Chapter Sixteen
Tag saw Piper’s face as she rounded the corner and came into view of his store’s front windows.
He spent the last day searching for the three missing Search and Rescue members.
He didn’t go home for almost two days and slept mere hours since he left Piper.
He was dog tired and ready for bed. Bed with Piper sounded like an even better plan.
But from the expression on her face, it didn’t look like that was going to happen.
She stormed into his store, ignoring the customers who were looking at the fishing lures, and found Tag behind the register.
“Hey, Honey.” Tag reached for her, but she swatted him away. He knew that she was mad that he went back out to assist Search and Rescue, but this was a new level of anger.
“Okay, let’s have it.” He braced himself for Piper’s onslaught of anger, but was met with her tears. Hell, the anger he could handle, but tears were a whole other subject.
“Damn it, Tag, you were gone for almost two days. Why would you do that to me? I thought you were hurt, or worse.” She covered her eyes with her hands and sobbed. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss away all her fears, but she wouldn’t have it. She shoved his hands away with a harsh slap.
“No! Don’t touch me,” she shouted. Torren made his way from the back room, obviously hearing Piper.
“Listen, guys, I’m not going to pretend to know what’s going on here, but how about you two take this to the back?” Torren gave Tag a sympathetic look.
“We don’t have to take this to the back.
” Piper stopped sobbing and seemed more in control.
Her mask was back in place, and Tag felt a chill run up his spine.
Piper put her walls back up, and she wasn’t going to let him tear them down easily.
“I’m leaving.” She swung around to go, but Tag grabbed her arm, stopping her.
“Let go of me, Tag. I said that I am leaving.” He never saw Piper so angry.
He knew that he wouldn’t be able to reach her.
“Piper, don’t do this. Don’t shut me out.” He pulled her out through the front doors of the store, afraid to let go of her for fear that she would run.
She barked out her laugh. “I’m not the one shutting anyone out, Tag.
You made me a promise, one you should have never made.
You told me that you weren’t going anywhere.
That we would be together. You promised me, and then you went off and did something dangerous.
Something that could have gotten you killed.
How would you have kept your promise then, Tag?
” He could see the hurt in her eyes—all her fears were shining through.
She was afraid that he was going to leave her the way her parents did.
He knew that being with Piper meant walking a fine line between grief and happiness.
He just didn’t realize how fine a line it was until now.
His going up on the mountain to rescue some punk kids scared her.
It took away her tightly held control. She lost everyone she loved to fate, and here he was tempting it himself.
Tag closed his eyes and groaned at his stupidity.
“Honey, I know that I promised you that I wasn’t going anywhere, and I meant it. If it is within my power to stay with you, I will. But I can’t control life and death; no one can. Not even you, Piper.”
He let go of her arm and took hold of both of her hands. He needed to reach her—make her understand that he was promising her forever, as long as his forever with her would last. Piper shook her head, trying to pull her hands free from his.
“He promised they would be right back. He said that it would only take a minute. But they never came back. He lied, and you lied too.” Tag knew exactly what Piper was talking about.
He heard those same promises from his father when he dumped him and Torren off at Dane’s.
He promised both of them that he just needed some time to sort everything out.
He said that he would be back before they could even miss him.
He lied, too, but his father chose to break his promise.
Piper’s father had his choice taken away from him.
“Piper, your father didn’t lie to you, and neither have I.
Your dad couldn’t keep his promise. I’m sure that he wanted to, more than anything.
Don’t you think that your parents would have given anything to have not walked into that store?
They wanted to get on that plane and come home with you, but they had their choices taken away from them.
You’ve been blaming them for something that wasn’t their fault.
Cut them a break, Piper.” Tears were streaming freely down her face, and she was breaking his heart.
He knew her next words before she even said them.
“After you called yesterday to tell me that you were going back up on the mountain, I packed a bag and left the cabin. I didn’t want to stay there without you.
I couldn’t spend another night wondering if you were alive or dead.
I spent the night before that curled up in your favorite chair, wearing your t-shirt and praying that you would find your way back to me,” she sobbed.
“I have, Pipe. I did.” His hands longed to reach for hers, but he could only let them drop back to his sides.
“I begged you not to go. I told you that I needed you to come home to me, but you chose to do what you wanted to do. You chose to break your promise, Tag.” She shook her head, anger still seething through her body.
“Piper, I explained why I needed to do that. I’d do it again, too.
All three men made it down the mountain because Torren and I could lead the team back.
Without our help, everything might not have ended so well.
Those men could have lost their lives.” Tag shoved his hands into his pockets to prevent himself from reaching out to Piper.
“I stayed in town last night, and when I found out that you never made it home, that you’d just got back in, I went back up to the cabin and packed a few more bags.
” Tag could feel his head shaking. He wanted to scream at her to stop, but he knew that she wouldn’t.
“I can’t stay in a relationship with you and protect my sanity, Tag.
I can’t keep putting myself through so much pain, not if I can help it.
We’re done,” she whispered. “I can’t be with someone who takes chances.
If you had died, I would have died. I can’t do this anymore, Tag.
I need something that you can’t promise me.
I need a guarantee that you won’t die. I know how crazy that sounds.
” Piper ran her hands over her face, wiping away her tears.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked with her final words, and she turned to leave.
Tag felt panic like he never did before.
He was in hundreds of dangerous situations, but never felt the fear that he currently felt.
He couldn’t lose Piper, but right now, he wasn’t able to reach her.
She was lost to her irrational fear and anger.
He did the only thing he knew to do—he stood in the middle of the road and watched his future walk away.
Piper knew that New York was her only option right now.
Some time away from Harvest Ridge and Tag was what she needed.
Then why did it feel so wrong to slink away into the night?
After she ran away from Tag, she took care of a few loose ends and then drove straight to Denver Airport to catch the first flight to New York.
Her heart ached with every step closer to her grandmother’s apartment.
Agnes’s lawyer, John Ketchum, met Piper in front of the building to show her into her grandmother’s home.
The apartment was cold and dark. Even though it was filled with her grandmother’s things, it felt empty.
Piper’s little home might be small in comparison to her grandmother’s penthouse, but at least it felt like home.
Agnes’s place felt like a museum, and that made Piper sad for the woman that she never really knew.
Why would her grandmother choose to live such an empty, cold life when she could have been surrounded by family?
Piper remembered the stories that her parents told her about Agnes.
How cold and distant she was towards Piper’s mother, even though she came to dislike her son for the choices that he made in his life.
Her father chose love with her mom, and that was too much for Agnes to bear.
Piper looked around the massive living space, gravitating towards the gothic fireplace mantle that held family pictures.
At least, she believed them to be family pictures.
Most were people she had never seen before, dressed in clothing that told her they were from past generations.
She stopped in front of a picture of Agnes, appearing to be in her late twenties, holding a baby.
Piper knew that the baby was her father.
She had similar pictures of him on her fireplace mantle.
Her pictures did not include a smiling Agnes.
She studied her grandmother’s face, seeing a lot of similarities in her reflection.
She never knew how much she looked like her grandmother—the resemblance was almost uncanny.
Piper replaced the picture on the mantle and turned to face John as he cleared his throat.