Page 47 of Outlaw

A hand slid around my waist and flattened on my stomach. The warmth of his body closed in behind me. I was frozen, except for my gaze as it dropped to stare at his touch. His large hand almost covered the entire area.

“You didn’t think I wouldn’t figure it out, did you, Ringlets?” his voice, close to my ear, said in a husky whisper. “You oughta know better than that. Keeping things from me isn’t possible.”

I shivered as he took a lock of my hair and twirled it around his finger.

“That sweet little girl…she’d have told me.” His voice was heavy with disappointment. As if he had the right to that.

He had been the one to disappoint me. If he wanted to play that card, he needed to get in line. I was there first.

“She’d have done anything for my attention,” he told me as his lips brushed the edge of my ear, causing me to shiver. “Why not now? Hmm?”

“Mommy! Look at all the chocolate!” Stevie cried out with glee, spinning around to look back at us.

He was gone so quickly that I had to grab the doorframe to steady myself. My smile was wobbly as I nodded my head. His scent was still wrapped around me with each breath I took. The spot on my stomach where his hand had been felt as if he had branded it with a hot iron.

“I reckon all you need is a bowl,” Linc said, stepping around me and heading in her direction.

Her eyes stared up at him with complete adoration. It hadn’t taken him long to win over his daughter—not that he would have had to work at it as hard as he had with extravagant gifts, a private plane, and now this.He might as well be Daddy Warbucks, and she’d be his Annie.

My phone vibrated in the pocket of my leggings, and I ignored it. I knew who it was, and right now, I wasn’t going to be able to talk to Hudson or respond to his text. I had a movie to get through with a man I didn’t know if I trusted or not.

“Which ice cweam is oat milk?” Stevie asked him as he handed her a bowl.

There were three different ice cream flavors—chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla—displayed in a serving piece that seemed to also be a freezing unit so that it didn’t melt. Stevie was on her tiptoes, peering up at them with interest.

“All of them are. Take your pick,” Linc informed her.

“Weally?” she asked in amazement. “I want all thwee!”

Linc grinned down at her and went to scoop her some from each vat. I would normally say something about the portion size, but right now, that was the least of my worries. The less I had to talk, the better.

As soon as she had three scoops in her bowl, she went to the chocolate fountain. He went behind her and showed her how to hold her bowl. I watched them for a moment. Memories I had repressed, not allowing myself to dwell on them, hit me, one right after another.

It was only when he did things like this that I saw a glimpse of the guy I had once known. Because the man he had become was someone altogether different.

Twenty-Six Years Ago

The chaos around me felt a thousand miles away. My chest ached with every sob that racked my body. I heard a siren in the distance. The smell of hay, horses, and cigarettes was the onlyconstant around me. The rest…the rest was my world tilted on its axis.

No one was telling me what had happened or why my daddy had collapsed on the ground.

I’d run to him, but never made it, Kenneth—had stopped me. His hands clamping over my shoulders and holding me back as others began to call out and rush to Daddy.

One of the stablehands, Patrick, was doing CPR on him. I screamed for him, but Kenneth held on to me, telling me it was okay. That I needed to let them work on my daddy. It wasn’t okay though. My wails tore from me as he continued to lie there, not moving.

This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. My daddy was larger than life.

Just this morning, he had come into my room at five, like he always did, singing “Wake Up Little Susie” by The Everly Brothers. I groaned and threw my pillow at him. The full belly laugh from him had been followed by him telling me the bacon was going to get cold.

He wasn’t sick. Why was he not sitting up?

The siren was louder, and the roar in my head, along with more voices yelling, began to pull me under.

Then, I heard him. Not my dad, but Linc’s voice. When I turned around, Kenneth let go of me, and I saw Linc taking long, quick strides toward me. I let out a loud sob, then broke into a run. He would make this better. I just had to get to him.

When I reached him, he opened his arms, and I threw myself into them. He held me against his chest, and my tears soaked the front of his T-shirt. “I got you. Shhh,” his tone was meant to soothe, although not even Linc could do that. Not when my daddy wouldn’t get up off the ground.

“He’s gone,” I heard someone say, and I fisted Linc’s shirt in my hands.

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