Page 133 of Forever Never
He managed to drag his gaze away from her and focus on the canvas in front of him.
Dark purple bled into unrelenting black around two jagged, off-white splotches. Sharp, hard lines in orange and yellow divided the eerie night from the bottom of the canvas. She used the palette knife not so much to blend, but almost to rend. The bottom was a snowy white with scarlet red stains.
Brick’s heart started to hammer in his chest with recognition. He knew what she’d painted.
Pain, trauma, terror. Lights cutting through the dark. And the unholy splatter of red on pristine white. It made him feel. Rage, bone-deep fear.
A few colors on a canvas, and she’d made him feel as if his heart was being carved out of his chest.
She turned back to him, tears and triumph on her face, rendering him breathless. “I won,” she whispered.
She’d vanquished demons. She’d painted their likeness. She’d risen from the ashes in oils and color.
Remington Ford wasn’t scared anymore. But he needed her to be.
34
“Agnes is going to kick your ass. Is this absolutely necessary?” Remi yawned while Brick glared at the general store’s selection of security cameras.
“Only if your personal safety is a priority,” he said grimly.
“You’re cranky after you have a lot of sex,” she observed.
He grabbed four cameras off the shelf and threw them in the basket she was holding. “I’m not cranky because we had sex. I’m fucking furious that there’s some asshole out there who thinks he gets to decide whether you feel pain or not.”
Remi shut her mouth.
“I’m full of rage thinking that this man—this fucking predator—believes he is in charge of whether you live or die. I’m livid knowing this motherfucker is out there walking around consequence-free while you’re here with a broken arm afraid of the dark because of him.”
“Brick—”
“He had no right to make you fear anything. He had no right to take that fearlessness of yours that drives me crazy on a good day. No right to put those shadows in your eyes. And he sure as fuck had no right to lay hands on his wife.”
It was the longest speech she’d ever heard him make. The possessiveness, the unmitigated rage he felt because someone dared cause her pain burrowed itself into her chest and planted roots.
She laid a hand on his arm, noticing how rigid the muscle was. “It’s going to be okay,” she promised.
He turned to face her. “You’re damn right it’s going to be okay.”
“We’ll make him pay, right?”
He nodded solemnly. “He’ll pay.”
“And Camille will be safe?”
“You won’t have anything to worry about,” Brick promised, his voice fierce.
She knew it was silly. She knew it was impossible for him to make that promise and keep it. But just knowing that he was willing to share her burden gave her enough space to think more clearly. But his certainty, his over-the-top protective instincts, still made her believe.
She wanted to kiss him. To slip her hands under his coat and lose herself in a kiss that would make her forget everything except how much he wanted her.
“Oh, my. Well, isn’tthiscozy?” Mira Rathbun appeared at the end of the aisle, looking like she’d just stumbled upon the juicy story of the century.
Remi took a step back from Brick. Thelastthing she needed was the scrutiny of the entire island gossiping about them. “Brick was just helping me…”
Helping her what? Up her orgasm level?
The man slung a possessive arm around her shoulder and hauled her up against his side. Remi gave an awkward laugh and tried to extricate herself from his grasp. But the wall of man was stronger, more stubborn.
