Cade couldn’t move for the pounding of his heart. If he’d ever thought his life had no purpose, he had a path now. First, Mad Dog. Then the uncle. Then every other person who had ever hurt his girl.
“That night when he came to my bedroom, I grabbed my bedside lamp and knocked him out. Then I ran away with my purse and the clothes on my back. I didn’t even take a picture of my parents with me. I took a bus out of state and got off in Helena when my money ran out. For a while, I lived with in an abandoned building with a group of street kids, and when my luck ran out and a pimp decided to add me to his stable, I met Jimmy.”
“Never again.” His seething brain couldn’t form the words he knew she needed to hear. The murmurs of sympathy and understanding. The words of consolation. He couldn’t even touch her, because if he did he would never let her go. Her pain was his pain. Her past was his future.
“It’s okay, Cade. It’s over. It was one more lesson about how to survive and fight for what I want. I don’t waste any time thinking about it.”
Fucking hell. What a woman. All the fucking abuse she suffered, and she owned it.
“You’re the only person I’ve ever told.”
“Means everything to me,” he said. “Tells me everything I need to know.”
“What do you know?”
He crossed the distance between them and took her in his arms. “I know I never met a woman as strong and smart and beautiful as you are. Never met a better mom than you, doing so much for your kids with so much damn love it fucking shines around you. Never met anyone I wanted to share the worst part of my life with. And I never had a woman give me a present that made me want to ditch my own party so I could spend the night showing her how much it was appreciated.”
“I bought two presents.” She went up on her toes and kissed him, her voice a breathy whisper. “One naughty. One nice.”
His tongue parted her lips and he thrust inside, consuming her. The world melted away until there was only Dawn, her soft body pressed up against him, her fingers threading through her hair, his hard length between them, and her hot, wet mouth on his.
“Please tell me this is the naughty one ’cause I’m fucking hard all over again.”
Dawn feathered kisses up his neck and along his jaw, and then she pressed her lips to his ear. “Cade, honey, this is the nice one.”
FOURTEEN
I will wear the symbols of brotherhood with pride.
SINNER’S TRIBE CREED
Dawn placed the steaming plate of bacon and eggs on her tray and lifted it from the counter. The diner was unusually quiet this morning so the cooks had been overly generous with the portions. Stan wouldn’t be pleased. He was only just back from a vacation he’d decided to take the day after Cade visited the restaurant and things had slipped in his absence.
“Table three wants more coffee.” He came up behind Dawn, his belly brushing against her back as he reached for the coffeepot. Dawn cringed. Despite Cade’s warning, nothing had changed. Or maybe, it had. She felt different today. Although she needed the job, she wasn’t prepared to sacrifice her self-worth to keep it, or to tolerate any disrespect.
Just like a Sinner.
She spun around and shoved Stan away. “Back off.”
Stan’s mouth dropped open and he took a step back. She’d never warned him off so forcefully before, but today the words slipped out before she could stop them.
“I like working here, Stan. This is the only restaurant close to the school and you’ve been very accommodating by letting me take my morning break during our busy time so I can see my girls. And of course, I need the money. But all this touching has to stop. Whether it is accidental or intentional, I don’t like it, and if you touch me again, I’m going to break your arm.”
She didn’t know if she could, in fact, break his arm, although Doug had taught arm bars in his self-defense class and she figured if she twisted hard enough, it just might break. But it sounded good and it felt even better. Resolved. Like she was holding a loaded gun. Maybe if she showed that kind of attitude to Shelly-Ann she wouldn’t be hiding under trees wearing a wig to see her own kids. And she wouldn’t be forking out all her extra cash so Shelly-Ann could drive a Cadillac while she had to take her girls around on the bus.
The front door slammed open and the little bell in the doorframe tinkled. She looked up and smiled when Doug walked into the restaurant, still riding the high from making Stan back down.
“I’ll take table six.” She gestured Doug to an empty booth in the corner and joined him a few moments later.
“Hey, Doug. You’re looking good.” He always looked better in civilian clothes than in uniform, and today he was clean-shaven and all decked out in a blue-and-white-striped shirt with crisp blue jeans—the kind of jeans Cade would never wear. Her mouth watered at the thought of Cade’s worn, low-rise jeans, tight in all the right places, and she almost missed Doug’s next words.