Page 154 of Ever With Me

Sleep hadn’t come.

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

Mike’s slimy voice when Brooks had handed him the cash rang through his head.

I just want a shower to wash off the stench that is Mike Valders.

Blackmailed.The son of a bitch actually successfully blackmailed Brooks. His fury was palpable.

For what it was worth—possibly little—Christine’s contract would provide some legal recourse to keep the man out of his life.

Who the hell am I kidding? Valders is a narcissist.

Brooks couldn’t protect them. That was the bottom line. Mike didn’t give a shit about the law.

Neither did any person who would try to harm the people he loved.

He had no real way to protect Maddie.

With enough determination and ingenuity, like Mike had displayed, the people determined to hurt the woman he loved would get through. No amount of money or bodyguards or security teams or gates could keep them out.

For the thousandth time, Brooks asked himself why the fuck he didn’t have Ryan check the trailer. This would be a very different last sixteen hours.

Brooks pinched the bridge of his nose, his eyes burning with tears.

He hadn’t cried in years.

He could love Maddie—would love her—until the day that he died.

But as long as she’s with me...

Iam a danger to her.

His existence was the threat.

An aching, hollow feeling rose in his chest, where Maddie had brought life to him once again.

He had just one move—and it might kill him.

But it had to be done.

43

MADDIE

The soft clickof her bedroom door opening roused Maddie from a relatively sleepless night filled with fitful, awful dreams. She blinked, her eyes swollen and burning from the tears she’d been shedding.

Brooks stood in the doorway, his figure barely visible in the early morning light.

With a cry, Maddie leaped out of bed. A startled Naomi, who’d spent the night with her, jumped and sat. “What the hell?” Naomi grumbled.

Maddie didn’t bother to glance back, running toward Brooks. She flung her arms around his neck, and he caught her, his arms tight around her as she clung to him. A fresh wave of tears burst from her eyes, and she inhaled his scent, molding her body to him as her shoulders shook with sobs. “I was so worried,” she cried. “My God, Brooks. I was terrified.”

Brooks said nothing, but his arms crushed her, his hands stroking her back and hair, soothing her.

“Let me give you two a moment,” Naomi said in a soft voice, then slipped past them, into the hall. The door shut behind her.

“Are you all right? Are you hurt? What happened to you?” She assailed him with a thousand questions at once, searching his face.

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