His eyes met mine as he pried my fingers off of the tree branch that was holding me out of the water.
And only when I was in his arms did I say, “I love you. I realized that I never said it when we crashed. I want you to know I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he promised. “Scared the absolute piss out of me. I didn’t realize how deep you were in my heart until I realized that I might have to live without you after seeing where you ran off the road.”
He hauled me out of the water as if I didn’t weigh triple digits, and then slung me into his arms bridal style.
I didn’t complain.
Mostly because I was too exhausted to.
I did have the energy to speak, however.
“Is Madden okay?” I whispered.
Will grunted. “Madden was fine. It was a false alarm. Or a fake call. We’re not too sure of which yet. We got the call of a car being pushed off of a bridge, and we were able to get here fast. It took us two minutes. But by that time your car had gone under the water and you were nowhere in sight. We’re lucky the girls came out of the woods, because we were about to commandeer a boat and come looking for you.”
I turned so that my face was buried in his throat. “I’m glad.”
I was shaking now, and the only thing that was keeping me awake was the fact that I smelled absolutely disgusting, and it was almost like smelling salts whiffing into my nose every few seconds.
We were just barely close enough to an opening when I heard Beau’s voice.
We breached the gap in the trees, and suddenly I could see the boat ramp, and about a thousand cars packed into it like sardines.
In the middle of the cars was a group of people.
That group of people were surrounding a boat that looked like it was being carried down to the water because of all the cars in the way.
“Got her!”
Will’s voice vibrated his chest, and I shivered.
He tightened his hold on my arms as Beau started to yell.
“It was that man!” Beau yelled, pointing at… Brianna’s ex-husband? “I saw it all!”
Brianna gasped and turned away from her husband, slowly inching away, as if she didn’t want to be thought guilty by proximity.
“Well, yeah it was me.” Scott laughed. “I meant to just scare her, though. I still wanted to play a bit. I didn’t expect that joker right there to intervene.”
I looked back and forth between Scott and Beau and shook my head. “I don’t understand.”
“What’s not to understand?” Scott asked. “You pissed me off. So you got what was coming to you.”
He said it so calmly as if I should’ve known what I did, that I didn’t quite understand the threat.
Will did, though.
And he looked like he grew ten times taller as he moved so that he was blocking me slightly with his big body.
He was dripping wet, I was fairly sure that his gun and all of his extra police stuff would never work again, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that he cared.
In fact, looking at him, you’d think he was just as comfortable standing there soaking wet as he was dry.
“You have the right to remain silent…” Will read Scott his rights, but Scott rolled his eyes as if he didn’t care.
“It’s been a good run,” Scott said. “I’m ready to see what prison looks like, though.”
I didn’t… I had no clue what the hell was going on.
How in the world did a man think like that after getting caught?
There had to be more to the story.
“I-I don’t understand,” I finally said. “Why me? What did I do?”
“What did you do?” Scott shrugged. “You were bitchy to me when I texted you. That’s all. A little kindness goes a long way.”
“He’s fucked in the head,” I heard Beau say under his breath. “Holy shit.”
And, for once, I tended to agree with my ex-fiancé.
“You’re the one sending her all those messages?” Will asked carefully.
Scott shrugged. “Most of ‘em were me, yes. But a lot of them were just me posting on a forum and asking what I should say next.”
“A forum?” Will asked.
“A forum. Online. You know? I am a part of a Dungeons and Dragons community forum. It was fun and a way to not be so bored. That’s all.”
That’s all. As if he hadn’t spent the last month harassing me nonstop, and he hadn’t been a part of the reason for Will’s and my breakup.
What. The. Fuck.
“Scott,” Brianna coughed as she held out a set of handcuffs. “You’re under arrest.”
• • •
“So you’re telling me, that because of nothing more than he wanted to, he pushed you off the bridge with two little girls in the car?” my brother, Rook, asked.