Page 21 of Sparrow

This was not okay. This was serious. Anyone with any common sense would run as far away from this situation as possible. At this point, they had no idea who he was, and it was better if he kept it that way. He needed to stay as far away from Corey and her family as possible.

Owen knew these things. He was a smart guy who could appreciate objective facts. It would have been wise for him to leave this woman and her backwoods, gun-toting family alone.

But that was not going to happen. There was never a moment when it crossed his mind to give up on her. He knew they were keeping her from him. He left Philipsburg, knowing he would go to the place where he had met Corey the morning before.

He was shaken from the encounter with her mom and John. He drove for a little while in the wrong direction before stopping to watch and make sure he wasn't being followed. Owen wasn't normally paranoid, but nothing like this had ever happened to him before, so he stopped to make sure no one was behind him.

He only waited for a minute. He gathered his thoughts and then he went straight to the place in the woods where he met Corey before. He had the location saved to his phone, and he easily got back to it.

It took him thirty-five minutes to get there, and his chest felt like it might crack in half when he saw Corey's truck. He was relieved and excited and about a dozen other emotions all rolled into one. His heart was racing. He left the vehicle and took off down the trail to the creek.

He saw her across the way, and he whistled. She had already caught sight of him and was heading toward him. They took aim at each other and made their way through the woods. She was grinning like she was happy to see him, and he was relieved and thankful to see her smiling and doing well. He had been freaked out by her mom, and had considered the possibility of never seeing her again.

Thank goodness he was seeing her again.

He ached to hold her.

His heart yearned to protect her—to hold her—to take her away from this place. He had to hold back emotion as they approached each other. He did his best to remain stoic.

"I lost my phone," she said, explaining with a shy smile when she got close enough to speak to him. "I was hoping maybe you would think to come here."

"I went to the jewelry store first, and your mom was there. A guy, too."

"John."

"Yes. John."

"Oh, my gosh, you're hurt." She focused on his mouth, suddenly noticing that his lip was busted in one spot on the side.

Owen rubbed his lip with the back of his finger. "It's not, that's not, I'm… your mom pulled a gun on me."

"Oh, my gosh. I’m sorry."

"She seemed like she would actually use it."

"She wouldn't," Corey said. "She was scared to death of you, I'm sure. I don't think she would ever use it. She wouldn't. Was John there with her?"

"Y-yes. That's where the lip came from."

"I'm so sorry." She came closer, studying his mouth. He was so relieved to see her that he didn't even care about his lip. "Is it going to mess with your work?"

"I don't know how bad it is. I forgot to look at it. I'm sure makeup will do something."

She stared at his face, and he stared at hers. She was perfect He had never seen a face so perfectly rounded and pristine. He loved how she looked, there was no denying that, but he also felt more than that. He wanted to help her and protect her. He wanted to get her out of there. Even if he couldn't have her, he wanted to help her. But he wanted to have her, there was no denying that. She came with all sorts of trouble, and there was nothing Owen could do to stop himself from wanting her.

Corey reached up and touched the side of his face, near the front of his ear, carefully avoiding his lip. "I am so sorry he did this to you."

He nudged his chin at her. "How sorry are you?"

Chapter 8

Corey Jones

"How sorry am I? Is that what you said?" I asked Owen, staring up at him.

His chest rose and fell as he took a settling, deep breath. My fingertips were no longer on his face, but he hadn't flinched when I had them there, and my whole body was tingling and warm.

"Yes, it is what I said, and I have no idea why. I probably just wanted the end result for you to kiss me."

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