CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
The sound of pounding broke through the morning air. I groaned and cracked my eyes open. “Tristan?”
He was already stirring. He ran a hand down my arm and grunted. “Someone’s at the door.”
“What do they want?”
He sighed and slid out of bed. I watched him through tired eyes as he went to the window and moved the curtain aside to look out. “It’s a cop.”
Now my eyes widened and I sat up quickly. “What?”
“Maybe we’re not supposed to be parked here.
” He quickly grabbed a pair of jeans and slid into them.
He didn’t bother to grab a shirt as he went to the door.
I quickly grabbed Tristan’s top and threw it on.
My heart hammered as I stared anxiously at Tristan as he opened the door.
I wanted to tell him to stop. That everything between us would be over if that cop was here for me.
Please don’t be here for me.
Please.
“Yeah?” Tristan said as he stepped out.
I didn’t move, and I didn’t need to. I could hear everything from where I sat.
“I’m looking for Daisy Black.”
My eyes squeezed shut and I let out a deflated breath. There was a long pause. “No Daisy Black.”
The officer sighed, already sounding annoyed. “You got a Daisy in there of any kind?”
Another long pause. “I got Daisy Sumner in my camper,” Tristan finally replied, cautiously.
“Yeah, Sumner is her maiden name.”
Tristan was quiet for a beat, absorbing that information. Then, he retorted, “Well, what do you want with her?”
“I’d like to talk to her.”
“About what?”
“That’s between her and me.”
“She doesn’t have to talk to you if she doesn’t want to—”
“I’d like to hear that from her.”
Tristan might cause a scene. I slid into shorts. My legs were shaky when I hurried out of the camper. Tristan was standing in front of an old officer, and he looked way too aggressive. I quickly moved to him and gripped his arm. “Tristan,” I whispered.
He didn’t look at me, but he rubbed at his face. “Daze.”
“It’s okay. I’ll talk to him.”
He finally looked at me, his eyes raw and wide. “Is he going to take you away?”
I blinked back tears and quietly said, “I don’t know.”
His face cracked as he whispered, “What did you do?”
I swallowed, admitting, “I don’t know yet.”
And it was true. I didn’t know how ugly it got when I ran. I trembled hard, and Tristan noticed. He gripped my hand and squeezed it. “Daze, tell me what’s going on.”
I squeezed his hand back. I wanted to tell him everything, but we never got to that point yet. I gulped and looked back at the officer. “I’m Daisy.”
The officer’s eyes dropped at our entwined hands. He began to frown, mercilessly retorting, “Do you know Oliver Black?”
I stiffened a nod as my heart jumped to my throat. “I do.”
The officer glanced at Tristan. “Can you tell me your relationship to Oliver Black?”
I looked down at the ground. Then up at Tristan who peered down at me with a strange look in his eye. Every inch of me was paralyzed with fear. When I answered, I wasn’t answering the officer, I was coming clean to Tristan. “Oliver Black is my husband.”
Tristan’s grip loosened around my hand. I felt my heart drop the same moment his hand did.
The gentleness erased from his eyes, replaced with a fierce coldness I’d never seen directed at me.
He stepped away and turned his back to me.
I watched him walk a few steps away to stand in front of his camper.
I couldn’t see his face. I wanted to cry and fall into his arms and tell him he just needed to understand.
Instead, I held back my tears and looked back at the officer.
“We need to talk,” he said.
About that night, he meant.
The night I fled from a scene that might have Tristan watch me leave in handcuffs.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, but it did me no good.
No matter what happened after this moment, nothing would be the same again.