Page 109 of The Woman in the Hollow
“You mean from the baby pinprick in my neck?” I asked. When it came to injuries, my bruised shoulders from the last attack hurt more than that.
“I meant from everything. Now that you’ve had a chance to wrap your head around it all.”
“Can I tell you something without you thinking I’m crazy?”
“Sure.”
“When I came back into the haunted house and Ant was there… and the body was there…”
“Yeah?” he prompted when I fell silent.
“I felt like I belonged.”
“Belonged?”
“Like I was part of your world. Like there was no reason you could tell me I couldn’t understand or wouldn’t be comfortable with it. I was there and I understood it and I felt like it was right.”
Dante spun me, his eyes deep.
“It was never that you didn’t belong, Hazel. I just didn’t want to ask you to be willing to be a part of a life of possible violence and uncertainty. Though, to be fair, most of the women never see a dead body.”
“I guess I’m screwing up that average, seeing two of them.”
“You don’t have to make light of it.”
“I’m not. I mean, I guess I am. But I’m strangely okay with it. I mean, it wasn’t like someone got killed for no reason. He had a knife to my throat. And if he’d succeeded in kidnapping me or getting the account number out of me, there was no way he was going to let me go. I knew who he was.”
“That’s true. I still wish I could have protected you from that.”
“I know you do. But I’m okay. Really.”
“I see that. And as much as I didn’t like seeing you in my world—because it’s not something you should have to see—I have to admit that I liked knowing that you could handle the worst of the worst.”
“I know this is all new and—”
“I’m gonna stop you right there,” he cut me off. “It might be new, but I’ve had a feeling there was something here almost from the jump. And every time we’ve been together since has only reinforced that.”
“I feel the same way.”
“I may or may not have had the car parked at Famiglia because I didn’t want you to leave,” he admitted.
“I was glad it was missing because I didn’t want to have to offer to go.”
“Well, you don’t want to go. I don’t want you to go. So, you’re staying.”
“I might need some more clothes. And to check on my shrimp.”
“Shrimp, huh? Interesting first pet.”
“I mean, they don’t actually need any care. I got them so I didn’t feel so alone.”
“You’re not alone anymore,” he said, pulling me flush against him. “Though I have been wanting a dog for a while.”
“I love dogs. And we could totally bring him or her to the garden center so they are never alone.”
“Santa hat for the winter wonderland.”
“Costume for the fall season…”
