“Yes. We don’t know who you are.”
“So? I’m not in the way of your conducting business inside the house. I’m out of the way.”
“I don’t seem to recall your name.”
“Bernard, what are you doing?” Maddox asked, coming out onto the back porch.
“You have a girl out here, and it looks suspicious,” Bernard said.
“You think I’m stealing girls, hiding them at home?”
“I’m his daughter-in-law,” Harper said. “I’m married to Abel.”
“Why are you here?”
She could tell them the truth. Leave, and never look back. She’d had two nights’ sleep away from Abel, and she missed him. If she told them the truth, Abel would go away. The men who had come to her at the apartment, they were going to kill her. She had the bruise on her face to confirm that. Her hair was hiding it though.
“I’m here because I’ve been sick, and Abel works long hours. It’s none of your business,” she said, presenting him with her back. She had picked her new family over freedom. Once she became a Denton, she would always be one. They wouldn’t turn their backs on her, and she wasn’t going to do the same to them. She had been terrified. Harper still was, but she understood family, and she understood the Dentons.
The officer left, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” Maddox said, shocking her. She thought he had left when the door closed. Before she turned toward him, he was standing beside her. “That must have been hard to do.”
“It wouldn’t be fair.”
“It would be simple though. You tell them what happened, Abel goes away for life. Maybe some of the family gets implicated.”
The thought of Abel going away sent chills down her spine. That was her man. The one person she loved more than anything. Why couldn’t she think of him as the creep she’d married, rather than the wonderful man he’d shown her?
“I couldn’t do that.”
“You could.”
“You’d let me live after that.”
“I would. You’re Abel’s woman, no matter what. He loves you.”
“Yeah, I get the whole Denton legacy crap. Don’t you hate it?” She knew about how strong the feeling was for the men when they met their women. That first night when Abel put his hands on her ass, he couldn’t help it. He’d been unable to leave it alone, wanting her. She couldn’t imagine feeling like that.
You can.
The night he’d killed those two men, she had wanted Abel’s arms around her even though she was terrified. He had gotten in her heart, and in her mind. She thought about him constantly.
“Hate what?”
“Not being able to choose?”
“Are you talking about our legacy?”
“It’s more like a curse.”
“How so?” he asked.
“You can’t pick who you love. What if someone you fall for is this horrible beast, a monster?”
Maddox laughed. “Yeah, we don’t want monsters here.” The sarcasm was clear to hear.
“Forget about it.”