Ride Hard (Raven Riders #1)(20)

She hugged herself. “My father was very controlling. He looked at me as his property, property that only he could decide what to do with. When that didn’t end when I turned eighteen, I worried it might never end. The more time that passed, that seemed more and more likely.”

“Wait, just how old are you?” he asked.

“I turn twenty-three in July,” she said, finally looking him in the eye.

Multiple reactions warred inside Dare, and most of them turned his blood hot with anger. “Are you saying he held you prisoner in your own home?”

“Pretty much, yeah,” she said in a soft voice. “I mean, I could leave the house sometimes, but never alone. I had a guard at all times.”

The ramifications of her admission stunned him. That likely meant Haven had very little experience out in the world, and the first time she’d gone out on her own she’d ended up in the hands of the Church Gang. Which shined a whole new light on her trust issues, didn’t it?

“For what purpose?” he asked, still trying to get a handle on the father’s motivation.

Haven rose and paced to the railing a few feet away. Notebook still in hand, she leaned against the railing and stared out at the view. Dare followed the direction of her gaze, finding the same solace in the dark green of the Blue Ridge that he always did. He rose and leaned his hip against the railing a few feet away from her, dread snaking through him the longer she didn’t talk.

“At first I really didn’t know,” she finally said, her gaze still distant. “Part of it was just because he wanted to control me, which was a big reason why he pulled me out of school. Once I was eighteen, I thought maybe he just needed someone to cook and clean for him, which had been my job for years. But I think it was also because my mother had run away from him when I was a baby, and he wanted to make sure I didn’t, too.”

Dare didn’t know what to react to first. “He pulled you out of school?” Her father was a real piece of work.

“Yeah. Awesome, huh?” She peered up at him.

“Not even a little, Haven. Why the hell did he think he needed to yank you from school?” Dare asked. This part of her history struck a real nerve with him, since being on the run from his father for his latter teen years meant he hadn’t had a typical education either. It wasn’t until he got settled with his grandfather at the age of seventeen that he buckled down to get his GED, even though by then he al ready had a f*cking PhD in life experience. And, damnit, he suspected Haven did, too.

She dropped her gaze as her cheeks went pink. “I don’t know.”

Her reactions said that wasn’t true, but Dare had a lot more he needed to get from her that was likely more pertinent to her recent circumstances. He shook his head and forced his fisted hand to relax on the railing. “Okay, skip that for now. Why did Cora run with you? What kind of trouble was she in?”

“She wasn’t in trouble,” Haven said. “I mean, her dad sometimes worked for mine, so he wasn’t all on the up and up, but he just did things on the side. She came because she knew I wouldn’t be able to do this on my own.”

Dare nodded and thanked God that they weren’t dealing with two times the threats, at least. And he found himself feeling grateful to Cora, too—he respected the kind of loyalty and friendship the other woman had demonstrated. Without Cora, Dare never might’ve met Haven. Although, why that should matter . . . Dare shook the thought away. “Okay. So if things had been like that for all these years, why did you and Cora decide to run now?” Because no way was it as simple as she’d just woken up one morning and decided she’d had enough.

Her throat bobbed once, twice, as if she was trying to force the words up and out. “He was going to make me marry someone,” she finally said. “Told me he’d been saving me for just the right deal to take his empire to the next level.”

Make her marry . . . ? Aw, what the actual f*ck. “So, what, it was to cement some business alliance with another crook?” Dare asked, his hackles all the way up.

She cut her gaze to his. “Yep.”

“Jesus Christ,” Dare bit out, raking a hand through his hair. As bad as that all sounded, Dare knew she was painting the picture of her life using the broadest strokes. The details of her day-to-day would probably make him want to smash things with his bare hands. And given how the father viewed her and his desire to use her that way, he was probably pretty damn motivated to get her back and save face with the would-be groom, whoever the hell that was. “What was the other guy’s name? The one you were supposed to marry?”

“Ray Landry,” she said, her voice thin, her tone sad. “God, I sound even more pathetic when I say all that out loud.”

On instinct, Dare stepped right into her space. He saw a lot of things when he looked at this woman, and none of them were pathetic. “Don’t say that, Haven. You hear me? From what I can tell, you survived, you escaped, and you persevered in a bad situation. That must’ve taken an incredible amount of fortitude and courage, so don’t discount yourself like that. I won’t stand for it,” he said.

Eyes wide, chest rising and falling fast, mouth open in surprise, Haven peered up at him like she was afraid to move. “Okay,” she whispered, her gaze flickering over his face, lingering on his lips.

That little show of interest speared white-hot lust through Dare’s body. He was hard in an instant, his mouth suddenly ravenous for a taste of her. Which meant it was time to get the f*ck out of there before he did something they’d both regret. He reared back, nodding. “That’s good for now. I’ll let you know if I have any more questions,” he said, and then he took off without waiting for her to respond.