Page 97 of Royal Pain

I closed my eyes briefly. “That was eons ago.”

“No, it wasn’t. You promised we’d take the same walk when Damien came home. Home. Don’t forget the word, my love. Don’t let that bastard take it away from you.”

She pushed her way through the group of men and I had to drop the weapon. The child had been traumatized enough.

As I pulled away, the SWAT team was on Joseph instantly. I’ll be damned if the man wasn’t still cackling. He had lost his fucking mind.

Maybe that was the only way of coping with the cult.

But she was right.

I wasn’t one of them.

And she’d just told me she loved me.

It was funny how life could change on a dime.

As I headed for her, the relief in her eyes was palpable. In the next few seconds, we heard more oohs and aahs than I’d heard ever before as I kissed her passionately, the little boy giggling in the process.

“Get a room!”

CHAPTER 25

Four weeks later

Evangeline

Information was powerful, more than an army holding weapons or money even. If you were in control of the correct details, damning information, you could rule the world.

My father wasn’t a stupid man. He’d collected crucifying evidence against every male member that went back years. The FBI was thrilled. The volume of what he had outweighed my limited data tenfold. Somehow, they’d threatened him and his family to a point he’d simply recoiled back into being a good cult member. For that, he’d lost his family.

Four weeks had seemed like a lifetime given all we’d been through in such a short period of time. It was funny how life could be, fate stepping in when you least expected it.

We were back in San Diego, in the stunning house I adored. Gage had wanted to sell it after what had happened here, butthere was no sign of trauma and in truth, I refused to allow the cult to control my life any longer.

I was getting near the end of Damien’s favorite story for the second time and finally, his little eyes were closed. He had a new dream room, one even bigger than the one I’d been able to provide. He was constantly showered with toys and books, Jeff, Ron, and a couple of others now his new family. Plus Gage’s two brothers and their girls.

Right now, he was the only child, although there was another on the way. They doted on him while Gage had doted on me.

I continued reading because somehow, Damien knew if I didn’t get to the end. The kid had radar ears and it was so amusing.

As I lowered my voice, the sight of the man, my man standing in the doorway brought a smile to my face. He was leaning against the door, his hands in his jeans pockets and his ankles crossed. He’d become determined to make good on his promise from weeks before, becoming more of a homebody in a way.

While he continued to do business mostly from the house, it was booming more than before given the news couldn’t resist saying the Royal brothers had a hand in bringing down a pretty notorious syndicate of an entirely different kind.

I closed the book, taking my time easing off the bed. As I tucked the covers around Damien’s neck, he turned slightly, cuddling his favorite giraffe. We’d managed to save a few things, which I was grateful for. That included a few of his favorite tee shirts and some of my clothes and photographs that hadn’t been destroyed.

But it wasn’t my home any longer. Not by a long shot. I wanted nothing to do with the state where I grew up. Nothing.

My father had been arrested along with about three hundred other people. Illegal weapons had been found, DNA from several missing people in about a dozen freezers. There was speculation a body or two was buried in the community forest, but I doubted it. They were much smarter than that.

With the additional information collected from various hard drives, we’d found pretty damning details on some powerful people; those highlighted should be more grateful than anyone that the cult had been destroyed.

What had been collected had taken the community elders years. Years. No wonder they’d gained control of so many people and organizations.

It was truly unfathomable.

I turned on Damien’s favorite lamp, the racecars already floating on the ceiling. Kissing his little forehead was one of the best things in my world right now.