Page 22 of The Marine

I chew on my bottom lip.

The thing is, I’ve seen enough people with restraining orders who ended up in the hospital or the morgue.

No thanks.

Recently I’ve begun to really fear Kael, and so I’m trusting my instincts on this. Unless you’ve lived with a violent man, you cannot understand how important it is not to provoke them.

A restraining order is just that. One that can be ignored.

What I need is a bodyguard, like Savannah has...and even then I wouldn’t trust Kael not to lose his damn mind, even if I could even afford one.

Vanessa understands this as a lawyer, but not as an abuse victim.

“I know. Thank you for helping me,” I reply softly.

“Hey, you’re paying me.” She laughs, but I know she also cares. Half the time she doesn’t charge me for the hours she puts in.

I hang up and pull myself together.

When I walk out of the building, Kael turns and walks to me, pulling me into his arms with total dominance.

“Baby.”

I close my eyes and force back my tears.

Please, God, let me get home safe and unharmed.

CHAPTER SEVEN

AIDAN

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It’s been a week sinceI saw Briar and I’m a strung-out wreck. Which is stupid considering until recently, we hadn’t seen each other in ten years.

Then again, I never told her I wanted her to be my wife. We said other things, but not that.

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