Page 92 of The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
“No.” It came out more petulant that defiant, but that was close enough. “It’s nothing,” she tried again, wiping the phone clean with a napkin. “I’m fine.” She wasn’t fine. “I’m...” She choked on the words but managed a pleasant “Good night, Ethan. Enjoy the festival.”
And then she walked away, off the patio and down the sidewalk. She thought her hotel was that way, but it didn’t matter. Maybe she’d end up in the desert. She really didn’t care. And maybe that’s why it took her two full blocks to feel the presence behind her.
“You’re kind of annoying, you know that, right?” she called over her shoulder but kept walking.
“Now, Marcie, that might be the sweetest thingyou’ve ever said to me.” She laughed in spite of herself because it was no doubt true.
She glanced back again, then stopped. “If you’re here to kill me, make it quick. My feet hurt.”
But all Ethan did was smile, a little sheepish, like he was honestly embarrassed he’d been caught. “It’s after dark in an unfamiliar city, and I’m not letting you walk home alone.”
He was ten feet behind her then, hands in his pockets like the most harmless guy in the world. It was the posture ofoh shucksandgosh darn, but the words echoing in her mind where different.
Who did this to you?
She watched him catch up, but she couldn’t make herself move. And when she asked, “Aren’t you going to mock me?” her voice cracked.
“Nope.”
“Tease me?”
“Not tonight.”
Maggie looked down at the sidewalk and the words slipped past her defenses. “Figure out my deepest, darkest fears and torture me with them until I’m driven slowly insane?”
But that time Ethan didn’t even smile. “I’m going to walk a lady to her door and make sure she’s okay.”
Oh.
He took a step closer, slow enough that she could bolt if she wanted to, just run away, but Maggie was frozen, caught in his gravity—the slow, steady pull she couldn’t feel and couldn’t break. He was holding her, and he hadn’t even touched her. “Youareokay. You know that?”
His voice was too soft—too gentle and kind. She wanted him to chide or taunt or tease. Even one of Colin’s mumbled insults or backhanded jabs she could have handled, but Maggie no longer knew what to do with kindness. She didn’t trust it. She didn’t trusthim. But the streetlights were blurry overhead, and when she closed her eyes, the tears spilled over.
Her face was wet and her eyes were shut tight. She couldn’t see. Didn’t want to. And when the strongest armsshe’d ever felt wrapped around her, she let them. When his big hand cupped the back of her head, fingers weaving through her hair and pressing her cheek against soft, warm leather, she didn’t try to pull away. She just cried harder. Gasping, ugly tears that were soundless and desperate and cruel.
It was the sound that hope makes when it leaves the human body, but Ethan didn’t say a thing. He just held her tighter.
And tighter.
And tighter.
When she finally remembered to breathe, her throat was raw and his jacket was ruined, but she managed to croak out, “You willneverspeak of this.”
“Okay,” he whispered into her hair.
And true to his word, he never did.
Chapter Sixty-One
Two Hours Before Christmas
Maggie
Maggie didn’t really sleep, but that didn’t mean she didn’t dream. About dorm rooms and deserts and being desperate to stay warm. About fires and red ribbons and women who disappear without a trace.
“Easy.” Something soft brushed against the back of her neck. “It’s okay. I have you.” The arm draped across her was a heavy, unfamiliar weight that should have made her want to run, but she settled beneath it, burrowing in and coming fully awake in the darkness.
Looking around the tiny, frigid cottage, Maggie had to wonder if she’d always been destined to spend Christmas Eve in a small, unheated room. It was what that first year without her parents would have been like if it hadn’t been for Emily, and part of her wondered if she would have been better off freezing in her dorm.Yes, she would have said three days ago. But now? A big, warm hand slid around her waist, and a little voice inside her whispered,Maybenot.
