Read His Captivating Confidante (Secret Sentinels) for Free Online Page B

needed to counter Stephanie’s assertion that she hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary the night of the ambush; he wanted to tell her how much her heroic actions had meant to him. But how could he even begin to give voice to the depth of that gratitude?
    No matter how pathetic his attempt at putting his indebtedness into words might be, he decided to try. “When we were ambushed and I caught that bullet, I would have bled to death if you hadn’t reacted so quickly,” he told her solemnly. “I owe you my life.”
    “You owe me nothing,” she refuted passionately. “I’m the one who’s indebted to you, for what you did to help my father. You stepped in and saved him when he was in over his head, beholden to the mob. If it hadn’t been for you I would have been collateral damage.”
    He covered her hand with his, entwining his fingers with hers in compassion for the ugliness she was undoubtedly remembering. She’d only been sixteen when her widowed father’s gambling addiction had spiraled out of control and she’d been unwittingly caught up in the consequences of her father’s actions.
    He hadn’t known how bad her circumstances were until he’d come across a disturbing scene leaving school one afternoon. One of his classmates—a spoiled brat whose obnoxious sense of entitlement grated on him like fingernails scratching down a chalkboard—had Stephanie pinned in a remote corner of the high school’s parking garage.
    He’d approached the pair, unnoticed, his vision blurring in fury as he heard the slimy punk trying to coerce Stephanie into having sex with him in exchange for forgiveness for the debt her father owed his.
    Without hesitation, he’d charged in and knocked the leering grin off the creep’s face. He would have pummeled him into the ground if Stephanie hadn’t interceded.
    She’d been terrified the attack on the son of her father’s loan shark would only make matters worse for her dad, so in deference to her he’d tamped down his fury and reigned in his fists. After writing her tormentor a check to cover Aaron Knight’s debt, he’d sent him off with a warning never to bother her again.
    It was the only time he’d ever gotten satisfaction from being the son of a billionaire. He wasn’t interested in his family’s fortune, but the fact that it had afforded him the opportunity to help secure a fresh start for Stephanie and her father was priceless.
    “Your dad was in a bad place, but he was a good man at heart, Steph. I was happy to help.”
    He’d been young, just three years older than Stephanie, but he’d been mature enough to recognize that her father’s addiction had been born out of desperation. Aaron Knight had gotten in over his head financially trying to give her mother the luxurious lifestyle she craved.
    When tragedy had struck and Aaron had lost his beloved wife in a tragic train accident, he’d spiraled into a deep depression. Widowed and up to his eyeballs in debt, he was unable to work to pay for the bills he’d amassed.
    Aaron Knight’s only sin was caring about his wife and daughter. That was something Frank’s own father could never be accused of.
    After the incident in the parking garage, he’d taken Stephanie home to her father and confronted the man, telling him in no uncertain terms what he thought of him for having placed his daughter in such a tenuous predicament. Then he’d offered to pay off all the man’s remaining financial obligations in exchange for just one thing: that he never gamble again.
    “What you did for my father . . . it was all for nothing, Frank. He didn’t keep the promise he made you. After you left for college, he did okay for a while. But then he started coming home at odd hours, and he’d skirt my questions whenever I’d ask him where he’d been. I knew something was wrong, but I never dreamed he’d reverted to his former ways. And to rob a gas station to bankroll his gambling habit? That’s not the father I