now, and I'm gonna lay it out for you because you don't seem to be getting it. You're not the Lone Ranger anymore. At the hospital you said you didn't have anybody else. Now you do. You got me, and I come with a whole family. So you're not alone, and I don't want to hear you saying you got nothing to lose because I'm thinking if I lost you I'd lose everything."
"Okay." Mace keeps blowing me away. I want it to be true so badly. I move closer again and snuggle under his arm. "I don't want to lose you either."
"But you're right about being a cop and having the skills. We shouldn't exclude you. I know from watching my mom it's hard to keep a woman hell-bent on getting involved out of the way."
I nod.
"So we'll do this together. I'll let you plan it because you're right. Diablo is high up on the chain in the drug cartel, and he didn't get there by getting suckered."
"From what I can see from his phone, he's well-connected and doing high-dollar deals with a lot of famous people."
He nods and pulls the truck onto the mountain road up to Twist Cabins. After a few minutes he says, "You don't have to worry about money anymore. I'm funding this from here on out."
Mace keeps hitting me deep in the gut with his proclamations. "That's nice of you, but I support my half-siblings. I need to keep working doing the bounty hunting for them."
"You can't keep working with the bounty over your head. I'm lucky I got to you before they did. Your siblings will have whatever they need. I'll see to it."
"I can't ask that of you."
"It's already done. Accept it."
I want to fight him, but I know I'll lose. Mace is determined today, and all I can do is go along with it. If he wants to help me, I have to let him. "This is like a dream."
"This is only the beginning."
***
Back at Pleasure Mountain, he parks his truck and comes around to help me out of the passenger seat. "Can we sneak back to your cabin without being seen?"
"Probably not. Knowing my family they're watching us right now." He bends down to plant a kiss on my lips. "Let's give 'em something to talk about." He grabs my waist and dips me back as he deepens the kiss.
My body instantly lights up for him, and I don't care who's watching. I kiss him back with the fervor of a thousand giants. He wraps an arm behind my back, lifts me up and over his shoulder, and all I can see is his boots as he carries me up the hill caveman-style. Mace's entire family—if they're watching, which I'm not sure if they are because I can't see because I'm upside down—is now getting a first-person view of my butt in leather pants. This is not the way I wanted to come back to Twist Cabins.
Inside his cabin, he flips me over and plants me on my feet, but I'm up again in a second with my back against the door and Mace's huge body caging me in.
He's kissing me and ramming up into my core as I lock my feet together behind his back.
A knock sounds from outside. "Mace? It's Sutton."
"Go away."
"Dad wants me to ask if you can teach the haka tomorrow morning." I'd forgotten Mace sometimes teaches classes at his family's self-defense studio.
"You coulda texted me."
"Is Loralei here?"
"No," he barks back through the door.
"Please, I saw her with you. I really need to talk to her."
He growls and looks to the ceiling as he lowers me to the floor. He's floppy like a stubborn teen as he opens the door. He steps back until I'm face-to-face with Sutton.
"Loralei. I'm sorry. It wasn't fair what I did. I let my emotions take over, and I wasn't thinking rationally. The past is history. I need to let it go. Can we start again? I'd like us to be friends."
Okay. This family is too much. Do they talk about everything? So, I guess if I'm going to be part of this, I need to reciprocate. "I'm sorry too, about everything. I'd really like us to be friends too."
She hugs me. "Awesome." She smiles and looks from me to Mace, who is towering behind me with one hand on the door.
"We done here?"
"Oh, yeah, sure. See you tomorrow!" Sutton spins on her heels and walks away. Mace closes the door and