Page 35 of Fighting for Scarlett

“T-Tate?” she stammered, blinking up at him with her huge doe eyes.

“Not your lucky day, sweetheart,” he muttered. Regardless of her reasons for sneaking out of her home, he wasn’t going to just let her go. Someone with a clearer head needed to deal with this because he had no choice but to admit to himself that clear was the last thing he could be around this woman.

“It definitely is,” she said, surprising him. “They’re inside. Two men. They thought I was in my bedroom, but I couldn’t sleep in there after what happened. I was almost out the front door when they got me.”

While his traitorous heart wanted to believe her, his logical mind screamed at him that she was leaving. He’d seen no one breaking in and he’d been there the entire time. Plus, nobody had come running out after her, and as far as he knew, nobody but Eagle even knew he was there, although his team might suspect.

“Sure, sweetheart,” he mocked.

Instead of the anger he’d been expecting, Scarlett just deflated beneath him, until she looked completely and utterly defeated. “Believe me or don’t, but two men were in my house. The second one got me as I was about to sneak out of the door. If I’d been in my bed where they thought I was I'd be dead or kidnapped again.”

As though saying the words out loud had made them that much more powerful her entire body began to shake. Not fine little tremors, but full body-shuddering enough that he could both feel and see it.

There was no way she could be faking that kind of reaction.

Yet the little voice in his head screamed at him that he’d also believed the woman he encouraged his father to move on with would be good for him, and he’d been spectacularly wrong on that account.

It was like there was a war raging inside him. One side insisted that Scarlett was innocent, that she didn't act in the least like someone with anything to hide. The other taunted him that you couldn’t trust anybody, especially yourself.

“No one is killing you today, sweetheart,” he said, voice cold as ice as he reached for some zip ties he’d had on him just in case he needed them.

Although he had hoped he wouldn’t.

Because regardless of everything he knew about Scarlett Madden and what she had done, his body still reacted to hers with an intensity unlike anything else he had ever experienced. Not just his body, but his heart reacted to her, too. The craziest thing since he had never wanted, even from a young age, to fall in love. He’d seen the flip side of love with his parents, how it could morph into co-dependent obsession, and he’d wanted no part of it.

Even less so now after what had happened with his father and his second wife.

But whether he wanted it or not, he couldn’t deny that he had been unable to forget about this woman. Her laugh, her smile, her sweet and somewhat shy persona, her openness and joy, the way she seemed to brighten a room just by stepping into it.

A small smile curled her lips up. “Thanks to you. I don’t know why you're here, Tate, but I'm so glad that you are. If you weren't …”

“Then you would have gotten away,” he finished for her, confused by her smile and the gratefulness emanating from her.

At least it had been emanating from her until she saw the zip ties.

Then her brow furrowed into the most adorable frown.

“Tate?”

“No one was in your house, Scarlett,” he said firmly, but when he went to bind her wrists he found he couldn’t do it.

Because you don’t need to.

You can trust her.

“There was,” she insisted as his hand fell away and he shoved the ties back in his pocket. “He grabbed me and put his hand around my neck. He was going to squeeze until I passed out and take me, but I kneed him in the groin. He wasn’t expecting that.” Despite the fear lingering in her eyes, there was a note of triumph in her voice, and in spite of himself he felt a flush of pleasure that she’d defended herself.

Keeping hold of her, Tate pulled her up to her feet with him as he stood. He’d put her in his car, then he’d check out her house, confirm that nobody else had been in it, before driving her back to Prey. They could hold her there until someone figured out what to do with her, because if he stuck around he was going to lose his mind.

“Whether you believe me or not, Tate, someone broke into my home. Raul isn’t going to just let me go. He wants the formula to the Reactivator and he’s not going to stop until he gets it. Just because no one wants to believe me doesn’t make it any less the truth,” Scarlett said quietly as he led her to the car.

There was sincerity in her voice, but acceptance as well.

Tate found he didn't like that.

Didn't like knowing that Scarlett had somehow accepted that she was on her own in this. The visit from her friends didn't seem to have convinced her that Prey was on her side, and he had to assume it was because she was used to nobody being on her side.

No matter how many times he ran over the evidence against her in his mind, his gut continued to insist that this woman who offered no resistance as he opened the passenger door of his car and helped her inside was in fact innocent.

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