Free Mary Wine by Dream Surrender

blue eyes toward loren. her son sent her a wink as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and turned back toward his work. toby jumped back into the helicopter and picked up his laptop computer again.
    “toby, you’re my son and you’ll do what i say!” chris didn’t know he was fighting a lost battle. when toby decided something wasn’t worth his time, her son was oblivious. toby promptly began punching lines of code into his keyboard.
    “no court will give you custody of me. you tried to kill me before i was born.” toby raised his face and glared at his father. “my mom almost died trying to keep me alive. that’s all i need to know.” 44

    “that’s bullshit! she’s a liar.”
    toby pegged his father with a clear face. “the interesting thing is that mom never said a word to me about you. so, i decided to look around and find out. the sheriff’s department has a big file on you. i saw what you did to her with your fists.”
    loren felt the blood drain from her face. every pair of eyes turned toward her but she didn’t care. her son looked at her and simply grinned. her hand rose to cover her mouth as the simple truth hit her.
    toby had hacked into the pentagon, hacked into nasa and he’d hacked into the sheriff’s department files too. when she’d refused to have an abortion, chris had resorted to drinking first and then he’d tried to beat her badly enough that she’d miscarry his unwanted daughter.
    45

chapter six

“why didn’t you tell me?”
    loren felt her muscles tense. rourke was using the same low tone he’d used with
    chris. moving her eyes around, she studied rourke’s face.
    but he couldn’t hide the anger in his eyes. loren rolled her shoulders and tried to relax. her lips felt parched and she ran her tongue over them. rourke’s eyes immediately focused on the telltale sign of her nerves.
    “there was no reason.”
    “wrong.” rourke crossed the kitchen and pulled loren out of her chair. he handled her with extreme care but firmly pulled her body toward his. he had a deep need to touch her right then. feel her skin and assure himself that she was well. pulling
    a deep breath into his lungs, he enjoyed her scent and the pulse it triggered in his body.
    loren just couldn’t deal with that attraction right now. her mind was full of too many memories. she needed space and rourke was just going to have to give it to her.
    “let me go, rourke.” loren placed a single hand onto his chest with her words. she didn’t like the fact that she wasn’t in control of the outcome of her request. if rourke decided he wasn’t releasing her, she wouldn’t be able to free herself.
    he gave her exactly two feet. but he propped himself at an angle against the kitchen counter that blocked her solidly against the wall.
    “did he try to kill you?”
    that was a question loren had rolled around inside her head for years. sure, it sounded simple enough but it certainly wasn’t.
    admitting chris had tried to kill her was also admitting that she’d made a horribly wrong choice in just who she took into her heart.
    that was a mistake that could haunt a woman’s soul forever. if you were so very wrong in choosing one man, how could you ever make the decision to take another man into your bed?
    loren fixed her eyes on rourke. if she admitted to being so wrong in her judgment
    on chris, then her current attraction to rourke would have to be questioned too, maybe even rejected.
    she cringed as she considered that idea. there was something about rourke that just felt so secure. every time she looked at the man she felt more of that pull. weakness and desire was eating away her self-discipline.
    but there was definitely one thing she would not do, even for rourke campbell.
    “forget it.”
    46

    loren was too quick. rourke felt his anger tense because she’d homed in on the true reason for his question. he just needed to hear the accusation from her mouth. if loren would point the finger, he could do