Protecting What's Mine(107)

“Mackenzie.” He hurt for her. She could hear it in his voice. The man who’d grown up knowing nothing but the good of family and love.

“Anyway, when she got out, she was technically an adult and never came home to live again. As soon as I had my high school diploma, I was gone. I worked my way through college—pre-med, inspired by the nice doctor who fixed my ankle—and then med school. I stayed in Texas when I really wanted distance. But all Andrea had then was me. And I felt responsible for her. I still did until recently.”

“You sent her money?” Linc asked.

Mack nodded, embarrassed now. “I did. Every month like clockwork. It’s over now. I don’t owe her anything anymore.”

“Baby, you never did. You didn’t ask to be born. You didn’t ask her to be your mother.”

He tried to pull her down again.

“Oh, there’s more,” she sighed.

“I don’t want to rush you, but there’s only so much of you sitting there looking so sad that I can take, Dreamy. I need to hold you.”

She took a breath, let it out. “Okay, here goes. I was doing my residency in an emergency department in Dallas. Wendy and our mom had made up again. They were living together in this shitty little apartment where Andrea drank bottles of cheap gin and Wendy did God knows what drugs. Wendy had a boyfriend.”

Mack pulled out of Linc’s grasp and leaned over the side of the bed. She found the sketchpad in the nightstand and flipped to the last drawing.

“That’s him. Powell Coleman III. He had a Mustang and a trust fund. He also had a pretty serious drug problem. My sister, of course, found the whole package very attractive. I never met him. Not until the night he was wheeled into the ED on my shift.”

Linc stared hard at the portrait.

“He looks like a dickhead,” he said finally.

“Well, the dickhead took his Mustang with my sister in the passenger seat and drove into a concrete barrier at a high rate of speed. He’d also taken what turned out to be a lethal dose of heroin. I did everything I could, but I couldn’t save him.”

“Some people you can’t save, Dreamy,” he said, reaching up to tuck her damp hair behind her ear. “And you know that.”

“I know that now. And I think I knew it then. But I had to go out to the waiting room and tell her. Tell my sister that Powell Coleman III was never going to take her for a ride again. She attacked me. She was screaming and crying. Shouting that I’d murdered him. I killed her boyfriend, and she was going to kill me.”

“Mackenzie?”

“Yeah?”

“I fucking hate your sister.”

Mack was surprised when she felt the laugh bubble up. She let it fill up all the empty space inside her, let it carry her over into Linc’s warm, solid side. There was something so reassuring to her about the fact that his cock beneath the white terrycloth was still hard. He still wanted her.

“I’m not a fan either. She sued me.”

He stiffened against her. “You’re shitting me.”

She smiled, her mouth curving against his chest. “Nope. Found a shady lawyer. Named me personally and the hospital in a lawsuit.”

“She lost,” he said confidently.

“She did,” she said. “But I still paid her. I gave her everything I had in savings. I’d been hoping to do a stint with a nonprofit that trained trauma doctors in third world countries. The pay was abysmal, but I figured I could get by on savings for a year.”

“And she took that from you.”

“Ah, but I found the National Guard. Which brought me to Aldo. Which brought me to you.”

He kissed the top of her head.

“I love you, Dr. Mackenzie O’Neil.”

“Still?”

“Always. Now tell me what the fuck happened when you went to visit your asshole mother for the very last time ever.”

She filled him in on the details, soothed him with gentle strokes across his chest when he vibrated with the need to fight for her.

“You’re sure you broke her nose?” he asked.

“Positive. It crunched. Very satisfying.”

“Good girl.”

“Thanks for listening, Linc,” she whispered.

“Thanks for sharing.”

They were both silent for a long minute.

“So here’s what we’re going to do,” he began.

She laughed. “What’s the plan, boss?”

He levered up on an elbow to gaze down at her. “You’ve paid enough. The price was never yours in the first place.”

“You can’t ever meet them,” she said earnestly. “I know how that sounds. But I can’t stand the idea of tainting you by association.”

“Tainting me?” he scoffed.

“I don’t want you to ever associate me with them. I look like my mom.” It pained her to admit it.

“Dreamy, there is nothing of them in you. You prove that every fucking day. Now, back to what’s going to happen. They don’t ever get to see you or talk to you or communicate with you in any way. Ever,” he said quietly. “You won’t send either of them a dime ever again. If they leave you alone, I’ll leave them alone.”

Mack was suspicious. “You’re literally vibrating with rage right now, and you’re willing to promise me that you won’t do anything?”