Chapter Five
Memphis
Isit and take in the woman who’s rocked me to my very foundation as she sleeps, her dark eyelashes fanning against her pale cheeks.
When she tried to jump up from the bed and run, she yanked her IV out and hit her head again, this time on the floor instead of a rock, but the results were the same.
I shouldn’t have left her. I should have just made the damned call while I was sitting beside her.
I didn’t think about the worry that would eat at her, or the fear.
I should have realized, and now all I can do is kick myself for it.
She was right too. It wasn’t some fantasy brought on by the trauma or something she thought she saw.
Not that I thought it was, but the Chief was skeptical.
Until he started looking into it. It turns out Trace Kelly, the kid who threw the party and whose house everyone was at, wasn’t around when everyone had been accounted for.
And the girl lying in the bed in front of me saw everything.
Chief put a detail on the door and okayed it for me to stay with her indefinitely. I just became the lead investigator in her case. Not sure if that’s a conflict of interest or not. Thankfully, we’re a small town, and if Chief Sinclare is alright with it, it’s a go!
Not that I would have left her. He could have banned me from the fucking room, and I would have found a way back in somehow.
I slip my hand closer to hers – the one not in the cast-until we are almost touching and focus on her face.
Just the barest hint of skin contact with her has my nerves jumping and warmth rushing through me.
Would it be wrong to touch her while she’s sleeping? Just the brush of a hand. Would that be wrong? It’s not like we don’t know each other. She’s been over to my mom and dad’s house before, hung out with my sister. It’s not like I’m a stranger.
I think back to the first time I met her.
She was walking with my sister when I pulled my car over and rolled down my window.
She stayed back and didn’t say anything, but she did give me a little wave.
I understood right then that I was in trouble.
There was no way I should have been lusting after someone my fucking sister’s age.
And yet I couldn’t stop my eyes from straying over to her.
After that, I stayed the fuck away and made sure I wasn't in the same place.
I might have caught glimpses of her, but I never lingered, never talked to her, tried to never think about her…
until she pretty much fell in my arms. Well, at my feet really.
Something clicked inside of me when I looked down and realized she was the person in that ditch looking so small and vulnerable.
Or maybe it broke free from the cage I had put it in.
Either way, I made a promise I intend to keep.
Eyes the color of the forest open slowly and look up at me, disarming me completely. I realize for the first time I’m not just reaching out to touch this woman’s hand; my fingers are entwined with hers. And she’s holding mine back just as firmly.
“Memphis, right?”
How good does my name sound coming from her? Better than I would have ever expected, that’s how good.
“Yeah. That’s me, baby.”
“Am I going to die?”
She sounds tired and scared, and it cuts into my gut deeper than an actual bullet would.
“No, baby. You’re not going to die.”
“Those men…they’re going to come for me.”
“If they do, it’ll be the last thing they ever do.”
She laughs a little and turns those big eyes away from me. “Doesn’t mean they don’t get me before you can get them.”
My girl hasn’t had an easy life if that statement is anything to go by. I take her by the chin and bring her face back to mine.
“You misunderstood, baby girl. If they come for you, they won’t ever be close enough to hurt you. I’ll be waiting for them. And if they’re that stupid to come looking for you, I’ll be the one hunting them.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Why do you care if they try to kill me?”
This time I’m the one huffing out a laugh, “Because, sweetheart, you’re mine.”
Her brow knits together as she tries to make sense of my words, but her eyes close before she can say another word to me.
I'm not sure if she’ll remember any of this conversation in the morning.
I doubt she will, but there will come a day when she asks, and I tell her the naked truth…
she’s been mine since before any of this happened.