Page 70 of Winning His Wager

Will didn’t know what he was supposed to do.

Someone tapped on his window.

Will jumped. Then screamed like a fucking girl.

Bruce Tyler yanked his door open. Why hadn’t Will locked his damned door with this lunatic out there?

Tyler pulled him from the car. “Well, well, well. Aren’t you a good brother. Find it yet?”

“I searched. I searched all but Ned’s place and Michael’s. Michael’s wife was there and his baby. You really want me going in there when she’s there?”

“You go anywhere near my nephew’s woman or kid, and I’ll rip your liver out. No one is supposed to see you, dumbass.”

“I searched Fletcher’s again last night. While he was at the hospital with his girlfriend. Dylan. It’s not there.”

“You’d better find it, Willy boy. Or it’s your daddy or sister they will be finding buried in the snow.”

Then the asshole just blended into the darkness.

What kind of monster was he?

Will slipped half an OPJ into his mouth.

Usually he didn’t use when he was around Abby. But he had to do something, anything to take the edge off. And besides, he only had seven pills left.

When they were gone, he was going to be shit out of luck then. But he needed it. Before he completely lost control of everything.

49

Dylan felt a bit kidnapped here.Her father was to blame, of course. He had shown up the instant she had been cleared to be released from the hospital. And declared he was driving her home, not that redheaded pain-in-the-ass boyfriend of hers.

Fletcher had surprised her and let her father win. She suspected Fletcher was just exhausted. The poor man looked rung out. Probably because he had spent every spare minute he could at her side. Which irritated her father immensely.

Fletcher had completely won over her mother, though. Her mom was going on and on about how wonderful he was. Fletcher was gentle with her mom too. Kind.

It made Dylan love him just a little bit more.

Her father won the driving-Dylan-home battle. Her sisters had insisted she return to the inn—to a first floor room right near the entrance to the family wing, where they could take turns watching over her. They’d won the where-Dylan-was-going battle. For now.

Talk about hovering. She had at least one sister with her almost at all times in the entire three days she’d been in the hospital. She had put them to work—taking care of Fletcher.

The man needed keeping, after all.

But Fletcher was waiting to carry her inside. Something her father just couldn’t really do anymore.

Fletcher scooped her up gently. “I have you.”

“I am glad you do.” She hooked her arm around his neck. She loved it when he carried her around. She’d told him that once too.

When he’d scooped her off her feet and hauled her back to his bed early one morning before her shift at the diner. She’d been twenty minutes late—but the chewing out she’d gotten from Darcey had been worth it. So worth it. Telling Darcey bluntly that she’d been late because she’d been boinking her Tyler man had been so worth it too.

“When do I get to go home, though?” Dylan asked. The words just felt right.

The inn wasn’t home.

Fletcher was.

She’d had three days to really think about that. To figure out how she felt about everything.