Page 61 of Fighting for Scarlett

“When I walked into Prey yesterday, Eagle was there, and it just hit me how firmly on your side your Prey family was from the very beginning. They didn't doubt you, not for a single second, and suddenly I realized the flip side to what I've always seen. Yes, my parents shouldn’t have excluded me the way they did, there was room in their hearts for each other and their child. But there’s a positive to having someone love you so strongly they don’t even have to question whether you're guilty. That unconditional love must be amazing. I'm so glad you have that from your Prey family, and I want that too. Maybe all these years I haven’t been running from relationships because I didn't want to lose myself to another person, but because I thought I would never find someone who could love me that deeply. It was the weirdest thing, but that night … when our eyes met … I felt … I don’t even know what, I just felt it, deep inside.”

A bright smile lit her face. “You did feel it too. I was so sure you did, but then after, when you wouldn’t answer my texts or calls, and then at the grocery store, I thought I imagined the whole thing.”

“Cowards don’t deserve chances, and I can't promise I won't do something stupid, or panic, because this is all new to me and something I was sure I didn't want.” Tate grabbed her under the arms and pulled her further up his body so their lips were mere millimeters apart. It was hard to focus on anything but kissing him when he was this close, but his gaze was so serious that she met and held it. “I can promise you that I will always put you first. I’ll be open and honest. And when I do feel that panic creeping in, I won't run or lash out.”

Wasn’t this everything she had wanted for the last almost three months?

To have a chance with Tate, to see if that weird feeling she’d gotten the moment she laid eyes on him was real. To see if they could have something real, something amazing, something all-consuming.

For Tate, that was a terrifying thought, but for her all she’d ever wanted was to be somebody’s number one, to matter enough for them to care about her needs. Tate was offering her all of that, and it wasn’t like they had to jump into marriage, they had time to get to know one another and maybe fall in love along the way.

This could be the start of the most amazing journey of her life. It could be the beginning of everything she’d ever wanted.

There was only one answer she could give.

“I want to try, to see where things go with us.”

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Tate’s lips were on hers as he kissed her senseless.

January 17th

11:46 A.M.

There was a lightness inside him as they sat side by side at the small kitchen table.

Now that he’d taken that first step, Tate wondered why it had seemed so terrifying.

Hindsight he guessed, and a heavy dose of perspective.

In the end, it came down to the answer to one simple question. Was he going to be happier keeping himself isolated so he never risked loving and losing, or was he going to embrace any chance life gave him to find something wonderful?

Put like that it was an easy answer to find.

Despite the pain it had caused him, his parents’ love had been a beautiful thing. Soul deep, all-consuming, the kind of love that fairytales and songs were written about. Maybe all along he hadn't so much been afraid of falling for someone with that same intensity, but that it would consume both him and the woman the same way it had for his parents.

The thing was, though, with Scarlett he knew that could never happen.

Their childhoods had been similar in so many ways, and they both knew the pain of being ignored and shut out. There was no way either of them would ever do that to another person.

Maybe all along he’d just been waiting for the right woman.

Taking Scarlett’s hand, Tate entwined their fingers. If fate hadn't tipped his hand and brought Scarlett screaming back into his life, he might have missed out on this chance. Because without this added push, he likely would never have allowed himself to believe that love could be different than what he’d witnessed growing up.

The laptop screen suddenly changed, and up came the same conference room that he’d sat in nine days ago, no idea he was about to learn the woman he hadn't been able to forget had been kidnapped and branded a traitor. So much had changed in those nine days that it was hard to believe it had been such a short space of time.

Actually, everything had changed so much in the last twenty-four hours that it was hard to believe that just over a day ago he’d locked Scarlett in this room and headed into Prey to try to figure out a plan to get the target off his woman’s back.

His woman?

Why did that sound a whole lot better and a whole lot less terrifying than he thought it would?

Shoving away those thoughts for now, there was no future for him and Scarlett if she was kidnapped, tortured, and eventually killed by Raul Castillo, or if she wound up convicted and locked away in some tiny cell, in some off-the-books prison where traitors were kept.

Any future he wanted could only start after they found the mole.

Which meant work first. It had to be the priority if he was going to keep Scarlett safe and alive.

Giving Scarlett’s hand a squeeze, he focused on the people gathered in the conference room. “Do we have anything?”

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