“Honey, are you okay?” he asked Lisa.
Her head came up, and she sent the guy a smile. “Oh, yeah, I am.”
“You sure?” he looked at Splice. Little did the guy know, Lisa was totally safe with him ‘cause he’d literally shoot anyone who even looked at her wrong.
“Yes, really,” Lisa answered, and as if she sensed he was bristling beneath his leather jacket, she laid a hand on his arm, calming him. “We’re just out for an early morning walk.”
The guy relaxed. “Okay, good.”
“Thank you for asking, sir. I appreciate it.”
Since the couple considered Lisa’s safety, Splice valued that they checked with her. If he weren’t there and Lisa needed assistance, he’d want trustworthy people to step in.
“That was nice of them.” She said once they were alone. Even though the sun was up, it was still freezing. He really should have taken Lisa home, but he was stuck on trying to piece together what had gone down.
“Hm,” he grunted. Waiting.
He found out what made Lisa break up with him and leave Utah a few minutes later.
Every single word was choking him, and he couldn’t find the right tone to say anything, so he said nothing.
“I didn’t have a support system then, Ryan. My dad had just been sent to prison. And Mom had taken off traveling. Most of my friend circle had grown apart once they started having families.”
Splice felt sick, thinking about how scared she must have been since she had nobody else and hadn’t thought about calling the police.
“I completely know now I should have told you,” she said, sounding strained. “Seriously, what was I thinking? I guess I reacted fast, thinking we had a deadline and would finish when you wanted someone else.”
She wasso wrong.
Even at a young age, he believed he had met someone extraordinary in Lisa and wanted to keep her forever.
At least his decade-long mystery was finally cleared up.
However, Splice wasn’t reassured because the problem wasn’t his fault. If anything, he felt homicidal and was suppressing his anger forcefully.
“I’m sorry, Ryan,” he heard. Lisa looked distraught. “I think about where we’d be today, if we’d be together, if I’d only had trust in us, trust in you, and confidence that it would turn out okay.”
“I wish you’d told me. But you did what you thought was the best option; you protected yourself. I’m not gonna argue with that,” he explained, trying to find some calm amid his racing thoughts.
He was so furious. Not at Lisa, and he took her hand, holding her tight.
Some piece of shit had dared to scare her; he couldn’t make it make sense.
“Does it change anything?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“Baby, no,” he answered immediately. “No, nothing has changed.”
“Are you sure?”
“You never have to double-check with me, yeah? I’m always gonna be real and upfront with you. I’m so fucking raging right now; that is the truth. But not at you. The son of a bitch frightened you so badly that you left for ten years.”
It would have been better if she had trusted him with it. At nineteen, Splice hadn’t been a Diablos biker yet, or as rich, but he would’ve done anything to protect Lisa. Then and now.
“Would you recognize him?”
“I don’t think so. Since I’ve been back in town, I’ve been really tuned in to people’s voices, in case I recognize them again. He thinks I get why he did that, but I don’t. Seriously, Ryan, I know nothing.” She sighed, and Splice rubbed her fingers. “What if it was only a disturbed person playing a trick on me?”
“But he mentioned you by name, yeah? He mentioned me?”
