Delivering His Gifts (Mountain Men of Liberty #10)- K.C. Crowne Page 0,39

the fuck is he going now? You know what, I don’t care anymore,” Eli called out after me. “Keep running away from your family if that’s what you want to do.”

I got in my truck and started the engine. I backed out of the driveway and hit the road with no real destination in mind. I just knew that I didn’t want to go home and deal with Eli’s questions. I wasn’t ready to tell them about Danielle and the baby because I was still processing what it meant for us. I knew they’d have questions I didn’t have the answers to just yet.

I drove mindlessly, or so I thought, until I saw the sign for Danielle’s rescue.

Dammit.

She’d said she wanted her space, and I needed to respect that. I couldn’t keep showing up and expecting answers she also didn’t have. It was unfair to her.

I parked on the other side of the road. From where I was sitting, I could see the front of her house in the distance. I had only intended to park for a second before turning around and going God knows where. But a car pulled into the driveway and drove all the way to the front of her house. I sat up in my seat to get a better look. It wasn’t her ex’s vehicle. It could be another customer, but as far as I knew, she wasn’t really open for business. And it was getting late into the evening.

Not that it was any of my business… I should have driven off and left her to her affairs. But something stopped me from leaving.

A man got out of the car, and I knew him from his advertisements around town. My stomach churned.

Jim King. Loan shark.

Sure, he advertised himself as a lender for those with bad credit, but the interest rates written in the small prints should have been illegal. It was like selling your soul to the devil.

I didn’t like what this meant for Danielle. After all, loan sharks didn’t just pop in for friendly visits.

Danielle

“Mr. King? What are you doing here at this time of night?” I asked, my voice low so as to not wake up Skyler. Seeing him at this time of night made me wish the dogs were inside, but they’d all gone out one last time before bed.

The burly man pushed his way into my house, or else I wouldn’t have let him in the door. “I’m here to tell you that you missed your first payment due date, Ms. Baker,” the man said dryly.

“What? No, the first payment is the first of the month,” I stated. “There must be some mistake.”

“No, there’s no mistake. Here, let me show you,” he said. He pulled out the contract I had signed.

My eyes skimmed it and I found where it said that a payment equaling one third of the loan amount would be due on the first of the month and pointed at it. “See? Right here.”

Jim shot me a grin that sent a shiver down my spine, as if he knew something I didn’t. He flipped to the very last page.

“Here, Ms. Baker,” he said, handing it to me.

I took the contract in my hands and frowned. The print was so tiny and contained a lot of legalese that I likely skipped over. I was about to question him on where it said anything about a payment being due within a day of the loan, when I saw it.

A good faith deposit of 1% of the loan value will be paid within 24 hours of the contract to lock in the interest rate of 15%. If this payment is not met, the lender reserves the right to raise the interest rate to 30%

“A deposit? You never mentioned needing to put money down for the loan,” I stammered, dropping the contract on the coffee table. “Hell, I’m pretty sure this isn’t even legal. I’d have to look at usury laws, but—”

“Ms. Baker,” Jim’s voice was deep and loud, so much so it made it feel like the walls were ready to crumble around me. “I gave you this loan because no one else in Liberty would touch you. You have no credit history, no money, nothing. I did you a favor, and this is how you’re going to repay me?”

The voice. The look on his face. The words he chose. It sent me spiraling back in time. I froze, with my mouth open, no sound coming out. Just like I had