"You think he'll actually come here?" I ask. My voice sounds strange. Detached.
"Men like him don't give up." Deck's tone is matter of fact. "They escalate. He's already hired professionals to track you, which means he has money and motivation. Eventually, the trail will lead here."
"Then what?"
Deck's smile is cold. "Then he meets us."
The drive back to Cade's cabin is quiet. My mind is spinning, processing, trying to reconcile the perfect evening with the news that Kevin is actively hunting me.
Of course he is. What did I expect? That he'd just let me go? That he'd move on and find someone else to control?
Kevin doesn't let go. Kevin doesn't give up. Kevin holds on until there's nothing left to hold.
"Hey." Cade's voice cuts through my spiral. "Talk to me."
"I don't know what to say."
"Then just think out loud. I can take it."
I stare out the window at the dark trees rushing past. "I thought I had more time. I thought... I don't know what I thought. That maybe he'd given up. That I'd finally gotten far enough away."
"You did get away. You're here."
"For now." The words taste like ash. "Until he finds me. Until he shows up and ruins everything, just like he always does."
Cade pulls the truck onto the shoulder and kills the engine. The sudden silence is deafening.
"Look at me."
I turn. In the dim light from the dashboard, his face is all shadows and angles. His jaw is set, his eyes intense.
"He's not going to ruin anything." Each word is deliberate. Certain. "Because he's not going to get to you. Not through me. Not through my team. Not through this town."
"You can't promise that."
"I can." He reaches over and cups my face in his hands. "I've spent ten years watching people I care about get hurt because I wasn't fast enough, wasn't strong enough, wasn't prepared enough. I'm not making that mistake again. Not with you."
"Cade..."
"I know it's fast. I know we barely know each other. I know there are a hundred reasons why this is crazy." His thumb strokes my cheekbone. "But I also know that when you walked into my life, something woke up inside me. Something I thought was dead. And I'm not letting some abusive piece of shit take that away from either of us."
Tears burn my eyes. I blink them back.
"What if he hurts you? What if he hurts your friends? I couldn't live with myself if..."
"Then don't." He cuts me off gently. "Don't play that game. Don't imagine every worst case scenario and torture yourself with it. We deal with what's in front of us, when it's in front of us. That's how we survive."
"Is that a military thing?"
"It's a staying sane thing." A ghost of a smile crosses his face. "Learned it in therapy, actually. The hard way."
I let out a shaky laugh. "You went to therapy?"
"Three years of it. Deck made it a condition of joining Guardian Peak." He shrugs. "Best thing I ever did. Doesn't mean I'm fixed. Just means I have better tools for dealing with the broken parts."
I study his face in the dim light. This man who found me bleeding in his woods. Who treated my wounds and fed me breakfast and made love to me like I was precious. Who's sitting here now, promising to protect me from the monster I married.
"I'm falling for you," I whisper. "And it terrifies me."
