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An amazing night spent tumbling in the sheets with Heath, and again on the hearth rug while the fire kept the chill off our naked flesh, has put everything into perspective for me.
The sex felt too tender not to be a goodbye. Heath is going to tell me very soon that it’s time for us to part ways. I know it’s coming, and I’m battling the dread. But I’m also mentally preparing myself too.
Where will I go? What will I do? I can take pretty much any simple job as a clerk or waitress. Beyond high school, I have no education, and the work I was able to scrounge in a city full of slammed doors didn’t teach me anything but how to survive on nothing.
I slept on streets—I can go back to that and working petty jobs in a new city where nobody knows me.
As soon as Heath wakes, I sense the change in him. I know without him saying that we’re leaving the cabin today.
That call with Linc has him worried about the family business, and it’s far more important than looking out for me.
I sit up in bed, tucking my knees to my chest, and watch Heath move through the room packing our things into the duffel bag.
I won’t lie—it guts me to think of losing him all over again. What choice do I have, though?
He stops at the side of the bed, looks down at me and then sits. The mattress dips under his weight. Our eyes meet. A million butterflies hatch in my chest and swoop through me until I can hardly breathe.
“We’re leaving,” I state with no trace of emotion in my voice despite the chaos taking place inside me.
“I’m going to drop you off with Patrick while Linc and I go take care of some business.”
I’m afraid to ask where Patrick will take me. “I really need to go to my apartment and get some things.”
I don’t have much, but what I do have I don’t want to lose. For years all my possessions would fit into a backpack. Now I have a little more, but not much.
He shakes his head. “Whatever you need, I’ll get for you.”
“No,” I say with enough force that he looks me dead in the eyes. “I want my things. And I need to see Jagger.”
His blond brows shoot up with a scowl twisting his perfect, tormenting lips. “Jagger,” he says flatly. “Who the hell is that?”
I realize he thinks it’s a man. My heart skips at the idea that he doesn’t like the idea of me being attached to another man.
Hopping out of bed, I grab for the cleanest set of sweats. “Just have Patrick take me to my place please.”
He gets off the bed and stands behind me, hands clamping around my waist. At my ear, he grates out, “You’ll go where I tell him to take you. Period.”
I twist my head to look at him. “We’ll see about that.”
I’ve had about enough of being told where to go and what to do. If I’m meant to make my way on my own, then I’ve got to break away from the Connollys sometime.
Starting now.
I step out of Heath’s grasp and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth. While I’m getting ready, he packs the rest of the things and throws out all the food in the fridge, most of which we haven’t even touched.
Without any exchange of words, we get into his vehicle and head back to Detroit. There, I have more enemies. This time my brother is included in that head count. I put him in a precarious situation with the Stepanovs, and he won’t take that lightly.
All those years separating us in age really did a number on our relationship. After Dad fucked over the Connollys and cost us our reputation, Nathan was old enough to strike off on his own. He did whatever he could to make his way—dealing drugs, stealing cars and selling the parts.
I wasn’t so lucky, but now I’m glad Nathan didn’t stick around to take care of me. Who knows what he would have made me do.
The cabin is miles behind us, and snow-covered roads and lacy tree branches blur past my window. Thinking of what Heath and I had in that cabin—all that we were leaving behind—brings a sharp ache to my chest.
I press my fist to my lips to trap in a cry.
What did I expect? He was a good enough man to come to my rescue, which was all I asked for. He isn’t my knight in shining armor, my prince come to save me from the men who claim to own meorfrom myself.
Heath has enough to worry about. He doesn’t need a broken wreck like me clinging to him. I know if we stayed together, all too soon his good view of me and any feelings he might still harbor from the old days will flee. Leaving him miserable and me feeling useless to the world all over again.
