“We have people watching over Marsdale, so I can check with them. Does Keller know about the island?” I ask.
“No clue. I need to call your contact at Strombly.”
“Well, fucking call her. We’ll send out teams one by one if need be. We need them dead. Or at least Fitzwilliam.”
ChapterThirty-Two
LILLY
I bury my head in my hands as tears spill past my cheeks, my mind unable to process what Keller just admitted.
He didn’t leave me.
He wanted to marry me.
And he didn’t tell me because he didn’t want my sympathy?
I don’t get it.
And the fact that he was tortured . . . whipped.
Those scars.
My stomach rolls as my mind goes to what that must have been like. To be chained to a wall, unable to do anything but take the pain delivered to you. All for what? Because of me? Because of our love?
My teeth chatter, my body shivering from the mere thought of it all.
Why . . . why didn’t he want to tell me? I thought we established trust . . .
“Lilly.” His voice comes out strangled as he walks up behind me. I don’t say anything, I just keep my legs pulled into my chest as I sit on the blanket I laid out earlier. He walks up right behind me and sits, his legs on either side of me, his arms wrapping around me in a warm, comforting embrace.
Keller wrapped around me—it feels like being transported back home, and it’s all I need to fully lose all of my emotions, to break me down to just about nothing. A sob wracks my chest, and I curl into a ball as he pulls me in closer. His lips find my neck, gently kissing me, whispering that it’s okay.
But it’s not.
He was tortured.
He has the scars to prove it. And somehow, someway, he was able to escape, and the first thing on his mind was to save me.
Jaw chattering, I turn into his embrace and rest my hands on his chest. “You . . . you came for me.”
“Always, love,” he says softly. “I’ve said it from the very beginning, and I’ll say it until my dying day, you matter most.” He lifts my chin, and my watery vision takes in his handsome, weathered face.
And at that moment, everything starts aligning.
How his body looked like it didn’t have an ounce of fat on it, probably because they starved him.
His long hair, his beard, the dark circles under his eyes.
His need to hold me when he wasn’t feeling well.
The dehydration. The need to keep me safe.
He has truly been to hell and back for me. And I know, deep down in my soul, if he had to do it all over again, he would, because that’s how much this man loves me. That’s how much this man would do for me.
I reach up between us, and I cup his cheek, my thumb running across the small scar near his lip. My eyes search his, and I say, “You didn’t want my sympathy, but I don’t want to give you any sympathy for what you went through.” I stare deep into his eyes. “I can only offer you my undying love.” My thumb strokes his rough cheek as my voice catches in my throat. “You are the love of my life, Keller. Until my dying day, forever and always, I’m yours.”
His eyes water as well, his grip on me growing tighter as I tilt his jaw down and lift my mouth. When he inhales a sharp breath, I close the space between us and press my lips to his.
