6. Reyna
CHAPTER 6
I’ve just finished getting dressed when someone knocks on the door.
“I’ll grab that, honey,” my mom says, smiling tightly as she heads over to open the door. I hear her say something, but the curtain is still closed, blocking my view of who it is. And since their voices are muted, I can’t quite hear what anyone is saying.
“Who is it?” I ask.
A few seconds pass by before she opens the curtain. Michael stands beside her, his expression twisted in a mixture of fear and relief. My heart jumps at the sight of him, my stomach swimming with nerves.
His hair is dry now, though it’s mussed like he’s been running his hands through it. The obsidian strands have always been a bit wavy, but they’re even wavier after the rain. His strong jaw is set, his brows furrowed over dark almond-shaped eyes.
Why do I still feel this? After everything? All the years we were apart? How is he still the only man I want? Even more so now because out of everyone, he’s the only person on this planet who makes me feel safe. My eyes fill, so I rapidly blink the tears away.
His gaze darts around the room, and I know he’s just as uncomfortable as I am.
“I haven’t had the chance to thank you,” my mother starts.
I glare at her like she’s a traitor even though I also owe the former Army Ranger a ton of gratitude.
“You don’t need to thank me, Mrs. Acker,” he tells her.
She reaches up and cups his face, a feat given he towers over her. “I do need to thank you. You saved my baby tonight. Without you, there’s no telling what would have happened.”
“I will always protect Reyna,” he says.
“Thank you.” She smiles and releases him, then turns to me. “I’m going to check in with your father. I’ll be right outside if you need me.” She shuts the door softly behind her, and the room seems to close in on Michael and me.
“If you want me to go, I can.”
He saved me. So even though I know I should send him away, I don’t. “Thank you for tonight,” I tell him as I stand. I ache, but I do my best not to show it on my face. The last thing I need is him seeing me as even more of a damsel.
“Why does everyone keep thanking me?” he asks angrily.
“Because you saved my life.”
“I did what anyone would have done.”
I doubt he meant the words the way they came out, but all I heard was that I am not special to him. Never have been, never will be.
“Fair enough. But it was you who pulled into the parking lot. You who saved me. So you get the thanks.”
“I didn’t mean it that way—” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. I’ve never seen this man rattled before. He’s one of those people who always has a smile on his face, even as the world burns to ash around him. Nothing ever gets him down.
So to see him so broken up, it tugs at the strings still attached to my heart.
“Are you—” He takes a step forward, then stops. “Are you okay?”
“Physically, I’m fine,” I say.
“The rest of you?”
“Not great,” I admit. “Being nearly kidnapped doesn’t necessarily leave a lot of room for feeling okay.”
“Of course not.” He runs a hand through his hair. His clothes are still a bit damp, and the shirt clings to him like a second skin, defining every muscled ridge of his toned torso. The jagged scar along the side of his face looks even more apparent now, and I don’t know if it’s because of the way he’s tightening his jaw or if I’m imagining that it’s changed because I’m seeing him differently now.
When I look at Michael now, I’m not seeing the teenager who broke my heart but the man who screeched into a parking lot and jumped out like a warrior, his gun raised and ready to fire.
“Listen, I appreciate what you did. And I want you to know that.” I shrug into the cardigan my mother brought for me, needing even more space between us and hoping the fabric will do the trick.
My heart still beats for him, even as the broken pieces struggle to fit together.
“Is this how it’s going to be between us forever?” he asks.
“What?” I turn back toward him, and Michael moves in closer. I can see the flecks of copper in his dark gaze. Eyes I used to stare into for hours.
“We’re strangers.”
“What else are we supposed to be?”
“Friends?” he nearly whispers it.
“I don’t need any more friends, Michael.”
“Rey—”
“No. You don’t get to call me that anymore,” I snap as emotion sears my throat. I want so badly to run to him. To bury my face in his chest while he holds me and tells me everything is going to be all right.
But doing so won’t fix the past.
It won’t erase the years of heartache, or the constant question of why I wasn’t good enough to make him stay.
“I’m sorry. I don’t?—”
The door opens and Liam rushes in, eyes wide, face flushed. “Reyna! Thank God you’re okay!” Before I can fully process what’s happening, he wraps his arms around me. “I was so terrified when I heard what happened.” He pulls back. “Are you okay? What did they say? Did they catch him?”
My gaze lifts to Michael, who looks about ready to throttle Liam for the interruption.
Liam seems to notice that we’re not the only ones in the room, and he turns to offer Michael his hand. “You must be Michael Anderson. I heard what you did for Reyna.”
Michael takes his hand and shakes it.
“Thank you so much for saving her. You are truly a hero.”
“Yeah, that’s me.” Michael meets my gaze as Liam wraps me in a hug again.
One date. We had one date, and one partial date, and the man is behaving as though we’re betrothed. Should I be grateful he cares? Or just as annoyed as Michael is that he interrupted us?
“I’ll see you around, Miss Acker.” Michael turns and leaves just as I’d wanted him to.
So why do I feel so alone the moment he walks out the door?
“I really am okay,” I tell Carter for the hundredth time as he carries in yet another bowl of soup. It’s the third one he’s made me eat since I woke after sleeping nearly all day yesterday and nearly half of today. Honestly, if he keeps feeding me like this, I am going to be sick.
“I don’t know what else to do.” He plops down on the couch beside me.
“You don’t need to do anything,” I tell him as I clasp my hand on his knee. “I promise I’m okay.”
“You could have died.”
“And I didn’t.”
“Because of Michael.”
Just the mere mention of his name brings up a thousand feelings I’d rather leave buried. Especially when the image of his furious expression as he stood, drenched in rain, gun pointed directly at the man, floods into my mind all over again.
I’d been out of it, dazed, but that is one sight I will never forget.
Michael coming to my rescue.
“Because God made sure I wasn’t alone in that parking lot.”
“And He chose Michael to save you.”
“What are you getting at?”
“I don’t like the guy,” Carter says. I don’t point out that they’d been best friends before Michael took off. Just like Margot and I were. Only we’re still close. He and Michael had a massive falling out that led to Carter tracking him down at Fort Benning.
As far as I know, last night at the hospital was the first time they’d seen each other since.
“But he’s always had a torch for you.”
“Good for him. Mine burned out when he left town.” I take a bite of soup.
“I know, but maybe—” He stops talking and takes a deep breath.
“Just spit it out, Carter.”
“Maybe see if he can hang around a bit more. Just until they catch this guy.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Reyna—”
“No, Carter.” Setting my soup aside, I stand. “You have no idea what it felt like,” I tell him. My brother and I have always been close, so being vulnerable with him is as familiar as breathing. “He left me. Walked out without so much as a goodbye.”
“I know that.” Carter stands and crosses over to rest his hands on my shoulders. “But you need someone watching out for you now.”
“I have you. Dad. Mom.”
“You do. And we’ll do anything we need to do to keep you safe.”
“But?” I ask, sensing one coming.
“We’re not trained bodyguards, Reyna. Michael is.”
“So are the others who work at the security firm.”
“Then go to one of them. I’ll pay the bill. You can send it straight to me and I’ll take care of it. But please?—”
“Carter. It was probably just a mugging. I doubt the guy is coming back.”
“None of your cards have been used.”
“So? It’s been less than twenty-four hours. Maybe he’s?—”
“He told you he was coming back.”
I can still feel the heat of his breath against my neck, the way his arm banded around my chest. My heart rate kicks up as panic sets in. It’s been years since I struggled with anxiety the way I have in the past few hours. And having someone to watch my back until we know for sure what the motive was might ease it. “Fine. I’ll talk to them. But I think it’s unnecessary.”
“Thank you.” He pulls me in for a hug. “Let’s go. Get your shoes.”
“Go where?”
“I made an appointment with Knight Security for this afternoon.”
“You did what?” I stare at him, trying to process how this went from a, fine, I’ll talk to them, to a, let’s go, it’s time for your appointment.
“It’s in thirty. We better hurry.”
“How did you? When did you?—?”
“I had a hunch I could talk you into it. Besides, if you hadn’t caved for me, I had Dad on the back burner. Then Mom after him.”
At that exact time, my father walks out of the kitchen. It’s his lunch break, so he’s covered in grease from the automotive shop he runs. A half sandwich in hand, he looks at me and shrugs. “We love you, Reyna.”
“You guys are turds.” I lightly punch Carter in the arm, and he wraps his around me.
“We know. But we love you. Now, shoes.”
With a light laugh, I head down the hall and step into the room I’ve lived in most of my life. Should I have gone to my house after I got out of the hospital? Probably, but the idea of being alone right now terrifies me.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, I can go home. Until then, I’m going to stay here with my parents.
After sitting on my bed and putting on my tennis shoes, I get down on the floor and withdraw an aged cardboard box. I stare down at the lid for a while. Every memory I have with Michael. Everything he gave me fits in this box. It’s how I’ve coped with the loss of what we’d shared. I put it in here, shut the lid, and refused to let myself think about it.
Shoving it back under the bed, I stand and grab my sweatshirt.
If only I could leave my still-broken heart inside that box, too.