Chapter 13
Dallas
Arianna fell asleep in my arms minutes after her release. It took me longer to find rest because I couldn’t stop staring at her. I can’t believe she’s here in our bed, where she belongs.
It’s early now, but I’ve been awake for a while, watching her again, loving the way she sleeps so peacefully, her lips parted, her face relaxed.
My phone vibrates on the nightstand. I consider ignoring it, but it’s so early in the morning that whoever is texting must have a good reason. I carefully ease my body from Arianna’s back, pushing to sit on the edge of the bed, and grab my phone.
The text is from my PI, Jason.
Hey. Sorry to text so early. I found your girl. Picture to follow. She’s fifteen in this picture. Call me.
I sit up straighter. He found my girl? I was aware he’d still been looking for any evidence of her from before she was eighteen, but I hadn’t held out much hope he would discover anything. It’s obvious her identity change was done professionally.
After easing to my feet, I grab my jeans off the floor and shrug into them before glancing back to find Arianna still dead asleep.
Another text comes in as I silently exit our bedroom and pull the door closed with a soft snick.
I gasp when I see the incoming photograph. It’s definitely Arianna. She’s ten years younger, but she has the same brown curls and bone structure. She hasn’t changed much in ten years. She was fully grown at fifteen.
Hurrying down the hallway and taking the stairs two at a time, I’m already dialing Jason before I hit the kitchen. The smell of coffee catches my attention, and I wave toward Gretchen, who is already hard at work, as I pass through the room, heading for the library.
“Dallas,” Jason says, “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“Nah. I was already awake. That’s Arianna. How did you find her?”
“Are you sitting down?”
I flinch. Sitting? Lordy. How serious is this? I enter the library and close the door before heading for one of the armchairs. “Now I am. Talk to me.”
“Do you remember the high-profile murder-suicide ten years ago in Florida?”
My breath hitches, and I shudder. Everyone remembers that day. It was so shocking, and it rocked the nation. “Yes. Governor Whitacker. Killed his wife and himself in the middle of the night.” Oh, God… Did Arianna witness it somehow? “What does Arianna have to do with this?”
“She’s their daughter.”
My heart stops. I don’t move a single muscle as I process this information. Arianna. My Arianna. The woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with is the daughter of Governor Joseph Whitacker? Holy shit.
Jason continues, “Because we were considering that she might be in witness protection, I went back through high-profile cases in Florida and got a hit. It seems she spent three years constantly dodging the press. They hounded her everywhere she went. She had to withdraw from the elite prep school where she’d been a sophomore and finished her high-school education online.
When she graduated, she erased herself, took a new identity, and moved to Arizona to attend college as Arianna Blythe. ”
I lean back in the armchair. Jesus. A lot of possible scenarios have gone through my head in the past week, but in every one of them, I imagined my girl having witnessed something. She’s not hiding in witness protection. She’s hiding from the press.
Though it’s also possible she did see something. Was she in the house when her father killed her mother and took his own life? Did she hear the shots? Find the bodies? I pray she did not.
I run a hand down my face. “Thank you for letting me know.”
“No problem. Sorry for the early wake-up call.” Jason disconnects, leaving me in the silent library, worrying about my poor girl and what she’s been through.
It all makes more sense now. She took this job in this small town in order to hide from the world. The clothes, the horn-rimmed glasses, the bun she always wears in her hair. She’s hoping no one will recognize her so she can live in peace.
My heart hurts for the girl who lost both her parents on the same day and what she’s been through since. I want to go to her, hold her, comfort her.
Luckily, since she won’t be able to open the library for at least a few days, I’ll be able to hole up with her and get her to talk to me. I want to know everything. It’s the only way I’ll be able to help her deal with her past.
Even though it’s early, I place a few calls and leave messages with people who can assess the stability of the ceiling in Arianna’s apartment. I’ll need a plumber, too, but first things first.
“Dallas?”
I spin my head to see Arianna shuffling into the library. Her curls are in a messy ponytail on top of her head. She’s wearing leggings and an oversized T-shirt.
I realize it’s mine and smile as I hold out a hand, encouraging her to join me. “Come here, baby.”
She flushes as she hurries the rest of the way toward me.
When she’s close enough, I reach out, grab her around the hips, and lift her onto my lap. “Straddle me, baby.”
She giggles, her cheeks flushing as she settles on my lap with her legs spread around my hips. She glances at the open door next. “Someone might see,” she whispers.
I chuckle. “I don’t give a fuck who sees you sitting on my lap, Arianna.”
She sighs and flattens her palms on my bare chest. I’m still only wearing the jeans I grabbed before leaving the room. “Why are you down here? It’s so early. I woke up and you were gone.”
I run my hands up her back. I don’t want to keep what I know from her. “I got a call from my PI.”
A few seconds go by before she slowly lifts her gaze. “The one who was investigating me?” she murmurs.
“Yes.” I stare directly into her eyes.
Her shoulders drop. “So, he told you who I am.”
“Yes.” I spread my fingers out on her back and draw her closer.
“Are you mad at me?”
I frown and shake my head. “No, baby. You said you weren’t in any danger, which was not a lie. I assume no one specific is after you. You’re not running for your life. You’re hiding from the world, and that’s understandable.”
She lifts her face. Tears well up in my girl’s eyes. When they run down her cheeks, she starts quietly sobbing.
I pull her the rest of the way against me and hug her close, kissing her temple. “I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through. It must have been horrifying.”
She cries harder, and I gently rock her back and forth. She needs to release her emotions. I suspect she has pent-up feelings that have been trapped for years. I have questions, but I don’t need to ask them right now.
After a long time, her sobs turn to sniffles, and she finally leans back.
I lift the corner of my T-shirt to wipe off her face.
“People wouldn’t leave me alone. I had no privacy,” she begins.
“People can be cruel.”
“I spent three years basically in hiding. My nanny took me in. She was a godsend. She loved me. When I turned eighteen, I paid my lawyer to erase me from existence and reinvented myself. How did your PI find me?”
“I assumed you were in witness protection. If that had been the case, you would have probably witnessed a murder. Since you said you were from Florida, he went back through all the high-profile cases for several years until he found a picture of you.”
She swallows. “That means anyone could do the same thing.”
“They could, but no one else is aware you changed your identity, baby, so they aren’t looking.”
“You figured it out. What made you suspect I wasn’t who I said I was?”
I smile. “I felt a connection with you from the moment I stepped into the library. The air sizzled around us. I knew you were in a disguise of sorts. I just sensed it.”
She shivers. “That’s weird, you know.”
I chuckle and shrug. “I’m in tune with you. It will grow stronger every day of our lives.”
“I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I should be frightened.”
I shake my head. “Nothing to be scared of. You feel it, too. You might be fighting it harder than me, but you know you’re mine.”
She lowers her hands to my chest again and absently strokes my pecs. “I knew it at that moment, too,” she whispers.
Fuck, I love her. I slide my palms under my T-shirt and stroke them up her bare back.
She lifts her gaze again. “Now you understand why I’m a horrible choice for a partner. If anyone discovers who I am, your life will become part of my living hell.”
I shake my head. “There is no my life and your life anymore, baby. We’re in this life together now.
Whatever happens to one of us, happens to both of us.
I will protect you and always be by your side.
Nothing can touch you inside this estate.
You’re safe from the press or anyone else who ever wants to get to you.
Everyone in my family will have your back. ”
She wipes new wetness from her eyes. “I can’t ask people to do that, Dallas. Claire… Reagan… Even your cousins. They didn’t ask for my shit to land on their doorstep.”
“Baby, Claire and Reagan are your sisters now. They are the sweetest women I’ve ever met, until you, of course.” I grin. “They would never judge or turn you away. Neither would my cousins. Haven’t you noticed how fiercely protective they are?”
She giggles. “That’s an understatement. Is Tiago the same with Reagan as you are with me and Ryder with Claire?”
“Yes, every bit as dominant and overprotective. Apparently, it’s in our blood.”
“Maybe your grandfather felt that way about your grandmother, and that’s why he couldn’t go on without her. Maybe that’s why he became reclusive and mean.”
I suck in a breath and ponder her words. “Perhaps you’re right, baby. I’ve never thought of it like that. I already know I would be a basket case if anything ever happened to you. I want to surround you in bubble wrap and never let you leave my side.”
She trails her fingers down my pecs. “Do you think your sense of urgency stems from that fear? Like you need to drag me to the chapel and get me pregnant immediately so I’m bound to you?”
I consider her suggestion and shake my head.
“I already know you will never be apart from me. I don’t need to prove it with papers and babies.
I want those things because I want our bond to be deeper and deeper.
I feel so strongly about you that I want everything for us, and I don’t want to waste a single moment getting it.
Life can be fragile. I won’t waste time not having the love of my life by my side. ”
She searches my eyes. “One day, someone might find me.”
“We’ll deal with that day when it happens, baby. Together.”