right path. Think about it.”
I turn away and carry on eating and say nothing more. All the time I want to punch my fist through the table because how those words left my lips, god only knows. I’m not interested in anything about her, but my stupid mouth has other ideas. Do I want to help this woman, fuck no because in helping her, I’m sending myself straight back to hell?
7
Sophia
I’m struggling to breathe. Just being here is enough to break me, but sitting beside Maverick is a whole new experience. Fear is something I’ve lived with my whole life. From an early age I was guarded and told to trust no one because absolutely everybody was out to get me. I was born with a target on my back and it was only a matter of time before it got hit. Well, I was hit bad and for the past five years I have allowed myself to be controlled by my family—the one remaining member of it at least. When I was taken, I was told something that shows I should keep on running because I will never be safe. It’s why I want to hide away from the world in a place I know they can’t find me.
But now, sitting here doing something most normal people take for granted, is proving to me how different I really am. I feel as if I’m having an out-of-body experience and yet sitting beside Maverick calms me. He keeps the world away because for some reason I feel safe with him. He is unconventional and a world away from the usual men I have lived with all my life. Yet there is something so fearless about him that builds up my confidence like it never has before. He is cold, calculating and so incredibly hot, I can’t see straight when he’s around. What would it feel like to be with a man like him—with any man because the one experience I had sworn me off men for life? Yet when he looks at me with those wicked eyes, he strips me bare inside. He causes my blood to boil and my inhibitions to melt because I want to sample what it would feel like having a man like him show me what I’ve been missing.
So, I sit in silence trying hard to gather my frantic thoughts around me and then he says loudly, “Come, let’s get you all home before they send out the search party.”
Cassie and Jack look disappointed. “Please can we stay a little longer?” Jack frowns and Maverick says in his husky, deep voice, “You got a good reason to stay soldier?”
Jack looks him in the eye and sits up tall and straight. “My mom told me I had to learn my spellings before dinner, sir and I want her to forget about it.”
I stifle a grin as Maverick turns to Cassie. “And you?”
She does the same and says loudly, “My mommy told me I had to tidy my room and I want to watch Cinderella.”
They look at Maverick with faces full of hope and he growls, “A good soldier keeps a clean house and keeps up with his studies. Permission to stay denied.”
The kids look crushed and Maverick fixes them with a stern look. “If you’re good and do as you’re told, I will bring you both back here for ice-cream next week. Deal?”
Their screams cause a few heads to turn in our direction, making me shrink even further down in my seat.
Without warning, a hand shoots out and takes mine firmly and Maverick growls, “I’ve got you, darlin’, nothing can get through me to you.”
Resisting the urge to snatch my hand away, I find instead my hand clasping his so tightly it must hurt. Physical contact alone is a strange experience for me because none of the guards would dare touch me and my brother certainly never showed me any affection this way. It takes my breath away as I realize how nice it is.
As we walk to the front of the diner, I feel the stares of the people all around. They must think we’re a family and it shocks me to realize I wish we were. Do I want this—a family of my own one day? Family means something very different to me and yet, here, with Maverick beside me and the two most adorable kids in tow, I find I want this more than any of the riches I’ve enjoyed until now. This