Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 97724 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97724 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
“He’s right,” Mik interrupts, speaking for the first time. “Malishka, you can’t be stubborn and careless.”
“Careless?” Skyla stands and stomps across the room, shaking her head. “You think I’m fecking careless? I moved my whole life because that arsehole threatened you. Threatened all of you. I disappeared from everything I knew and loved to keep everyone safe, and he finally went away. It’s been almost a year without any contact of any kind, and it’s been the best year I’ve had in so long. Everything was finally starting to feel normal again. If you call living in what might as well be Fort Knox with a highly trained attack dog normal.”
“Back up,” Connor says. “Who threatened who?”
Skyla’s mossy eyes, so full of emotion, widen, and she clamps her lips closed.
Jesus, I want to hold her.
“What are you talking about, a stór?” Maeve asks.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, it does,” I reply before anyone else can. “It all matters, Irish.”
She sighs and looks so weary, but then she squares her shoulders and lifts that beautiful chin. “He made it clear that he’d get rid of everyone else in my life, so it was only him and me.”
“What the fuck?” Mik asks. “You did not tell me? Malishka, between your family and mine, we just take care of him.”
“Right, because I want the Russian mafia in my business,” Skyla says with a huff.
“None of this matters,” Connor interrupts. “You’ll have protection, and that’s how it’s going to be.”
Skyla shakes her head, and I cross to her now, taking her face in my hands.
“Baby.” My voice is firm, but I’m not yelling or raising my tone. “I want you to hear me loud and clear right now. Everyone here loves you. We want you to be safe.” Her eyes well as she stares up at me, and her chin wobbles.
“It’s an invasion of my privacy, and I won’t give him that,” she says, her voice rough with emotion.
“I understand. So there’s only one solution to this.”
“What?” A tear falls from the corner of her eye, and I catch it with my thumb.
“You’ll be moving in with me.”
Her brows pull together. “In one of the rentals?”
“Fuck, no.” God, she’s adorable. I can’t help the bark of laughter that slips out. “No, Irish, you’ll be living with me. On my farm. The chickens are now your responsibility.”
She catches that pillow of a lower lip in her teeth and, for the first time since everyone got here, her shoulders drop, and she lets out the breath she’s been holding all evening.
“I love those chickens.”
“I know.”
“But not as much as I love you.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“What in the bloody hell is happening?” Connor asks the room at large. “You’ve known each other for two minutes.”
“More like three and a half,” I reply without looking away from my girl. “She’ll be safe with me. I have security on my property, and no one can link her there.”
I wrap my arm around Skyla, tuck her against my side, and turn so I can look at the others in this room, not wavering in my gaze.
If they have a problem with me, they need to speak up now.
“I don’t love it,” Patrick admits. “You’ll need to close down your studio.”
“It’ll be a cold, bloody day in hell before I do that,” Skyla retorts, and I tighten my hold on her. “I have students. I can’t do that.”
“Miller will escort you to and from work then,” Connor offers, but Skyla’s already shaking her head.
“No need,” Mik interrupts. “I’ll be with her at the studio.”
“What?” My girl shakes her head. “You have a life in New York City.”
“We have to rehearse,” Mik says with a shrug. “I might as well come to Montana a couple of weeks early. We will get a head start.”
“What about Benji? Are you telling me your husband won’t have an issue with you living across the country?”
“He’ll come with me for a chunk of the time. This is the best offer you’re going to get, malishka. Take it or leave it.”
“I’d take it,” I murmur before kissing her temple.
“I’m not pleased that those I love are being inconvenienced,” she admits with a huff. So adorable. “But I love you all so much, and it’s grateful I am that I have you. I’ll live at the farm, and Mik can join me at the studio. We might very well kill each other in the first week.”
“You love being with me all day, every day,” Mik says with a satisfied grin. “You can’t wait.”
Maeve, who’s been listening and fighting her own tears, crosses the room and takes her daughter into her arms.
“My darlin’ babe.”
I pull away and gesture for Connor to follow me out of the room. When the door’s closed, I turn to him and finally let my anger show.
“I want some fucking answers.”