Page 89 of Gray Area

VIVIAN

My patience lasts approximately three days.

Declan sends minimal responses to my texts and does not take my calls. I also start to go stir-crazy in the tiny cabin, and have read all of the books that are in it. I get angrier by the minute, and I make up scenarios in my head of how I will demand he return me to civilization when and if he ever comes back.

I walk around the cabin multiple times a day, but I’m a city girl, and the noises scare me. I get brave on this third day though, fueled by my anger, most likely, and go farther on one of the paths by the house. I find a creek down a small hill, and I kick off my flip-flops and walk into the cool, slowly flowing water. I shut my eyes and inhale the fresh air as the sun pours downon me and the cool water rushes over my feet. I feel a peace I haven’t felt in days.

I enjoy the serene feeling for a few minutes before I hear something that draws my attention back to the here and now. Someone is shouting. I run back up the path toward the cabin and see a car there. I freeze, not recognizing the vehicle, and then I hear the shouting again. It’s my name, being bellowed from inside the house.

I go to the door and run into Declan, who grabs me and pulls me into him. “Holy fuck,” he says, squeezing me. “I thought someone took you,” he mumbles into my hair. I can hear his heart hammer in his chest, and he moves me back. “Where were you?” he demands.

“I went down to the creek on the trail—”

He pulls me to him again. “I’m so glad you are okay.”

The peace that I always have with him is there, but I can’t just focus on that. “Declan, we have to talk.”

“Okay,” he says, still holding me in his arms.

I twist out of his hold and go to one of the rocking chairs on the small porch. I need to be out of his arms and not connected to him. It messes with my frequency. Declan walks over and leans against one of the posts of the porch.

“What do you want to talk about?”

I balk at him and his idiotic question. “Declan, you left me here,” I say. “You just dropped off the face of the earth and didn’t give me the time of day. I’m not real fucking happy to see you!”

“I’m sorry,” he says, looking one hundred percent not sorry, “but—”

“Don’t you fucking feed me some line of bull about keeping me safe, or that it was what’s best for me.”

“I’m here to take you home,” he interrupts. I just stare at him. “I came to bring you back.”

I sit glued in place, wondering if I should still push for more information. I am geared up and ready for the fight I had anticipated us having. But honestly, I just want to get the fuck out of here. “Okay,” I say, and get up to go and get my things.

I come back outside in less than two minutes and get into the minivan that Declan brought to get me. I honk the horn when he just stays on the porch. He turns and locks the cabin door and then gets inside the car with me. Neither of us says a thing.

Chapter 54

DECLAN

She’s pissed. She has every right to be. I’m not real happy with myself either.

I can’t believe I just brought her and dropped her off in the middle of nowhere. Most of my texts wouldn’t even go through to her stupid phone. I hadn’t heard her voice in days, and I hadn’t slept either. And I was doing a shit job helping my brothers with Lexington because I was too preoccupied and wondering if she was okay.

They’d had enough of me, and this morning it had been Axel who was the voice of reason, after he had slammed me against the wall. “Go get your fucking woman and some sleep, and then come back here when you’ve got your fucking head on straight,” he’d told me.

And so I did.

We’ve been in the car for about half an hour, and she hasn’t spoken or looked at me. She just looks out the window. And I’m not sure what to do. Do I talk to her? I feel like she might jump out of the car if I do. I want to hold her hand, but I can tell she is so tense right now that if I touch her, she may claw out my eyes.

So I just drive, and look over to her every now and then. Part of me wonders if I should have just let her talk when we were at the cabin, let her get whatever has festered between us out in the open and leave it locked there when we left. But wanting to get her out of there had been my priority in that moment.

There has been no more word from Lexington since the night we met face-to-face, but I have guys watching him. He may have just threatened me to get me to leave him alone. But I’m not going to do that. Keep your enemies closer and all that.

When we get home, she gets out of the car as soon as it is in park. Then she is inside the apartment before I get myself out of the car.

I really fucked up.

I go inside and see that she is in the bathroom, so I sit on the couch and wait for her to come out, rehearsing my apology in my head. When the door opens, I get up, but one look at her face and I am thinking maybe I should get on my knees. “Vivian, I—”

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