Free Yours to Keep part 3: Billionaire CEO Romance (Captured and Claimed) by Cathryn Fox

thirteen-year-old child who believed her because she was an adult. And adults are supposed to do what’s best, right?” She nodded and he continued, “But she let you down, Rebecca. She didn’t protect you the way she was supposed to.”
    She blinked at him. “I told on her once when some ladies came to check on me, but they didn’t believe me. The punishment was worse after that.” She sniffed back the tears that were falling harder now. “I was scared of her. Too scared to ever tell again, because I didn’t know what she’d do to me.”
    “I know, and I can promise you this. I will never let anything happen to you again.”
    “I want to go now.”
    He nodded and led her back up the stairs. When they reached the top, the front door opened and in walked Dorothy. Her eyes went wide and she dropped the small grocery bag. “What are you doing in my home?” she asked, her voice frantic, brittle. Arthritic, gnarled hands lifted the cane and pointed it at them. “Get out right now or you’ll be sorry.”
    Rebecca straightened. “You don’t scare me anymore.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Rebecca?”
    “Yeah, it’s me.”
    She stumbled backward. “I…I…”
    “You what?”
    “I did it for your own good.”
    A strangled sound rose from Rebecca’s throat. “What’s done is done, but the only one you have to make it right with now is your maker. Now step out of the way, we’re leaving.”
    Dorothy hobbled to the living room and the second Rebecca stepped outside, she took a big breath and let it out slowly, releasing all the pain and fear she’d had bottled up inside her for so long. Her legs weakened and she gripped the rail.
    Quinn held her. “I got you.”
    She took in the fierceness in his eyes, along with his vow to protect her, but he’d betrayed her trust by taking her here and now things would never be the same between them.
    “I want to go home.”
    Quinn guided her to his vehicle, and after seeing her into the passenger seat, he slid in beside her and turned the engine over. Twenty minutes later, she was climbing out onto the sidewalk outside her condo. Quinn slipped the stick into park and joined her.
    His hand closed over hers and he dropped a kiss onto her forehead. Everything in the way he touched her, looked at her, shattered her last vestige of control. After everything she’d been though with Quinn, Felix and seeing that old house again, she’d never be that same Rebecca again.
    “I want to be alone,” she said.
    “I’m not leaving you, Rebecca. I’m never leaving you.”
    She touched his face, needing time to sort through everything she’d been through. “Please, Quinn. I just need time to myself. There are things I need to sort through.”
    He squeezed his eye shut. “Can I at least come in? I’ll stay in another room and give you space.”
    “No.” He was about to protest again, but she stopped him. “I need to be away from you.”
    Jesus. “How far away?”
    “Quinn—”
    “Just tell me what you need, Rebecca. I’ll do whatever you want. If you want me to move to L.A. with my brother because being here is too near, then I’ll do it, but I need to know you’re okay.”
    “What I need is to be alone,” she said and walked away.
    He shook his head, and even though it went against his protective nature, he turned from her. “I’m only a call away. I’ll be here in seconds if you need me.”
    She nodded, needing quiet time, because she’d never dealt with these kinds of emotions before. “I know.”
    He stayed in his car until she was safely inside her condo, then she heard him roar away. Rebecca stripped off her clothes and made her way to the shower. She stayed under the hot spray for longer than normal, washing off the past—the stagnant smells of the old house, the dampness of the basement on her skin, the fear that paralyzed her. She squeezed her eyes shut, her mind sorting through everything that had happened since meeting Quinn.
    Her heart raced when she