Page 53 of Malice

“That’s my point. Not only did it not occur to you not to look for me, but it didn’t occur to you that I had not come back by choice.”

“Well, it did, but not that you’d done it deliberately. I assumed at first, you’d stopped along the way, and it had taken longer than you’d planned. That you hadn’t thought to let me know you would be late.”

“But that didn’t stop you from looking for me. Searching until you found me. I’m not even going to ask how you managed that. But when you did find me, I know you wanted to kill Phillip, but you didn’t. What did you do?”

“I threatened him. I planned to kill him for what he’d done to you.”

“But you didn’t. What did you do?”

She was trying to lead him somewhere, but he couldn’t figure out where she was going with this. He frowned and shook his head, hoping she’d tell him what she had in mind.

“You kept him from hurting me more until the others were there, then you left him to them while you took care of me.” She ran the pad of her thumb along his lower lip.

“I still want to kill him for hurting you.” He reached up to cup her cheek but hesitated. It was a brilliant purple, and he didn’t want to hurt her.

Bonnie tilted her head, so her face rested in the palm he’d left hovering beside her head.

“Don’t you get it? It’s not what you want to do, it’s not what you think about doing. Those are shaped by the things you’ve seen, the things you’ve had to do, but they don’t define who you are.”

Malice closed his eyes as he battled his need to yell that yes it did and why couldn’t she see how broken he was. For the first time in he couldn’t remember how long, he didn’t feel broken. At least not as broken. “Then what does?” He forced the words out past the knot of emotion that had formed in his throat.

“What you do, babe. What matters, what defines the kind of man you are is the choices you make. You chose not to hurt him, you chose not to kill him, and I know you wanted to do both. What you chose to do was to take care of me.”

She wasn’t wrong. And he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again, or a hell of a lot more if he thought it would save her, or any other innocent, from things they should never have to see or endure. That didn’t make him a good person.

She fell silent long enough that he opened his eyes to see what was wrong and found her watching him, with tenderness in her face.

“What?” he asked.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” Malice frowned. She had nothing to thank him for. He’d just done what anyone would have.

“For caring. For showing me with your actions that I’m important to you. Now I’m going to do the same for you and let you have your cabin back. I’ll go back to my apartment.”

Malice started to protest, to say something, anything to keep her from going, but she stopped him with a single finger against his lips.

“I’m not saying I don’t want to see you. I do. But I want you to be sure that this is what you want. That I, and all my issues, are what you want. This will give us both time to be sure.” She gave him a wan smile, then leaned close and slid her finger from his lips in time to cover them with hers.

He didn’t want her to go and, because she didn’t want him to argue, did his best to use his body to convince her to stay.

40

Bonniepackedthelastof her things into her bags and took one last look around Corey’s bedroom. She thought she had everything. Even if she hadn’t, she reminded herself, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. She wasn’t leaving forever. She was just going home.

Still, she couldn’t stop the ache in her chest as she picked up her bags and carried them out into the living room, then out to Corey’s pickup.

He didn’t want her to go, but had agreed to come back after his morning chores and take her back to town. She’d called Randy on his cell phone last night on their way home from the emergency room, and he’d told her to take a couple of days to recover, then come back when she was ready. He said he’d given his statement already and had no idea what she had to be going through. He’d insisted he wanted her to take all the time she needed to get back to work. Bonnie couldn’t help but wonder if maybe he’d felt guilty that she’d been taken while still on the property.

Bonnie smiled as she remembered the way Corey had tried to convince her to go in and give her statement today. He’d insisted it could wait, but Bonnie had been determined. She wanted to get it out of the way. She also didn’t want there to be any reason for the police or a judge or whoever might let him go.

Now between the time off Randy had given her and her scheduled days off, she had time to get settled back into her apartment, and hopefully find something in the way of transportation, before she had to go back to work in a few days. She should also call the Harley shop owner. She wasn’t due to start painting for a few weeks, and hopefully her hand would be back to normal by then, but she felt like she needed to be up front with him, just in case.

After loading her bags, she went back inside, taking the time to double check for anything she might have left behind and cleaning up around the place, wanting to leave Corey’s home nice and clean for him.

He didn’t expect it, but it would be a nice thank you for him opening his home to her. Not to mention, it kept her busy while she waited for him to come back to the cabin and take her into town. She wasn’t looking forward to leaving his place, but she was determined to give him the space he’d wanted, but hadn’t yet had the opportunity to enjoy.

It was later than she’d thought, and nearly 10:00 A.M. when Corey returned. He came in the front door, closed it behind him, then leaned against it for a moment, watching her.

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