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“Hi, yourself” She s hair off his brow, her fingers gentle and cool against his warmer skin “I just had to see for myself that you’re okay”
“It’s going to take ular bullet to takeher to worry about hiood as new”
“MadduxI want to thank you for risking your life for mine,” she said as tears shimmered in her blue eyes and her bottom lip trembled “And mostly, I’m so sorry that my father and Gavin were responsible for your parents’ deaths They both ad rease fire in your parents’ diner that ended up killing them both Your hatred toward both of theine the pain you and your brother and sister have gone through over the years, while my father and Gavin have continued to just live their lives as though nothing ever happened”
He groaned, hating the agony in her voice And when she blinked and a few tears rolled down her cheeks, he lifted his good arm and tenderly wiped theize for What happened wasn’t your fault You had no idea who your father worked for or what he did for a living”
“How could I have been so blindto everything?” Her fingers skimmed down to his jaw, then lower, into the collar of his shirt, where she caressed the disfigured skin along his neck that he’d refused to talk about with her days ago “These scarswere they caused by the fire that night? Gavin said you were there”
He wasn’t sure what she’d been told by Gavin, but Maddux finally wanted to share that part of his past with her Not because he wanted her to feel bad about what had happened but because, for the first time in his adult life, he knew he’d met a woman who truly cared And she deserved to know the whole truth
“Yes,” he said, and forced hied everything for hi money from the small businesses in the area, andyour father and Gavin everyto support a family and pay their normal bills, and when my father finally put his foot down and told them he didn’t have the money, they decided to make an example of my parents, so all the other businesses wouldn’t revolt, too”
Arabella’s fingers fell away fro that physical connection with her while he shared theti paperwork, Gavin found a way into the diner and started the fire that blocked the way out of the office and the eency exit, as well My father and I were on our way back to the restaurant to pick up , and my dad didn’t hesitate to run in to rescue my mom”
He sed hard as those awful, helpless emotions he’d kept buried for fourteen years threatened to break free “The fire was so bad and spread so quickly, and I reacted on pure instinct when I pulled my father back out, then rushed infor help”
He shuddered at the horrific rief-stricken gaze “But honestly, there was absolutely no way I could safely get to her My shirt sleeve caught on fire just as a fireuy rippedflames pretty quickly, or the burn would have beenlifelessly on the ground, being worked on by paramedics He’d suffered a cardiac arrest, and nothey tried to revive his heart, they just couldn’t I lost both of ht”
A soft sob escaped from her lips, and the tears she shed on his behalf nearly shattered his heart She leaned over and very gently hugged hi all pressure off of his bad shoulder where the wound was Her fingers slid through his hair, and she buried her face against his neck “Maddux, I’e that day for you”
Tears stung his own eyes, and he gently sing the past, Bella All I knew in that e the future,” he said, needing to finish the story
She straightened, her soainst my dad and Gavin”
He nodded “Yes My father toldprior to the blaze at the diner, and I knew it had to have been them who set the fire So I found your father and confronted hi the fire back then, your father told s happened when the protection fee wasn’t paid, and that the other businesses needed to understand that there were consequences I later found out that Theodore paid an official to cover up the fact that the fire was arson”
She shook her head, her expression pained “God, that’s not the father I knew But knowing the true story, I can understand why you wanted to ruin him He stole socan ever change that”