Page 101 of Silent Threat
“Annie, please.” He came to his knees, then to his feet. He couldn’t lose her.
“No.”
She gathered herself, right in front of his eyes, in that indomitable way she had. As if she were a mighty oak and he just a passing storm, and she wasn’t going to allow him to shake her.
Desperation sliced Cole’s heart into ribbons. He was losing her.
“Annie ...”
But she pointed at the door. “I mean it, Cole. Get out and don’t ever come back.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
ANNIE’S STOMACH FLOODEDwith acid, while her heart thudded hard in a race to see whether she’d have a heart attack or an ulcer first.
She had given Cole more of her heart than she’d given to any man. She had ripped her chest open for him and let him see the bleeding memories of her past. She’d shown himeverything.
But for him, their entire relationship—every day when she’d been agonizing over falling for him—had been playacting. He’d used her foraccess.
Betrayalwasn’t a large enough word to describe what she felt.
She wanted to go to the deer blind, but the mocking ghost of Cole’s presence would be there. Same at the sacred tree circle.
She wanted to run into the woods and lose herself. She wanted to run so deep that pain couldn’t find her.
There was a different woods past the far edge of the cornfield where she’d never taken Cole or any of her patients. She rarely went there herself. The place had been the site of a Revolutionary War battle. She always felt as if ghosts walked among the trees there.
At the moment, Annie felt like a ghost herself.
Tears rolling down her face, she dove into the corn and headed for the far edge.
Thursday
Dr.Ambrose had prescribed Cole’s meds, so he had to meet with him to discuss what Cole would like to continue and what he’d like to discontinue. Their appointment was at ten o’clock. Other than that, Cole canceled the rest of the exit sessions that had been scheduled for him.
He was grateful for the effort people at Hope Hill had put into making him feel better, but he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to make nice all morning. He didn’t want to see anyone but Annie, and Annie didn’t want to see him.
Cole was ready to get out of there. Not that he would be able stay away.
His plan was to go home, move out of his apartment, and ship his stuff up here. Before coming to Hope Hill, he’d done mostly Internet work, reviewing security protocols for various companies. He could pick up more work like that, and he had money saved from his active-duty days.
He would do whatever it took for Annie to forgive him.
If she made him wait two years, then so be it.
He wanted a chance with her. If he couldn’t convince her, if she still said no, he’d accept her decision. But he wasn’t going to throw away the possibility of a future with her because of their first fight.
Cole walked into Ambrose’s office.
The shrink looked up. “I’m sorry to hear that you’re leaving. Please, have a seat.”
Cole didn’t expect to stay long enough to make sitting down worthwhile. He sat anyway, to be polite. “Just the way it played out.”
The man studied him carefully and poured them both some water, the ice clinking in the carafe. “So, what’s on your mind this morning?”
Annie.Annie had been on Cole’s mind most of the time since he’d met her. Not that he’d tell Ambrose.
“Getting back home,” he said instead.
