CHAPTER 1
Dusty
The second Cammie walked out of the door, a switch in me flipped. Watching the only woman I loved slip away from me wasn’t an option.
I knew she never belonged to my world. My father hurt her and her family beyond repair. I didn’t make things better. I scared her, and I’d hurt her with my words and actions. I should let her go to live the life she deserved, not the one I was dragging her down to. But all that meant nothing to me the moment she vanished behind that door.
Cammie was mine. I was no fucking righteous hero or saint to let her go. If that made me the villain, so be it.I’d never let her go.
Blood still staining my hands, I dashed after her. “Cammie!”
She faltered down the hall, clutching the strap of her bag, but then she didn’t stop. She sped toward the elevator.
I ran, blocking her way. “I can’t let you leave like that.”
She wouldn’t even look at me. “Dusty, please. I’ve made up my mind. Don’t make this harder than it already is.”
A lump clogged my throat. “At least…let me take you home.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“It’s late, and with you dressed like that…” She was a fucking knockout, and my blood had been simmering all night because of the way fuckers like that piece of shit Samuel were looking at her even when I was with her. I almost killed that asshole for it. It was what got us in this shit in the first place.
“You don’t have to worry about me. Like I said, I can take care of myself, and I’m no longer your—”
“No longer what? You’ll always be mine, Cammie.” If any prick so much as breathed on her wrong when I wasn’t with her, it wouldn’t be a few punches I’d throw. I didn’t care about her approval or how much of a monster she’d think I’d become, but if there was anyone I’d kill for again and again without a second thought, it was Cammie.
“Dusty—”
“Please, for my sanity. Let me drive you home. It’s not too much to ask.”
Her jaws clenched as she studied the hotel floor carpet. Her not looking at me drove me nuts. She couldn’t have hated me this much not to be able to bring herself to look at me.
“If I say yes, will you promise to leave and go back to Rosewood and never come back?”
How could she fucking ask me that? I’d never make that promise, and she knew it. I gritted all the words and curses jumping to my tongue under my teeth. She wouldn’t accept any apology, explanation, promise or groveling right now. “Let me take you home safe, Cameron.” I wasn’t asking.
She sighed, and I was ready to drag her and put her on my bike until we reached her apartment whether she liked it or not if she said no. Fuck, I was ready to lie to her, to kidnap her all the way to Rosewood, tie her to my bed and never let her out. There was no fucking way in hell I’d let her break up with me. She was mine.
I was hers.
She gave me a terse nod. She must have read my tone or sensed the blaze of heat bubbling up under my skin and decided to stop fighting me. My ol’lady knew me better than my own Mama.
In the elevator, I couldn’t take my eyes off her, while her bloodshot eyes were pinned to her shoes, our heated breaths replacing the heavy words swarming in our chests.
When we reached the parking lot, I took off my jacket and put it on her shoulders. It’d be cold for her in that dress on the bike. When she flinched, I was about to snap. “Stop doing that. You know I’ll never ever fucking hurt you. And for fuck’s sake, look at me.”
Her lips twitched, and her head barely lifted, as she shrugged into my jacket and circled herself with her arms.
“Please, baby,” I whispered.
A tear dropped down her face, and I couldn’t just stand there. Without thinking, I pulled her into my embrace. My arms wrapped tight around her, and she shook against my body, her tears soaking my shirt.
My heart ached with every whimper, but a flicker of hope pulsed within me. Now that she wasn’t afraid to be in my arms, maybe there was a chance she wouldn’t leave me. I printed little kisses on top of her head, filling my nostrils with her scent, gluing my arms around her body. She cried harder, and I wished I could have taken it all away, what happened tonight, the pain I caused her, the past, everything. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Don’t leave me. I’d do anything, sweetheart.”
She sniffled, pulling away, and the hope I thought I had faded. I stalled, but she wriggled out of my embrace and wiped her face. “I just wanna go home.”
She marched toward my bike before I could say anything. I followed her as thunder broke the sky, echoing the sound of my heart. As we cruised down the road, rain whipped at me, but I wasn’t cold. Not when my Cammie was sitting behind me, her body on my back, and her warmth surrounded me.