Chapters (184)
- Cover
- Title page
- Dedication page
- Epigraph page
- PROLOGUE
- BOOK ONE
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
- 59
- 60
- 61
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- 67
- BOOK TWO
- 68
- 69
- 70
- 71
- 72
- 73
- 74
- 75
- 76
- 77
- 78
- 79
- 80
- 81
- 82
- 83
- 84
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- 90
- 91
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- 97
- 98
- 99
- 100
- 101
- 102
- 103
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- 109
- 110
- 111
- 112
- 113
- 114
- 115
- 116
- 117
- 118
- 119
- 120
- 121
- 122
- 123
- BOOK THREE
- 124
- 125
- 126
- 127
- 128
- 129
- 130
- 131
- 132
- 133
- 134
- 135
- 136
- 137
- 138
- 139
- 140
- 141
- 142
- 143
- 144
- 145
- 146
- 147
- 148
- 149
- 150
- 151
- 152
- 153
- 154
- 155
- 156
- 157
- 158
- 159
- 160
- 161
- 162
- 163
- 164
- 165
- 166
- EPILOGUE
- AUTHOR’S NOTE
- NAMELESS
- RUTHLESS
- LAWLESS
- DANGEROUS
- STAY DEAD
- About the Author
- By Jessie Keane
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
‘Jesus.’
How could this be happening? They’d always been together, a pair. Big rough Josh and gentle Claire. And now, he’d lost her. Wanting to show himself off, be the big man, he’d lost it all. She wasn’t going to run away with him, she wasn’t going to be his Claire any more.
‘Claire . . .’ he started. ‘Wait. All right. Say I agree to the big wedding, just as you want it. What if—’
‘No! Fuck off, Josh,’ she said, her voice harsh with barely stifled emotion. ‘Just go, will you? Do the decent thing and piss off.’
10
10
Crying her eyes out, Claire paced around the trailer’s hot interior for several minutes after Josh was gone. She’d lost the man she loved, but she couldn’t have gone through with it. She knew it. She was too soft. She couldn’t bear to see him hurt. And yet . . .
If she went after him right now, she could still make things right. But . . . shit, the wedding. She hadn’t realized the depth of his hatred for all things marriage-related, she hadn’t known that he detested the whole huge-wedding business. Why hadn’t he just told her that, for God’s sake?
Because he was thinking of me. Me and my girly big-wedding dreams.
If she did go after him now, he would think it was OK to just elope. And it wasn’t, not in her eyes. Mum would be devastated if it was all called off. And truthfully? So would she. If she was going to marry at all, then she wanted her big day. And Josh didn’t, so it was all impossible, and it was best that it ended now.
But her heart was breaking.
Unable to settle, wondering how the hell she was going to tell her parents and Trace, she went to the door of the trailer and out, down the steps into the semi-darkness of the campsite. Blue whined and she undid the string tying him. He jumped to his feet, eager for a walk.
She set off up the track toward the lane, knowing her way even in the pitch-blackness of the night that folded around her out here in the country. Soon her eyes gained their night vision and she trod more confidently, Blue tugging at her arm. She was relieved to at least be moving, to be out in the open while her mind wrestled with all her troubles.
God, she had so many.
She’d lost Josh.
That was the worst of all.