vering outside my consciousness, beckoning to be remembered, but I pushed it away, craving the comfort of the man I loved instead.
“Sweetheart, wake up.”
No, no, no. I want to stay asleep.
The touch of his lips pulled me back into consciousness. I opened my eyes to see Austin looking at me with concern.
And then it all came back.
The chase.
Angie.
The gun.
Her death.
Austin brought us into a hotel room. “Where are we?”
“Somewhere safe away from it all.”
I remained silent.
He pleaded, “Scarlette, talk to me.”
I chewed on my lip and stared into Austin’s eyes. The images of Angie holding the gun to her head played on a loop in my brain. “I saw Angie kill herself today.”
He held me tighter, and I let his warmth and smell wrap around me. “Yes, you did. She was sick.”
My throat tightened. “My mom struggled to hold on to her life. She fought for every second she could stay with me. Angie ended her life without a thought. The whole thing is very hard for me to grasp. I feel a little lost.”
“Me, too.” I must have looked confused because Austin gave me a sad smile. “I’ve had to remain numb for a long time. And with you, I don’t. Today, I had to switch back to deal with Angie, and I didn’t like the person I was. I like who I am with you. And I don’t want to lose you.”
I was shocked at his confession. Tentatively, I touched his cheek, wondering if this was what his life had been like in the Marines. My brave, strong man, who’d had to keep all emotions cut off to survive. I truly understood why he hadn’t been in the right mindset to start a relationship when we first met. “You haven’t lost me.”
He exhaled heavily, obviously relieved. “Thank goodness.”
Leaning down, he touched his lips to mine. “I want to get lost in you, sweetheart.”
6
Austin
A month after the incident with Angie, Scarlette and I were stronger for having weathered the storm. As it turned out, Angie had a history of this sort of behavior. She’d gotten fixated on her teacher at sixteen and nearly killed him. Her family had paid a lot of money to have those records sealed.
Charles had called me to apologize for not taking the situation seriously. He’d thought I was blowing things out of proportion. It wouldn’t have been the first time someone left the service and kept finding the worst in innocent situations, created chaos to mimic the rush of being in the field.
Each day, I scanned the local papers, but there wasn’t much there. I imagined Angie’s parents paid a hefty amount to keep it quiet. They came from oil money and wanted to protect their name. At least it seemed that part of our lives was done. And now it was time to start the next chapter.
My parents were ecstatic about how things were progressing with Scarlette. Mom pestered me constantly, wanting to know when I was going to ask her to marry me.
It was rare for me to be nervous, but I was currently shaking like a fucking leaf. Scarlette sat beside me in the truck, holding my hand and wearing a blindfold.
“Where are we going?”
We’d been in the truck for about thirty minutes, and the wait was apparently killing her. “You’ll see.”
She giggled. “No, I won’t. I’m blindfolded.”