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Finally, he looked up, emotions raw on his face. “Are you on the run? Does your grandfather know you’re alive? How did you survive? Why did you hide from me? Are you in Wit Sec?”
Tessa frowned at the barrage of questions before the phrasing of his last words sunk in. Most people said Witness Protection not Witness Security and certainly not Wit Sec.
“You can’t tell anyone, Flynn. Please. You can’t tell anyone.” Her own voice broke and Flynn jumped up to pace again.
“I know. If you’re in Wit Sec, I know.”
He kept pacing and she knew it had to be hard. He was likely thinking of his parents and his brothers. She was asking him to lie by omission so that she could stay in a home she loved. That wasn’t fair. If she disappeared again, she could find a new place and he wouldn’t have to lie to anyone.
Even if it meant she’d be choosing another new name. She’d refused the plastic surgery option, but if word got out, she might have to go along with it if she wanted to live. And she did.
Maybe she could give Flynn that gift. Seeing the pain she’d inadvertently caused made her wish she’d never come to Midnight Lake. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but her family had.
Flynn shouldn’t have to pay the price. He shouldn’t have to live with knowing where she was. She didn’t want to leave, but she knew it was the right thing to do. “I’ll leave in the morning. Find a new name and a new place. You can forget you saw me.”
Flynn stopped pacing and frowned at her again. “No way in hell.”
Flynn knew he was acting like an ass, prowling like a mountain lion scenting his prey. He couldn’t grab control of his emotions or his body. Seeing Cat—no, seeingTessalive in all her beauty was such a shock, he wasn’t sure he’d ever get over it.
He needed to sit and talk with her. Tell her it was the situation he was angry at, not her. But hewasangry at her. And now she was offering to disappear into the ether again because of him.
He managed to growl out some words. “You don’t need to leave. We’ll figure this out. I’m not over the shock yet. Give me a minute.”
“I don’t want you to live with lying to your family. If I disappear again, you won’t have to do that.”
Well, that made him feel like an ass. He did a couple more walks around the room, then sat in the chair he’d tried before. He picked up the mug and looked down at it. “I’m doing this all wrong. Everything is churning around like a pissy bull in the chute. Even though I knew it was you, I didn’t actually believe it until you opened the cabin door.”
He huffed out a breath and managed to look up at her. “I’m glad you’re alive.”
Her eyes filled instantly with tears and she closed them. She swallowed hard and pressed her lips together for a moment before she spoke, her words soft and shaky. “Thank you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? Let me know somehow?”
Those dark eyes flew open again and he saw a flash of incredible pain before she looked down. She sipped her tea before she spoke. “If you know enough to call it Wit Sec, you know the rules.”
He did. And he knew the rules were to protect her, to keep her alive. But it still stung. He wanted her feelings for him to have been big enough to risk the rules. And that was as selfish a thought as he’d ever had.
He put down the mug and pushed up to pace around the room. It was a better use of the energy than yelling at her and demanding answers which he knew she shouldn’t give him. But he wanted those answers anyway.
After a third lap, he forced his ass back in the chair. “Were you even in the house when it exploded?”
More pain flashed in her eyes but this time she didn’t look down. Instead, she maintained eye contact and nodded.
“Hell. There was almost nothing left of the house.” And it had been more mansion than regular house. Probably a dozen fancy bedrooms.
The thought of Cat dying in that explosion had haunted him. He wondered if the thought of her surviving it would do the same. “Was your father in the house as well?”
This time the amount of pain visible in her face and eyes had him moving out of the chair to squat at her feet. He knew she and her father had never had a good relationship. She’d been under pressure to always live up to his expectations and to never make mistakes. Martin Blanco had been—was?—a cold and calculating man.
Flynn ran his hand over the blanket Cat, Tess, was using as a cocoon. Or as a shield from him. “Forget I asked.”
“I can’t think about it, Flynn. I can’t go back into those moments. It’s too big. I’m afraid if I let it out, I’ll never be able to put it back again. I have to be Tessa now. All the time.”
Her eyes pleaded with him to understand. He did. But he didn’t like it. He wanted answers. He hated not knowing details. How could he solve the problem or the puzzle if he didn’t have all the details?
Except there was nothing about the past to solve. All he had to do was deal with it. Could he? Obviously, he could because there was no other choice. But he wouldn’t like it.
“Okay. I get it. I do.” He patted the blanket then stood up to pace again.
