Chapter Twenty-Three #2
His eyes slid over to mine. “No, they wouldn’t. Every single lead I had on you ended up being a dead end.”
My eyes dropped to his hands, and I began tracing his fingers. “How long did it take to find him when you left that summer?”
“Two weeks.”
My head snapped up. “Wh-what? But you were gone for over a year and a half.”
He leaned forward, his hands going higher up my thighs before wrapping around my hips, towering over me once more. “I called in a favor with an old friend.”
My chest tightened. “What kind of old friend?”
“If I had just called him years ago, I would’ve been able to find you sooner,” he whispered, pushing some of my hair back.
“So he found Benson?”
“He helped me, yes.” He paused. “After I found him, I decided to take them all out, leaving him for last. They thought they were safe. Enough time had passed, and they were ready to begin again.”
“What?” I breathed, my chest deflating.
“It was stupid of them, really. To assume that I was never coming,” he murmured, more so to himself than to me.
“I left him where he was, on that private island, and went back to Texas. Then to South Carolina. Then to Boston. I took care of them. All of them. Saved that bastard Benson for last, and trust me, gorgeous, he knew I was coming. Word had spread.”
My voice was breathless, quiet. “You killed for me?” The question lingered in the air. I waited for fear to dig its claws into my back and crawl up my spine, but it never did. The little voice in the back of my mind sang out, defying my logic.
You’re safe here.
He is your protector.
“No one harms you and lives.”
It should have scared me, his nonexistent hesitation regarding violence. “Do you…” I couldn’t muster up the words.
Instantly, he knew what I was trying—failing—to ask. He shook his head. “I won’t lie to you and say I didn’t enjoy watching the light go out of his eyes, Angel. I did. He tortured you, and I returned the favor.”
“I never asked you to do that,” I said, silently wondering why I wasn’t afraid. If it were anyone else, I would’ve been running for the hills. What the hell was wrong with me?
“I don’t have any regrets,” he replied, earnest. “If things had been different and you had never been placed under witness protection and I’d been the one who got you out of there, I still would’ve gone after him.
That’s the kind of man I am. It’s not in me to stand by and watch men hurt women and children.
Especially not a woman I’m connected with. ”
Carrie and Margo came to mind.
“I can only assume that Grayson and Hayes are the same?” I asked as his strong hands moved to my waist.
“We all are. Red Snake was formed with the intention of doing good in this world. To the outside, our methods may seem unorthodox, but we use our skills for good. I can’t tell you how many people we’ve saved, how many women we’ve protected from entitled men, how many families we’ve shielded from abuse. ”
My heart skipped a beat.
He brushed his temple against mine, his voice growing soft.
“My Nonna told stories of soulmates when I was growing up, and those stories instilled a belief inside me. Every person has a soulmate, in every lifetime. In some, you never find them. In others, you do, but you’re too late.
In this one, Angel, I found you, and for a while, I accepted that I would never have you.
That didn’t mean I wouldn’t protect you. ”
My lips parted as he pulled back. “Wait, you—”
“I came back to Astoria not only to be with my family again but to watch over you. I never intended on being in your life, but when your tire blew and I watched your car spin off into that ditch…” He looked over to the fireplace. “I’ve never felt fear like that before.”
“It was fate.” It was undeniable.
He brushed his lips against mine. “I think so.”
We stayed in the living room for a while, both of us moving to the bigger couch.
There, wrapped in his strong arms, I listened as he told me everything he could about Devil’s Den and his time in the hospital.
I cried, feeling the guilt crush me. He did his best to try and lift it, but it was no use.
This was something I would have to work out on my own.
His words, softly spoken, fueled my imagination. I could see his bruised and broken body lying in a hospital bed, Hayes, Jake, Dominic, and Grayson standing over him as the beeping of the monitor filled the silence.
“Grayson witnessed some things,” he recalled, his voice distant, “when he saved me. He wouldn’t tell me what I’d endured and still won’t to this day.”
I stared at the ceiling, feeling a tear slide down my temple. “Do you want him to?”
He paused. “No. I don’t think either of us could survive those memories.”
“He saved your life.”
“Yes. He left Carrie and spent six months hunting me down and keeping an eye on me while I recovered,” he murmured, twirling my hair.
“Was Carrie angry?”
“No, they weren’t together then. He’d fallen in love with her, made plans to be with her, but Hayes called him.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t regret it.”
“No.” He kissed the top of my head. “Not even for a second.”
“I don’t know what I would’ve done if you had…” A lump swelled in my throat.
“You wouldn’t have known,” he said, the truth behind his words chilling me to the bone.
I wouldn’t have known.
I would’ve spent the rest of my days searching for something—someone—I would never find.
“I should’ve asked about you. I should’ve—”
He had moved me, and in a blink of an eye, I was underneath him, his hips between my legs. He braced his hands on the arm of the couch, hovering over me as a low growl manifested from his chest. “I told you I don’t want your guilt. You have nothing to feel guilty over.”
I reached up, taking his face in my hand.
“I may not have felt it when you saved me, but I did the day I walked into Rossy’s,” I confessed.
“I felt a tug somewhere deep within me. It was strange, and after you left Astoria, a part of me felt empty. Then, when you showed up on the beach,” I sat up, my lips brushing against his, “I felt it again.”
“We can’t change the past, Starlight. If you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my days building the life we need.”
“The life we need?”
He kissed me then. “I’m way past want. I need you.”
I brushed my fingers over his mouth. My gaze on him in the shadows. “I’m beginning to believe I need you too.”