Page 42 of Sip
She wouldn’t go to her father after he destroyed her. Her sister is too far away. Her friends were already with her. She has nowhere else to go. Nowhere to run.
Run.
She runs.
Hurley Park.
I shove the gear into drive and slam the accelerator, almost mowing down my guards still standing in the driveway trying to figure out what the hell is going on and how they’re supposed to help. Luckily the gates are already open, or I’d plow right through the metal bars to get to her.
The world around me rushes past in a blur as I race down the streets, ignoring all other traffic as if the vehicles don’t exist. Because they don’t. Only me and her and my fuck up. No, her fuck up. She said she wouldn’t ever leave me. Shesworeshe would never leave me. This is on her. She shouldn’t lie to me regardless of what she knows. Of what she thinks. Of what she believes.
Very few cars fill the main parking lot. A man leashes an ugly smoosh-faced dog next to a white minivan. Two women, one of whom pushes a stroller with a sleeping toddler onto the path leading to the restrooms, chat in soft tones. The other lady glances at me with wide eyes, probably not expecting to see a monster in a suit tearing down a jogging trail. Sweat peppers my skin, and I can’t seem to catch my breath. Especially when I make out her silhouette through the tree line.
Grace sits on a green bench, recycled from plastic lids she told me, facing the lake. Yet she stares at nothing. Vacant eyes. Empty expression. Hollow shell of the woman I love.
Well my lost little pixie better wake the fuck up. I need her alert and alive and aware of how bad she scared me. I jet straight to her and jerk her up from the seat with my fists wrapped around her biceps. “What the fuck is wrong with you running away like this?”
Disgust strains her magnificent face. “Me? You’re asking what is wrong with me?” She grabs my jacket pockets, the only things she can reach with her locked down and shakes with all of her tiny might. “What is wrong with you? You killed my husband!”
My husband.
I should killherfor saying that to me. I’m her husband. Maybe not on paper but in every other way and aspect. I’m the one who loves and comforts and protects her. I’m the one who makes sure she enrolls in her classes and supports her volunteer work. I’m the one who put our baby in her belly. “The fuck? You don’t understand shit baby girl.”
The thin line between love and hate just snapped in me, and I’m back wanting to fuck her and murder her simultaneously just like when I first met her. “Tell me you loved him.”
Her chest rises and falls with a fury matching her face. She’s not hyperventilating now like the meek woman she was in the past. Oh no, now she’s finally full on furious and she’s never been more achingly beautiful breaking through her submissive nature to fight for herself. To stand up to the man who she thinks wronged her.
“How dare you?”
“I dare angel because you can’t be mad over him unless you loved him.”
She looks away. Everything and anything on this entire green Earth seems more interesting than me. Hell no. I grab her chin and the back of her neck, barely keeping myself from strangling her. “Do you love him?”
“That’s not fair. He didn’t deserve to die just because I didn’t love him.”
For someone controlled by everyone else, she sure is hung up on this fair business. “Is it fair you had to marry a man you didn’t love? Is it fair that he didn’t want you until he found how much I want you? Is it fair that he would have killed you to keep people from knowing the child growing inside of you wasn’t his?”
All the fight bleeds out of her from the cruel truth I spew at her, and only my grip keeps her on her feet.
“What?”
“It was you. The person he threatened was you.”
Her knees buckle from the weight of her pain he caused and I caused and this damn life caused. I haul her against me showing zero mercy. I’m all about retaliation. Even with her.Especiallywith her because she makes me feel and life was easier when the only emotion I felt was hate. Now I’m embroiled in love and worry and fear and happiness and the sensations are too much. Too fucking much when she can’t comprehend what I’ve done for her. “I killed him so he wouldn’t kill you.”
She nods as if she understands. Yet I don’t think she really does. Not by a long shot. “Your father gave you away to save his own ass. Your husband gave you up as soon as he was done with you. You love me although you shouldn’t. But it doesn’t matter because it’s too late for me to stop loving you and I’m not letting you go.”
We stand in silence. Several of my men guard us from a distance pretending indifference as our drama plays out. The women with the stroller slow their steps on the path from our presence and after a few seconds of murmuring to each other turn back. Can’t blame them since we make an intimidating presence in the normally tranquil park. Even the birds have stopped chirping from the chaos.
“The only person I can trust is you.”
Pretty much an accurate assessment. Although she doesn’t sound pleased by the realization. Broken, which breaks me too.
“The only time I’ve felt safe is with you.”
That would be a bizarre feeling from anyone but her. “You are the only person in the world I would never hurt. I will kill to protect you so know that now. I cannot and will not change.”
As limited as she is in her ability to move, she nods against my chest. “You’ve changed more than you know. You’re a very different man since I first met you. At least with me.”
