Everything tightened.
My heart and my chest and the knots that continually fisted my stomach.
I looked over at Ian.
So gorgeous where he sat at the wheel. So fierce and dominant. The sinister man who oozed sin and seduction who’d come to mean everything.
A hero I’d never expected.
He made a few turns, quickly but safely driving through the city, eyes darting around to take in our surroundings. He continually glanced in the rear-view mirror to check on my children, the girls fast asleep and Thomas sitting there stoic, the way that he did.
Knowing more than I wished he had to.
So brave when the only thing I wanted was for him to get to live his childhood without these overbearing cares and worries.
Ian reached over the console and took my hand.
He squeezed it.
Warmth.
Care.
A quiet hum of need.
Ten minutes later, we broke out of the city. The buildings had grown sparse and the marshlands grew thick as we hit a two-lane road. Random houses surrounded by trees were lit up by porch lights where they were tucked off the country road, the yellow, dotted stripe down the middle of the secluded road our guide as we raced through the night.
I didn’t ask him where we were going.
I trusted him. Trusted him more than I’d ever trusted anyone.
Ian began to slow as we came into a small town, a big painted sign boasting a population of twenty-three hundred that welcomed us to Broadshire Rim.
I’d heard of it, but it was an area I had never visited.
Ian kept our speed slow as we drove through the quaint town. It felt as if we’d been taken back a century. Storefronts lined the main road, different colored awnings stretched out over the sidewalks with parking spaces angled in front.
He squeezed my hand as if he felt all of my questions. “Almost there.”
We took a right and then another onto a dirt road.
The car bounced along the uneven road, the headlights cutting into the night, illuminating another big painted sign on the left.
Broadshire Blooms Bed and Breakfast.
Ian slowed and made a left onto the narrow, tree-lined lane. On either side, mammoth oaks reached for the sky, their old branches stretching out to create a canopy of welcome overhead.
The car rounded a slight curve and a three-story plantation came into view.
Clearly restored and just as striking as it had to have been back in its original day.
It had two stories of wrap-around porches and massive pillars holding them high, the third-story roof arched in three different areas, like three mountain peaks jutting for the speckled, shimmering sky.
It had to be the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen.
Coming to a stop in the rounded drive, Ian stared over at me, emphatic as he said, “You’ll be safe here. These are the best people you’ll ever meet.”
I looked back at the house as one side of the double doors opened. A man who looked so much like Ian stepped out onto the porch. A beautiful, dark-haired woman with a newborn cradled in her arms followed him.
Love and support shone fast in their eyes. Care and concern that flooded through the night.
And I wondered if Ian knew he was a part of that equation.
Because some people came into our lives because they were meant to be.
I squeezed his fingers.
And I knew Ian was always supposed to be a part of mine.
Thirty-One
Ian
I cranked open the door and slipped from my car.
My brother barely lifted his chin at me in a gesture so slight that only I would notice it. His promise that he would always be there for me, no matter what I needed.
Even if it meant dragging his ass out of bed in the middle of the night.
Suffice it to say, he’d thought I was drunk and playing some sort of sick prank when I’d called him on the way to Grace’s and told him to get ready for us.
Three kids in tow.
Not exactly my style.
“Jace,” I said, voice grit, filled with nothing but stark gratitude and the quiet fury I felt at finding Lawrence with Reed. Hating not knowing what was going down, but not fool enough not to realize whatever it was, it was bad.
Lawrence would strike someone down in a blink.
In a flash.
In the second it took to cock a gun.
Two of them together equaled the type of depravity I didn’t want to contemplate.
Jace tried to keep his footsteps light as he bounded down the porch steps. “Ian.”
I rounded the front of my car, and he came right for me, pulling me into a tight hug. He clapped me on the back and muttered at my ear, “You’ve got some explaining to do, brother.”
Obviously.
“Let’s get them settled. Then we can talk.”
Nodding, he stepped back.
Faith, Jace’s wife, slowly came down the stairs, protecting her youngest child against her chest, my sweet niece Bailey Button undoubtedly sleeping and not having the first clue about the inn’s newest guests.
Faith pressed up on her toes to plant a kiss on my cheek. “We’re so glad you came to us.”
I almost laughed. “Don’t thank me yet.”
Who knew what kind of shitstorm I might be dragging into their home.
Turning this old plantation into a bed and breakfast had forever been my brother and his wife’s dream, since they’d first met when we’d moved to this small town when I was sixteen.
Our mama had gotten another wild hair, moving us out of the city and thinking we would actually find a better life. Like she wouldn’t be the same useless mess wherever we went.
We’d only been here for a short time before things had gone south for Jace, but during that time, he’d found his destiny.
His fate that had been stolen from him.
The guy had fought for it until he’d claimed what was always meant to be, even with years of heartache and loss separating the two of them.
I’d call bullshit on the whole happily ever after bit except for the proof of it that was standing right there. Shining from their faces, so real it was impossible to miss.
I moved to Grace’s door and opened it.
I extended my hand to help her out.
A flashfire raced my arm.
Every fucking time.
Every touch.
Every brush.
Nervously, she stood, a little more flustered than I’d ever seen her. “Grace, this is my brother Jace, and his wife, Faith.” My tone was a gentle encouragement.
“Welcome to our home,” Faith said, stepping forward. The girl was all warmth. Oozing comfort.
Grace stepped forward and accepted her embrace, the baby snug between them. “Thank you so much for having us here. I’m so sorry to wake you in the middle of the night.”
Faith giggled a soft sound and bounced Benton. “Oh, not a whole lot of sleep happening around here these days, anyway. This little guy thinks the only time he can sleep is when I’m rocking and pacing with him. Second I put him down, he starts to scream.”
Jace wrapped an arm around his wife and nuzzled his face along her cheek. “My little man has good taste.”
Grace glanced at me for reassurance. No doubt, she’d thought I’d steal them away to somewhere secret and far, where no one could find her. But if anyone would stand up and fight with me for them it was Jace, Mack a phone call away.
Without a doubt, we were going to need those connections.
“Why don’t we get everyone inside so y’all can get some sleep?” Faith offered. “We only have one other guest right now, and he’s checking out in the mornin’, so it’ll just be you and your family staying. My daughter Bailey is going to be beside herself when she finds out she has a friend to play with.”
Faith’s gaze turned to the backseat of the car where Grace’s little girls were conked out, Sophie’s head dropped all the way forward in her car seat and Mallory with her mouth gaping open wide where she was buckled in her booster.
And Thomas.
Thomas was watching us with all that worry and speculation.
My chest tightened.
The kid had had to grow up too fast. Had seen too much. Hated it in a way that few could understand.
My hands fisted with the thought that he’d ever have to endure any of the pain and agony that had been inflicted on me.
Just the thought of someone striking him was more than I could tolerate.