“The two men who abducted me had been at the party that night, and they were in the group of people laughing at him.”
Heath scratches his beard, looking for a different explanation. “It wasn’t a coincidence? I mean, hewasthe son of the diplomat, so, maybe they already had plans…”
Heath’s words die off as I shake my head.
“It was the diplomat who’d been bankrolling the ambushes. He’d invited those men to his party to scope out our team, but they didn’t know who his son was, either.”
Heath’s jaw sharpens in an all-too-keen understanding. “That’s because your diplomat was embarrassed about his son.”
I bow my head, knowing that he’s right. “For three days Asadi tried to tell them, and they didn’t believe him. They beat him, and they repeated my jokes to him.”
The words are finally landing, and Heath looks off to the side, no doubt calculating how far he can Jazzy Jeff me out of his house. His next question surprises me.
“And what did they do to you?”
“Nothing. Save for bashing me in my skull with my own rifle during the kidnapping, not a damn thing. They left me tied to the chair to watch them torture him for three days.”
“God, Roly, that’s… that’s horrible.Why would they do that?”
The quiet, hushed horror in Heath’s voice is almost too much to bear. He can’t even fathom it, and I don’t want to ruin his day by explaining it.
“They weren’t trying to extract information from him—they were going to get it from me by first letting me see what was coming if I didn’t cooperate. And it was effective. I would have broken the moment they started in on me.”
Heath quietly pulls me into his side and puts his arm around me. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
Heath pulls back to look me in my eyes, and I can tell the moment he accepts the truth of it, because he changes the subject.
“So, what happened, how did you escape?”
“I didn’t. They finally realized their fuckup and immediately let Asadi go. He forced them to hand me over.”
“Holy shit. He…”
“Yeah. And you know, until that very moment, I didn’t think that he’d been telling the truth about his father. He’d been saying it for three days, and I just thought…”
“He was saying it to make them stop.”
I nod. “And after all of that…he walked me out of that room.He could have—should have—left me alone with those men. But he didn’t. He showed grace. Kindness. After I’d been soawfulto him.”
Heath pulls me closer. “I’m glad he did.”
I lean into his warmth. “I tried to apologize to him, but he said that all he wanted was a promise that I’d work harder to be kind.” I pause, then tell him the thing I’ve wanted to say for weeks now. “And, you know, all of a sudden, a big bear of a guy with reddish-brown hair and greenish eyes asking me tojust fucking be nice… hit pretty close to home. Made me realize I’d been kind of a shitty person all of my life, and… I wasn’t going to do that anymore.”
Heath lets out a soft laugh. “Well, the constant unannounced visits are starting to make more sense.” I lightly punch his arm, and he pulls me in for a forehead kiss. After going thoughtful for a minute, he asks, “Is your thing for bears some kind of penance?”
I shake my head vigorously. “No, not like that. I’m not sure that absolution is in my future. But, uh, before he dropped me off at the checkpoint, I kissed him.”
Heath’s posture stiffens when I say that, and it gives me a feeble sense of hope.
“I was trying to show him how much he meant to me, but he was so kind and warm that I was the one who felt comforted. It was the safest I’d felt in three days.”
“So you, what, fuck bears to feel safe?”
I nod, because it’s the truth. “In part, yes. But I’ve liked bears ever since I saw you on the quad that day.”
“Really?”
