Fierce.
Fierce with his love for me.
That was way more beautiful.
Totally.
I didn’t go there because I was relishing the look on his face, letting it settle down deep, memorizing every inch. Not to mention, I had his here back, and as annoying as that was, I’d missed that too.
Deacon got impatient and grabbed my hand, yanking it hard so his tug took my chair closer to his. Bossy gave a soft bark, and in order not to drop my cocoa, I set it aside and got out of the chair. The throw fell to the deck as I moved to him and he moved his boots from the railing. When he had them to the deck, I put a knee to the seat by his hip and swung the other leg over, settling my booty in his lap.
Both his hands slid up my back, pulling me to him as I put my hands to his shoulders.
“Was a bounty hunter,” he said when he got me close.
“Deacon, you don’t have to—”
“Didn’t find folks who jumped bond. Found bad guys and returned them to worse guys who could pay me in cash.”
I clamped my mouth shut.
“Got four million, five hundred seventy-five thousand dollars, in cash, hidden in safe places across the country.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Took three men’s lives,” he went on and my eyes got huge. “Hunt went bad, it got to a point that it was them or me, so I picked me.”
“I’d pick that too,” I said quietly.
It was like I didn’t speak as he kept talking and I knew he had to get this out.
“Didn’t like that shit happened but those men were not good men. It’s a lot of trust but you gotta believe me when I say the world is not a poorer place without them in it.”
“I trust you.”
He stared at me a moment before he muttered, “Jesus.”
“I do.”
His gaze was softer, as was his tone, when he replied, “I know.”
I bent closer to him, lifting a hand, and curling it around the side of his neck.
Deacon kept going.
“That world needs contained, Cassie. If it isn’t contained, women like Jeannie get sucked into it. It’s a war that has no end, a job that’ll never get done, a world that leaks every day, millions of times a day, into good people’s lives. But I did my bit to keep that world contained.”
“I get it, honey,” I said gently.
“Hunted once,” he went on, “that was not for money. My man Raid, he’s got a woman, good woman. He was livin’ his own nightmare, she guided him out. Some men hurt her and did it bad. He lost his mind. Had to contain him, had to contain the situation, had to help him send a message. She was off-limits. Worked with Knight, Creed, and Sylvie, that message was sent.”
I nodded.
I understood what he was saying.
“You need to know more.”
I didn’t want more.