Page 184 of Daddy's Wild Girl

However, to her surprise, she’d actually woken up feeling lighter the following morning. As though cutting ties completely had lifted a weight off her shoulders.

Corbin’s family had been demanding to meet her, and they were going to visit them for Christmas. They’d head there the day before Christmas Eve and stay a week before coming back to the Ranch for New Year’s Eve. She was so nervous even though he reassured her that his mom and two sisters would love her.

Bebe walked into the living room to find Corbin sitting on the sofa. He had a number of images laid out on the coffee table.

Her heart leaped as she saw one of them.

The asshole.

“What . . . what is this?” she asked.

“Sit down, darling.” He patted the sofa next to him and feeling shocked, she sat. “Ericc is miserable.”

“What?” she asked, confused what Ericc had to do with anything.

“He’s miserable. Working a dead-end job, all of his money goes to child support and to his mother, who he lives with in a single-wide trailer. And who, by all reports, is an awful, nasty woman. Frankly, jail or death would be a relief for him.”

“How do you know all this?” she asked.

“Because I looked into him. Because I wanted to make him pay for what he did to you. But it seems life is already punishing him and I don’t want to make things better for him. So, then I went looking for the asshole. Because I can make him pay.”

Shoot. She’d hoped he’d forgotten. She shook her head. “No. No, Corbin. Just leave it alone.”

He grasped hold of her chin, holding her head still. “I can’t, Bebe. He has to pay. What he did to you deserves punishment. And it will stop him from doing this to anyone else.”

“What . . . what will you do? You won’t kill him, right?”

“Do you care if I do?” he asked calmly.

“Yes!”

“Why?” he asked, his face strangely cold.

“Because you might get caught! You might go to jail. I can’t be without you!” She swung her arms around his neck and he held her against him.

“You’re worried about me?” Now, his voice was soft.

Gosh. Men had a lot of mood swings. It was hard to keep up sometimes.

“Yes, of course I am. I love you.”

“You don’t care what happens to him?” he asked.

She leaned back. “Why would I? I hate him.”

“Then which one is he?” He gestured at the three images. “I narrowed it down to these professors. Which one, Bebe?”

Maybe she should refuse to tell him. But he wasn’t wrong. The asshole did deserve to be punished. It had taken her a long time to work out that she wasn’t to blame. That she hadn’t done anything wrong.

It was all on him.

So, with a shaking finger, she pointed at the photo in the middle.

“Good girl, baby.” He grasped hold of her chin again, this time to kiss her.

“What will you do?”

“Probably best you don’t know. But let’s just say, he’s about to lose his job, his home, and perhaps his freedom. A guy like that? The loss of his power will be enough to make him crumble.”

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