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Sheneededhim.
Surely, he could see that.
Even once her parents got back, she would need him. Her parents had never made her feel warm inside like Fin did. They’d had her and her brother when they were in their late forties, and as older parents, they’d given their children everything they ever wanted. Except their time. They’d always been too busy to do things with her and bought her off to make up for it. Taylor loved them, but she didn't feel close to them. They’d never developed that parent-daughter bond.
But she already felt that bond with Fin.
Her knight in shining armor was everything she could ever hope for in a man.
She didn't want him to leave her side.
Ever.
Slowly, she blinked open her eyes to find him standing beside her bed, looking down at her. He was tall; she liked that in a man. At almost five foot ten, she towered over most women and quite a few men, so a man who was taller than her was always on her list. She bet he had muscles to die for under his plain graysweater.
The color of his sweater complemented his eyes, made them seem even bluer, and she lost herself staring into them.
“Taylor?”
She forced herself to focus. Lack of sleep and her jumbled thoughts made it hard, but she managed to look at him. “Yeah?”
“You should eat something.”
“Not hungry.” Even the thought of food made her nauseous.
Fin frowned. “Your body needs fuel. It also needs sleep,” he said rebukingly.
“I tried. I just can't,” she said helplessly. She didn't know how to explain everything she was thinking and feeling right now. She barely comprehended it herself, let alone trying to untangle it enough to explain it to someone else.
He gave her a long assessing look. A doctor look. The kind of look that seemed to see right inside her and decipher everything, then stow it away for future reference. “Tom and Chloe will be coming to talk to you soon,” he announced.
Panic sliced through her.
She wanted to say no. She didn't want to see them.
But if she didn't see them and talk to them and tell them what she knew, then how could they find him?
And if they didn't find him, how could she really be free?
She was so confused.
This was all too much. Being free was so much more complicated than she had thought it would be. When she was being held captive, she would daydream about being rescued and returning to live in the real world. In every single one of those daydreams, everything had gone so smoothly. It was like the second she was out of that room, everything returned to normal. She felt good; she was happy and whole. She didn't feel like she was broken inside with no idea how—or even if—it was possible to put all the pieces of herself back together again.
Reality wasn't like her dreams had been.
Reality was messy and dark and confusing.
Reality was filled with questions that had no answers, pain that had no balm, and fears that had nothing to quash them.
Reality sucked.
She wanted her life to go back to what it had been before. She didn't want the last nineteen months and the things that man had done to her to mar her. She didn't want scars— physical or psychological. She didn't want to be affected; she didn't want to be traumatized; she didn't want to be a victim.
“Taylor?” Fin reached out and took her hand.
His touch anchored her.
As long as Fin was here, she could do this.
