Page 90 of Protected By the Sinner
“Bad to whom?”
“What?”
“Whom do you hurt? Honest people?”
“No.”
“Then maybe they’re just getting what they deserve,” she says in a way only someone who’s seen the darkest side of people could. “You said your mom only told you about being adopted when you were an adult.”
“I wasn’t adopted, Amber. I was stolen from my family. The people who raised me—or at least one of them—killed my parents.”
“Oh my God!”
She leans into my arms, and my first instinct is to push her away, keep her at a distance, because I don’t know how to share. But when I feel her hands in my hair, I start to relax again.
“I found out the same day my adoptive mother died. She told me she didn’t want to take the secret to the grave.”
“And what did you do?”
“I killed my adoptive father.”
She doesn’t move from my arms. I study her face carefully, and she doesn’t look shocked.
“Now you know almost everything about me.”
“Almost?Are there parts you’ll never tell me?”
“Yeah. There are parts I’ll never share. That’s what I’ve got to offer. You can be sure of one thing—being with me won’t be a dream. I live surrounded by danger and threats, and I hit back just as hard. I don’t spare enemies, and I don’t give second chances.”
As soon as I finish speaking, a voice echoes in my head:until I met you.
“Why do I get the feeling you expect me to walk away after everything you just told me?”
“That’s not what I want. I want a life with you. I want our child raised by both of us. But you’d be smart to tell me to go to hell.”
“You said you’re crazy about me and that you want our child, Beau. I’m not going anywhere. Your story’s not pretty? Neither is mine. I was raised among fanatics. Does that make you think less of me?”
“None of what you went through was your choice. I chose this life.”
The truth is, I think she and Elodie are miracles. Not just for escaping the clutches of those sick people but for managing to live relatively normal lives afterward. Yeah, they ran—but they had each other.
“Choice,” she repeats, like she’s lost in her own world. She pulls away from me, suddenly agitated.
“Amber?”
“Beau, I just remembered something. Why we kept running, even after all those years.”
Chapter 42
“You just remembered that now?”
She nods. “When you said the word‘choice.’”
“Tell me.”
“In the beginning, right after we escaped the cult, our plan was just to hide. We thought if we stayed away from Texas, we’d be safe. Then one day, a few months ago, we were watching TV and we sawhim.”
“Who, Amber?”
