Page 54 of Scar

Thankfully, Tally was saved from having to answer by Tom coming back into the room. “Okay, Grayson. Let’s get you cleaned up and then I want to take you back to my home with me. My wife, Simone, will feed you anything you want. I have a feeling once she sees you, with or without all this dirt on your face, she’s going to fall in love with you.”

* * *

Tally was getting really worried.It was early afternoon and there was still no sign of her mystery man. She’d been on the phone with the police and her insurance company most of the morning. The fire marshal had also stopped by just before lunch. He wanted to inform her that neither she nor an insurance inspector would be able to go into what was left of her restaurant until after he completed his investigation.

Tally also had to call each of her employees to inform them of the fire. Most were supportive and encouraged her to reach out if she needed anything. Those who were on salary, she promised to keep their salaries going as long as she could. That was in the hopes that she would be able to reopen one day and she wanted to keep her core staff as much as possible. Others who worked hourly, like Noah, were less than cooperative and demanded to know what the severance package would be.

It had taken a lot of convincing to keep her dad from dropping everything and coming down to Atlanta to help her. He demanded to know who the investigating detective was, likely with the intent to reach out and to remain apprised of the situation.

It had been over twelve hours since she’d gotten the alarm in the middle of the night and had told her mystery man to go ahead. Where was he? Was he hurt?Hadhe killed the man that had been found outside her restaurant?

With the addition of Grayson’s story, plus what she’d already known from the police, Tally was leaning towards an emphaticyes. Had he killed the man because of what he’d done to Tally’s restaurant or for what he’d done to Grayson?

And why did it not bother her that the man was dead?

After having a cleaning company come over to clean her apartment after Simone had called to say that Grayson had flea bites on him, Tally had showered and was now laying down in her bed. She wasn’t sleeping. Just trying to relax for a bit before having to get up and deal with the next crisis.

Her fingers kept tracing over the label her mystery man had printed for her the first time she’d cooked him breakfast. Not wanting it to go through the wash, Tally had taped it to the lip of her headboard so it was within arm’s reach when she laid down at night.

Tally knew the moment he was inside her apartment. She hadn’t heard the front door open or close, nor did she have any idea how he’d gotten inside. All she knew was that, suddenly, she was no longer alone.

Dragging herself up, Tally put on her bathrobe before exiting her bedroom. She hadn’t felt like putting pants on after getting out of the shower and was only wearing a tank top and panties.

The smell of detergent was still strong in her living room. Thankfully, she didn’t have carpeting in her apartment and neither she nor Grayson had been in her bedroom so the chances were slim that any fleas had ended up in there. She did not feel itchy or bitten, but she still purchased anti-flea and lice shampoo from the cleaning company.

Her mystery man was standing at her kitchen table. Earlier, she had found a laptop set up there. It was the first trace of himself her mystery man had ever left behind. She had his computer and backpack in her bedroom so the cleaning company didn’t touch it.

“Where have you been?” she demanded. “I have been worriedsick. Do you have any idea what it has done to me to not know where you were? If you wereokay? The last time I heard from you, you were running off in the direction of my burning restaurant. I kept playing these stupid scenarios in my head that you’d gone running inside to save a fucking cat or something and the fire took you before you could escape.

“Yes,” she said quickly, though he hadn’t spoken, because of course he didn’t, “I am aware how irrational that is. It was more rational that you brought Grayson back here and this is where you’ve been, but then why weren’t you here when I got home? Why leave Grayson alone? Thank you for saving him by the way, and before you ask, Tom took him home. Simone’s been doting on him all day. I have no idea what’s going to become of him or where he’s going to go, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Tom and Simone tried to adopt him. But none of that explains or excuses where you’ve been.

“I don’t know if you can talk. Hell, I don’t even know your name. Butplease, please,talkto me? Tell me something, anything. Write it down. Use my phone. Do something.Talkto me. I am begging you.”

* * *

Others had beggedhim to talk in the past, some not so nicely. Scar used to use a Text to Talk app when he had to say something to the club. It shouldn’t have been that hard. Pull out his phone, text what he needed to, and then let the device speak for him.

It really was so simple.

So then why wasn’t he reaching for his phone? Why was it that he was so loath to have amachinetalk to her in his stead? Why couldn’t he just be fuckingnormalfor her?

Scar opened his mouth.

It had taken him a long time after Afghanistan to even open his mouth, to unclamp his jaw. When he’d been in the hospital in Germany, the doctors had had to sedate him to be able to clean his teeth after weeks of captivity and repair his broken tooth. When he still wouldn’t open his mouth, the doctors had been forced to put a feeding tube in him.

It hadn’t been until he’d killed the last terrorist that had kept him captive and killed his team that Scar had opened his mouth with the intent to scream. Only, nothing had come out. He’d meant to scream, but the action had been silent.

And when he’d found the traitor who’d sold his team out, Scar had madehimscream in his place.

Hecouldspeak. He knew he could. But there was something there. Some blockage that would not allow him to.

I will not talk…

Air touched his tongue as he separated his lips. Of all the people in his life who’d asked him to talk, who’d begged him forsomething, he had never wished to talk more than he did in that moment. He wanted to talkfor her.

Not because it would mean more to her, since she couldn’t see his facial expressions, and not because it would mean giving her a part of himself that he hadn’t given to anyone else in over a decade.

No, as Scar stared into Tally’s sightless eyes, he knew that it was much simpler than that. He wanted to speak becauseshe’dasked it of him. Because it was Tally. Not José, not Harper, not Sissy, not Scotty, not Steel… Tally.

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