Page 48 of Fighting for Scarlett

Tate was staring at her in shock, but by now she was done caring what he thought about her.

Arrogant jerk.

Like he was so perfect and everyone around him was beneath him.

What had she ever seen in him anyway?

Was she so desperate for love that she was inventing connections now with the first man who looked at her with a hint of interest in his eyes?

No more.

No more going out on dates every chance she got hoping that this time she was going to find the one and fall in love. No more dreaming of big weddings filled with love and laughter. No more pretending happy endings existed.

She was done.

Done with men, done with looking for love, done with caring so much about what others thought because she always felt like such a failure.

From here on out, she was focusing on learning to love one person and one person alone.

Herself.

How could she ever expect to actually find something that would last when she doubted everything about herself? When she felt like she wasn’t good enough, that she was a failure, that she was too weak to ever be taken seriously.

She’d survived being tortured, she hadn't told Raul what he wanted, and she wasn’t weak. If she could make it through that then she could make it through anything.

You're not weak.

You're not pathetic.

You are strong.

A survivor.

You know how to love and care for others.

You know how to make them smile and laugh.

You learned love even if it wasn’t at the hands of the people who were supposed to raise you and teach you everything you needed to know about life.

You have nothing to be ashamed of.

The internal pep talk worked. Sure she’d probably have to repeat it a few hundred times, but Scarlett already felt stronger and more sure of herself.

Determined to bring Raul Castillo down, Scarlett shoved away from Tate, surprised when he let her go. They couldn’t stay out here, cops would be coming, alerted by calls of gunshots, and by now, Raul’s men had to know they weren't in the house. If she was going to bring down the weapons trafficker, then she had to get to Prey. Her team said they believed in her and told her that everyone else did, too. At the time she wasn’t sure she believed them, but that was her insecurity talking.

Her people had her back.

Tate Laurier just wasn’t one of her people.

“I want to go into Prey, then I want you to get the heck out of my life,” she told him, deadly serious. Any connection she’d thought she felt toward this man had fizzled and died when he accused her all over again of being a traitor just hours after he was buried inside her.

January 16th

2:10 A.M.

He’d messed up.

Possibly beyond repair.

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