I love you.
This was going to hurt him.
I will do anything and everything to protect you.
My heart hurt. No. I couldn’t do that to him. And I couldn’t do that to me. Not anymore. It was time to stop running. I was ready to banish my fears to make room for a chance at happiness.
Missy walked up behind me. “You’re not leaving are you?”
I paused long enough to let her know she was right.
I couldn’t see her but somehow I knew she was nodding.
Turning around, I looked at her. “No. I’m not.”
She didn’t ask me why because she already knew. She could see it written all over my face. I was in love with him. But it went beyond that—I couldn’t imagine life without him now.
“Come on,” I said. “I’ll drive you to the bus station.”
After grabbing my necklace from the bedroom, we left the cabin, and I drove Missy to the bus station in town. She didn’t say much, and I could feel her disappointment fill the cab of the truck. But she accepted it and wasn’t going to try to talk me out of staying.
She paused before climbing out.
“We had some good times, didn’t we?” she asked sadly.
I wish I could say that we did. But she threw them all away the moment she contacted my brother. I really didn’t have much to say to her about any of it.
But there was one thing I needed to know before she left.
“Why did you kick me out?”
I didn’t need to ask her why she sold me out to Barrett. That part was easy. It was greed. But why throw me out of the house? Was it a guilty conscience?
She looked surprised at the question, but then her expression softened. “Because I didn’t want him to find you.”
Her words hung heavy between us.
“Because you knew I was running from him.”
She nodded regretfully. “You never told me anything. I just knew you were running away from something. Or someone. Then when Craig found out who you were, I figured your dad must’ve done something bad to you.”
The only thing my foster father did was fail to protect me from his son.
“I knew if I contacted them, I would be sending you back to the very thing you’d run away from for two years.”
Yet you did anyway.
“I didn’t want them to find you. But you have to understand, Cassidy, I needed that money.”
I couldn’t look at her because hearing her say it made her betrayal cut a little deeper into my heart.
“Was it you that sent that video link to my phone?”
“Craig sent it. He was pissed because you were out of his league. He said you thought you were too good for him. Stupid ass.” She sighed. “You know I really am sorry. I made a mistake. I want you to know that I will regret what I did to you for the rest of my life.”
I appreciated her honesty. And in some warped way I could appreciate that her selfish actions led me to Chance. But I would never forgive her for contacting Barrett and selling me out for a paycheck.
“Well, I guess this is it,” she said.
I nodded. “Take care, Missy.”
I had nothing left to say to her.
Without another word, she climbed out of the truck and walked away. She didn’t look back. And as I watched her make her way toward the ticket counter, I knew I would never see her again.
Feeling the door close on that chapter of my life, I pulled out into traffic and headed back to the clubhouse, my heart feeling a weird sense of closure.
I got as far as the gas station down the street. That was when something moved behind me and the shadow rose up from the backseat. I felt the evilness before I saw it. Felt the fear drill into me before I felt the cold metal of the gun against my temple. Felt my world slip into hell as he leaned closer and whispered in my ear, “Hello, Sister.”
CHANCE
She was gone. And so was my truck.
I tried her phone but it went to voicemail.
Damn it.
I tried it again but got the same thing.
Desperation funneled through me.
Had she had run away because of what I told her the night before? That I was in love with her? That I had killed the last woman I was with? I growled with desperation. If she had, then I only had myself to blame. Last night I’d dumped the mother of all revelations on her, and in the cold light of day she’d probably decided it was better to run from me than to hang around to find out if she would one day meet the same fate.
I was a killer. She knew it. And now she was fucking gone.
Except…
Her white dress, the one she loved, was in a pile on the floor by the bed, and the tiny thong I’d peeled from her body last night was still tangled in our sheets. I walked to the closet. Her clothes were still in her bag and her guitar was leaning up against the back wall.