She smirks, and I smile. I’ll take teasing over her tears any day. “It feels like it some days,” I truthfully reply.
Her features soften, and I’m glad her anger has faded. “You must have loved her a lot.”
“I did. I do,” I add because my love has never died.
“Thank you.” She swipes at the moisture under her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever properly thanked you for getting me out of that hellhole.”
“You don’t need to thank me for that. I wish I’d gotten you out years earlier.”
“I wish I’d been more lucid so I’d seen you burn that shithole and all the monsters in it to the ground.” Defiance shimmers in her eyes again.
“I wish I’d had more time to torture those fuckers because they got off lightly.”
Well, not all of them did. Smug satisfaction spreads across my chest as I remember my time with Rafael. I never told Vera because I wasn’t sure what the knowledge would do to her, and I didn’t want to jeopardize her recovery. I handed out vengeance on her behalf, and maybe someday I might get to tell her about it.
“They can’t hurt anyone else ever again. You didn’t just save me and the others you rescued that day. You saved countless future victims.”
“Don’t paint me as a hero. Please don’t do that.” My tone is harsher than I intended, but the look she’s giving me now is worse than the look she sported when she was trying to seduce me. Jane’s little sister would not look at me like that if she knew the things I’ve done. The people I’ve hurt. The people I’ve killed.
I am no one’s hero. Least of all hers. I’m the reason she ended up living a nightmare. I’m the one who coaxed her father into leaving Rydeville that fateful day. It was all my idea, and the Ford family paid the price for my bad decision-making.
“If the hat fits, you should wear it.”
I climb to my feet. “How about you grab a shower while I clean up and order us some lunch from the cafeteria?”
Throwing the blanket off, she stands. “Nice deflection. If Felicity were here, she’d call you out on it.”
And that’s another viable reason why I’ll never see a therapist. “Let’s be grateful she’s not.” Vera has enough nightmares without me adding to it. I remove my suit jacket and roll my shirt sleeves up as Vera walks across the room.
“Drew,” she calls out, stalling at the doorway to the bathroom.
I turn to face her, raising a brow.
“You’ll always bemyhero.” She grips the door frame in her slim hands. “I just want you to know that.”
ChapterTwo
Drew
An unexpected, unwelcome trespasser waits for me by my car when I approach it a few hours later. “What the hell are you doing here, and how did you know where I was?”
“Nice to see you too, buddy.” Charlie pushes off the side of my SUV and walks toward me.
“That’s not a fucking answer,” I growl, unlocking my car with the fob.
“I’m staging an intervention, and this time, you’re not pushing me away.”
I reach my best buddy and drill him with a sharp look. “I don’t know how to make this any plainer. Butt the fuck out, Charlie. This doesn’t concern you.”
“You’re family, Drew, and I’m done being sidelined. I can’t stand by and watch you do this alone anymore. I won’t.” He squares up to me, daring me with a challenging look.
“Demi know you’re here and why?”
“Yes,” he replies, surprising me. “She is on board with this.”
“Then you’re both fools. I’ve told you a million times I’m keeping you out of this to protect you. Go home to your wife and kids, Charlie. I don’t want or need your help,” I say as I climb behind the wheel of my car.
“It’s nonnegotiable, asshole.” He wedges his body between me and the door before I can close it. Resting his palms on the top of my car, he leans into me. “Demi wants me to support you as much as I want to. She’s worried about you.”
