Free Remember Me (Defiant MC) by Cora Brent

Thought you said you didn’t want to fight.” 
    “I don’t, Mad.  I shouldn’t have said that.  Look, I got to get down to the station for a while.  Casey wants to meet you so we’ll be by this evening.  You’re planning on staying here at the house, right?” 
    “Casey,” Maddox frowned.  “Who the hell is Casey?” 
    Jensen was annoyed.  “My wife, Maddox.”
    “Oh,” Maddox nodded.  “Right.”  All these new names attached to people he didn’t know.  Casey.  Miguel.
    Jensen removed his keys from his pocket.  He opened the flimsy blinds in the living room and peered out the window.  “Gaby’ll be back soon.  She’d never say so, but she’s scared as hell to see you.  So don’t be a dick to her, all right?”
    Maddox raised his eyebrows in mock innocence.  “I’m never a dick.” 
    Jensen laughed but it wasn’t a laugh of humor.  “Look,” he said frankly, “I won’t say thanks for coming because I know you’re here in spite of me, but I’m damn glad you’re here anyway.” 
    “Okay,” said Maddox rather flatly.  It was the best response he had to give at the moment.  Jensen waited for a moment to see if Mad would say anything else, then he exited with a sigh. 
    Maddox settled on the musty couch which had witnessed more years than he had.   He didn’t know what the hell he was going to do when Gabriela de Campo walked through the door.  He didn’t have to wait long.   

CHAPTER SIX
    Contention City, Arizona Territory
    1888
     
    Annika Larson was determined.  She had to push him out of her mind and that was all.  She would go mad otherwise.  She knew that if he touched her again the moral pieces of her soul would be consumed in a hell of lust. 
    Mercer.
    No.  She had come all this way to serve a purpose.  She wouldn’t fail. 
    James Dolan soon proved invaluable, both as a friend and an ally.  Though he had no children, he was among the four members of the school board and he assured Annika he would see to the furnishing of the school.  He had correctly surmised that the parents of Contention City would be eager to enroll their children immediately.  By the afternoon of Annika’s first complete day in the Territory she had enrolled twenty six pupils.  About half of the new students came from the more prosperous families; shop owners and businessmen seeking to capitalize on the boom town.  The rest were the children of the mining camp.  They had a rougher look about them, as if they were accustomed to running wild and wouldn’t take kindly to the taming influence of school.  The parents were all sorts; from the haughty, well-heeled women who presided over the few fine homes in town to the worn camp wives who were accustomed to making do with what life tossed at them.  
    Mrs. Swilling was the wife of the chief foreman of the Scorpion Mining Company.  James had informed Annika that the Swillings had accrued a fortune in Colorado before moving on to Arizona.  Mrs. Swilling drove a proper wagon outfitted with a pair of lovely chestnut mares and most of her conversation involved complaining alternately of the heat and dust of the Territory.  Her only child was an impish red-haired girl named Harriet whose education had been sorely neglected as a result of her parents’ frequent moves. 
    Nonetheless, when Mrs. Swilling invited Annika to dine that very evening, she was glad.  It had been a long day.  Though she was enormously pleased by the turnout for the school, she rubbed her neck, acknowledging that she was weary and keen for a decent meal.  
    The day had brought no trace of Mercer Dolan and Annika began to wonder if their improper encounter was a case of travel delirium on her part.  But as she dressed for an evening at the Swillings’, she blushed as her mind kept returning to the feel of his mouth on her breasts.  No fantasy could have produced that heady ache of want.  Though the temperature was quite warm, Annika shivered as her