My cheek presses into his firm shoulder, and I sink deep into his embrace.

“No, darling,” he says. “You never have to go back.”

“But what about Thomas? What about the farm?” I gasp, tears slipping down.

“Thomas is dead, and you’re safe,” he says.

I hear his voice, feel it rumble in his chest, but I can’t absorb it.

“My farm?”

“I promise, I’ll handle it.”

The little bit of strength I have left wants to get dressed and go down to Carter Farms. My brain tells me that makes no sense. There’s several feet of snow outside right now. It’s the dead of winter. David could sell, but no one will try to build a road through my farm until spring.

Mercifully, I have time. I pull back. Westin brushes my hair from my face.

“I want you to eat something,” he says.

“Avery? What happened to Avery?” my voice cracks.

“Sovereign shot him,” Westin says.

It hits me like a wall of bricks crashing down. I never have to go back. No more nights with a rope around my wrist and a gun under my bed. No more living on high alert, waiting for the sound of tireson the driveway. No more trying to guess if Avery and Thomas are drunk enough to hurt me, or if they’ll just fall asleep.

“What happens now?” I whisper.

He brushes his lips over my forehead. “Nothing until the winter breaks.”

A sob claws up my throat. I cover my mouth, but it’s too late. He turns me in his arms, forehead knitted. I cover my mouth with my other hand too. Tears break free and spill down my cheeks.

“Darling.” His voice is so gentle.

No man has ever spoken to me as gently as Westin does.

He pries my hands away, and the sobs release like a dam crashing down. My body shakes. I can’t breathe. I’m a limp mess against his chest, crying so hard, I can’t tell what’s snot or tears or saliva. His shirt is soaked. His hand is on the back of my neck, his arm around me.

“I was so scared,” I burst out, my words slurred.

“I know, I know, baby girl. I’m so fucking sorry,” he says, his voice a hoarse rumble. “You’re never leaving me again. You’re safe.”

He doesn’t tell me to stop crying. He’s the first person to let me sob it all out.

I’m so deeply hurt. Marrying Thomas, living in fear of Avery, laying awake and longing for home in the dark, watching Sovereign blow a hole in Avery’s head—it changed me.

I’m not the girl Westin met all those months ago. I think I might have too many wounds to ever be that girl again.

My sobs quiet down. Finally, I can breathe evenly. I touch my puffy face, the skin tender. Westin shifts me in his lap and turns my chin up. The gaze he fixes on me is sober, the lines of his face around it stern.

“You’ve been fighting against giving up control for a long time, Diane,” he says. “That’s done.”

“Westin—”

“I said, it’s done.”

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