Page 129 of Burn Bag

“She’s an old friend from when I was a kid. After she separated from her husband, she moved out here to be close to me.”

“Had you been in contact over the years?”

I shook my head, turning to her. “I know what you’re thinking. Total stalker, but it really wasn’t like that.”

“Hey, I came out here to marry a man who didn’t even know I existed. I have no room to judge.”

That’s what I loved about her. “Things were in a shit place from the start. There was stuff happening at OPS with my old boss and— I had to go back to work with my old man. We never really got along,but I did it for Cash. I was hoping to gain some intel that would help him. And along the way, I kept finding myself in these shit circumstances, mostly of my own doing.

“There were things I should have told Isla, but I didn’t because I thought it would be better for her, or I thought I was protecting her. And that kind of shit just kept happening. I was on a runaway train and I refused to pull the emergency brake.”

“That’s some metaphor.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face, sighing heavily. “Well, that’s what it felt like.” I rolled my head to face her, staring into her kind eyes. “Have you ever done something that you knew was the wrong choice, but you just kept going down that road?”

“Once or twice,” she grinned. “Stealing cats and then running away to marry you didn’t seem like the wisest decision of my life. But so far, it’s turned out okay.”

I brushed my thumb along her lip, so fucking grateful to have her in my life. Of all the shit I had done over the years, and all the baggage I carried, she made everything so much lighter—and so much more stressful at the same time. But I wouldn’t change a fucking thing.

“Well, I can’t say the same for my time with Isla. I think I was just wrapped up in the idea of her, but it was wrong from the start. We jumped in headfirst and never really got to know each other again.”

“Much like we did,” she whispered.

“I guess, but I was out of town a lot when I was with her. I was constantly hiding things from her.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “And it wasn’t cats.”

She chuckled, intertwining her hand with mine and squeezing it for reassurance. “So, how did it end?”

“With me basically pushing her into another man’s arms. I can’t say I blame her.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t happy about it, but I knew it was my own fault.”

“And you just moved on,” she said disbelievingly.

“No. I was on my way back to the city to deal with my father—” My throat closed up unexpectedly and I had to take a minute to dealwith the torrent of emotions that rarely hit me anymore. “My father and I had a very complicated relationship. I walked away from him when I was eighteen and refused to speak to him until recently. He was basically holding information ransom from my boss.”

“And that’s why you agreed to go back to work for your dad.”

I nodded. “I thought he was being his shitty self when I headed back to the city. But it turns out it wasn’t him. He agreed to meet me at a bar, and I was finally getting through to him.”

“About what?”

I couldn’t stand to think back to that conversation. I was so fucking close to finally getting my dad back. I could feel it. “He was about to tell me some important information, and then—I didn’t even hear the bullet pierce the window. I just saw the light go out of his eyes as he fell to the ground.”

I heard her gasp, but couldn’t look at her. I was stuck in that moment, reliving it again and again. “He was gone so fast, and I never…we never made things right between us. I thought for sure that was our breakthrough, but…”

“Shit,” she whispered, her hand tightening on mine.

“I had the funeral for him, and I stood there over his casket after they lowered it, and I saw a glint in the distance. Just enough to fucking know things were about to go to shit. The bullet hit my neck and I fell into his grave. It was fucking morbid as hell.”

I felt her fingers on my neck and flinched slightly, still caught up in the memories. “That’s what this is,” she murmured.

“I was fucking lucky to have lived. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars for the guys who had my back that day.”

I saw her blink back tears just before she laid her head on my chest, and then I felt them drip from her cheek onto my heated skin.

“Who was it?” she whispered. “Did they catch whoever shot you?”

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