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“Wherever the road takes me.”
“How about to Boston to do a little crawling?”
“It ain’t gonna be that simple, Liz. Just told you why.”
“Bullshit. Point your sled in that direction and twist that throttle. It can’t hurt to try to fight for her first. What do you have to lose that you already haven’t lost?”
Liz was right. He already lost who he had to lose. What harm could there be from heading north and meeting Shay face to face?
Even if he had to do what Liz said by getting on his fucking knees and begging.
Even if Shay didn’t want anything to do with him ever again, he would like for her to forgive him for destroying her family.
“Maybe Boston will be my first stop.”
She leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Good luck, honey.”
Luck wasn’t going to be enough.
Most likely nothing would.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Shay sat cross-legged on her bed, staring at her laptop screen. With another swipe of her finger across the trackpad, she moved on to the next picture.
For a long minute, she studied one of Stella and Dodge standing behind the bar at Crazy Pete’s, then skimmed through all the photos she took at Tioga Pet Services. Some of those shots included Cassie, Easy and Shade, both individually and as a group. All wearing matching polo shirts.
At the time, she wondered how having to wear a simple polo shirt could make two grown men so freaking miserable.
The next one she came across was of Trip and Sig standing in front of their antique wrecker and their newer rollback parked nose to nose. Both men had shed their cuts for the picture used on the home page of the Buck You Recovery website but had crossed their arms across their chest. Their formidable expressions said they took care of business and took no bullshit when they did so.
She smiled softly at the photo of sweet Josie working behind the front desk at the motel. And also the candid one of Ry, Judge’s extremely tall, handsome son, smiling and offering a guest a cup of coffee.
She swiped past an exterior photo of Justice Bail Bonds and landed on a couple of fun photos she took of both Jury and Justice, the American Bulldogs. Also a few of Deacon, Jet and Judge. Some with serious expressions and looking every bit of the badasses they were in their bounty hunter get-up. Others included candid shots of Deke and Jet goofing around with each other. Shay had a lot of fun spending the afternoon with them and learning all about bail bonds and skip tracing.
Her lips curled up at the corners again as she came across the pics she took at Dutch’s Garage. Five handsome men dressed in mechanic’s coveralls stood in an impressive line in front of the business, all of them looking ready to repair your vehicle with expertise.
The next shot was of Reilly sitting in the office with the beautiful blonde’s huge genuine smile directed toward the camera. Shay also took a couple of candid photos of her and Rev together when they weren’t paying attention. At the time, the tangible love between the younger couple had warmed her heart, but now…
Now… It made that same heart ache.
A feeling of emptiness engulfed her as she thought of all the people she’d met and spent time with during that month in Manning Grove. People who’d been welcoming and quickly had become friends. Who might have eventually become family, too.
If she had stayed.
She skipped the remainder since the number of photos she’d snapped were in the hundreds and, taking a deep breath, she finally clicked on a folder that didn’t have anything to do with the Fury’s businesses or the websites she had created. She had made a special folder just for one subject.
Her throat tightened and she swallowed to try to loosen it as she considered the numerous thumbnail photos filling her screen. So damn many.
Every single one of them of the man who betrayed her. The one who split her heart in two.
If she opened even one photo, she was afraid his gray eyes might stare back at her and make her deal with the emotions she’d been pushing away.
She squeezed her own shut and simply breathed for a few seconds, the pounding of her heart rising from her chest into her thickening throat. The deep ache in her center radiating out and swallowing her up in sadness.
As well as heartbreak.
At the time, she had taken all those photos of Ozzy so she’d never forget him or that trip. But now she was tempted to delete them all. Every last one.
This way she could forget. Put it all behind her.
Heal.
She backed out of the folder, placed the cursor over it, and her finger hovered over the delete button.
One press. That was all it would take to rid him from her life.
