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I don’t answer his question. “We’ll be there in the morning, Marco.”
He sighs. “It’s time you start calling me Pappi, since you’re coming home.”
The call is disconnected, and I sit in silence for a while. When I check on Brittney again, I can’t bring myself to wake her. If I only have a short time left with her, I want to file away things I’ll keep with me forever. Once she realizes what’s going to happen and she learns about my time in Nashville, she’ll want nothing else to do with me. I may be saving her, but in the end, I’m going to lose her just the same.
“Where are you going?” he asks, trailing a few feet behind me.
I slide my shoes on and search for my keys.
“Out,” I reply tersely.
“I’ll come with you,” he says.
“No. I’m only going for a drive to clear my head. Then I’m going to pick up some food.”
“Brittney, I told you I’m going where you go until this is over.”
I abandon my search for my keys and turn on him. “This is Greendale Valley. Nothing is going to happen here. Just let me be, okay?”
He pulls me close and holds me tight with his hand on the small of my back. “You and I both know living in a small town doesn’t keep bad things from happening. It’s not like we have scum detectors at all entrances to Greendale Valley. Some scum already lives here. Do I need to remind you of things that have happened in the last two years in this town?”
I break my gaze from his. Of course, I remember all the things that have happened here recently. We’ve had everything from obsessive stalkers to abusive pyscho ex-boyfriends to misguided revenge ploys which got someone innocent killed. Small towns seem safe, but in reality there’s evil everywhere. No corner of the world is safe from it.
“Fine. You can drive, but I don’t want to talk. I want to grab some dinner from a drive-thru and drive around,” I say as I concede.
He releases me and pulls my keys from under my purse and hands them to me before taking his own from his pocket. “If I’m driving, we’re taking my truck.”
I roll my eyes as I follow him outside and then lock my front door. He’s holding open the passenger door for me when I reach his truck. I climb in and let him shut the door and then watch as he rounds the front to get in the driver’s seat.
I direct him to the first fast-food joint we see, and we order greasy burgers and even greasier fries. He pulls into a parking space and turns on the interior light so we can see to eat. He keeps his word about not talking as we chew in silence. Once we’re finished, he begins to drive around as promised.
I’ve been mulling over what he said to me in my bedroom. He said he was gettingmeout of this, but it’shimthey really want. If he thinks he’s going to sacrifice himself somehow, he’s sorely mistaken. I won’t let him do that. I don’t know what happened in Nashville, but I know it’s enough to have driven him back home. He’s only tangled in this now because of me, because I couldn’t get over my pride enough to trust his warnings.
“Let’s run. We’ll go somewhere no one can find us,” I say suddenly.
His gaze cuts to me briefly. “There’s no place to run where they couldn’t find us. Besides, I’ve run from them for long enough.”
“Hawk, I won’t let you do whatever it is you think you’re going to do to get me out of this. I got myself into it, I’ll get myself out,” I declare.
He continues to drive in silence for a few more minutes before finally coming to a stop and switching off the ignition. He faces me. “You don’t have a choice,dolcezza.This was always meant to be my war, not yours. And I’m sorry you’re in the middle. But I promise, you’ll be able to get out of it and live the life you want.”
I stare at him, taking in his ruggedly handsome face. “The life I want is with you. The only life I ever imagined was with you beside me. I don’t care what we have to do, it’s what I want, Hawk.”
He reaches across the cab and tugs on my lower lip with his thumb. “I wish it were that simple.”
I pull away and get out of the truck. It doesn’t take long to realize where we are. He drove us back to the grove of trees behind where our houses were…the same place we almost made love for the first time all those years ago. I start to walk away but he grabs my wrist and twirls me around and into his embrace.
“Please don’t leave me here for a second time,dolcezza,”he pleads in a husky voice.
I push him back and we’re close enough to his truck he bumps into the bed of it. He stares at me with knitted brows and pleading eyes. I rush him and press my body into his. He kisses me with all the fury of a storm breaking loose. We’re all hands and mouths as we try to ignore the turmoil at hand.
It’s dark and no one is around. He shoves my gym shorts and panties down while I pull my oversized sweatshirt over my head. I hadn’t been wearing a bra, so I’m completely exposed and naked out here in the open. He doesn’t remove his clothes, but he unbuttons and unzips his jeans before rolling on a condom he pulled from his pocket.
He lifts and pins me against the side of his truck and slides inside my aching center. He kisses my lips before moving to my neck, where he begins sucking, and biting, and licking. He’s marking me as his and I can’t find it in me to care. I belong to this man, and I always have. He holds me in place with two strong arms as his lips and tongue latch on to my breasts. I’m on the cusp of my release when he growls in my ear, “You’ll always be mine,dolcezza,the same way I’ll always be yours.”
It pushes us both over the edge as we release together, and then he gently helps me stand back on my feet so I can dress. “I should get you back home. We have some things to talk about,” he says. And faster than I can blink, his stony mask is firmly in place again.
Twenty minutes later, we’re back in my apartment. I perch myself on my couch as I wait for him to join me. He sits on the other end as if he can’t stand the thought of touching me even though he was just buried balls deep inside me.
