Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 772(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
I wondered how he’d been convinced of it because I couldn’t begin to believe that about him.
“How can you think that?”
Black flames of misery burned in the depths of his eyes. “I was supposed to love her. Take care of her. And I failed her in the worst way.”
Grief squeezed my chest. My care for him was close to overwhelming.
Part of me wanted to beg him, “Who”.
The other part was sure I’d be crushed.
Thinking of him with someone else.
The way grief splintered through me, knowing this man had suffered so severely.
Stricken by gutting guilt over whatever secret he kept.
And I saw where the guilt lie right then.
It was guilt that his heart was tilting in my direction.
I was pretty sure mine was already there.
Begging him to meet with me.
My hand slipped to the side of his face. His trim beard scratched against my palm. “And I don’t believe you could ever let anyone down.”
His hand slid over the top of mine. “But you don’t know the things I’ve done.” Shame crawled through the coarse words.
“Maybe I want you to show me.”
Horror and disbelief rolled through him before his expression shifted in severity. “And that’s what I want from you, Piper. I want you to show me everything you’re hiding. Want you to let me hold it. Want you to understand the lengths I would go for you.”
“And I won’t put you in danger.” It was out before I could stop it.
Theo flinched, and every muscle in his body went rigid. “I need you to tell me what that means.”
My head shook at my stupidity. At the reckless words I had released.
I tried to retract it with a rushed, “It’s nothing.”
Theo’s hand tightened over mine. “It’s not nothing to me if it means something to you. I told you I’m strong enough to protect you. I know something is going on with you.”
A battle waged inside me. The terror I’d run from for so long against the promise in Theo’s unrelenting gaze.
“Tell me.” It was a soft demand.
One I shouldn’t heed but it was dropping off my tongue anyway. “I got involved with someone I shouldn’t have.”
Fury twitched through Theo’s body, yet he waited.
I tried to swallow around the ball of razors in my throat. “I’ve been running from him ever since.”
“Is he looking for you?”
My head shook. “I…I haven’t seen him in years.”
Not since I tried to settle three years ago. To lay down roots the way Nelly had been begging me to do again. Not since he’d caught up to me and…
Nausea spun in my stomach, and I knew Theo could feel me faltering.
The terror that wound through me.
“Tell me who, Piper. All I need is a name.”
Theo’s phone flashed again, and we both glanced at it.
River
En route.
My tongue stroked over my dried lips. “You should go.”
“Piper—”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure I can give you that, Theo. Not yet.” Maybe not ever. “I’m trying to move on from it. I just want…”
Peace.
I just wanted peace.
He hesitated, wanting to push for more, but I climbed off his lap and onto my feet.
My knees felt weak as I watched him push to standing.
A dark fortress in the night.
Body tall and foreboding and rippling with that stealthy strength.
He snagged his phone from the couch and stuffed it into his back pocket.
There were so many things I wanted to ask him. For details and reasons.
What made him dangerous.
If I should be afraid.
Who he’d obviously cared for so much and how he’d lost her.
If he’d really hold all of this for me.
If he ached for me the way I had come to ache for him.
I wondered if he heard the last one spiral through my brain because he shifted around to tower over me. He reached out and palmed the side of my neck, and he pushed his thumb under my chin to tip my head back.
“If I had a heart to give, I’d give it to you.”
Then he turned and strode out the door, clicking it softly shut behind him.
THIRTY-THREE
THEO
“What’s the intel?” River’s voice was a blade as he sat forward at the round table buried thirty feet under the club.
Cash scrubbed a meaty palm over his face. “Pierce Renfry flew to San Francisco late this afternoon with the business partners he met in LA. Took a private plane.”
Agitation bustled through the cramped space, each of us shifting in discomfort in our seats.
That was only a few hours away.
Cash pulled in a steeling breath before he continued. “There were six of them on the plane, and I can’t find anything that says the trip isn’t legit. Found a meeting scheduled for nine a.m. tomorrow morning with a start-up. Just don’t like how fuckin’ close he is.”
River blew out a sigh of frustration while my guts tangled in knots.
Didn’t like it, either. Almost as much as I didn’t like the way I’d left Piper. The way she’d been so close to admitting who she was afraid of before she clammed up. My only solace had been that she hadn’t heard from whoever the bastard was in years. The bastard who’d scarred her back and scarred her soul.