“Ouch.” She turned her palm up and squeezed his hand, taking a deep breath. “And the boy?” she asked, tentatively, almost scared of the answer.
“Austin’s fine. Well, unharmed anyway. He lives with my aunt and uncle in Stillwater now. He’s only a year old, so he won’t have any memories of the shooting, but he’ll grow up without his parents. Knowing that his dad killed his mom.” Todd dropped his head back and squeezed his eyes shut. “Fuck. And thatIkilled his dad.”
Her heart crumpled. “No, he’ll grow up knowing that you saved his life, and tried to protect her. That you avenged her. Besides, you didn’t have a choice.” Lindsey could hardly stand watching him agonize over the loss of a man who’d killed his own wife, who’d planned to help kill Lindsey too. She shuddered, the horror rising anew. “Pete made that choice for you.”
“Only because I was at the cabin. After he escaped his house, when the trail went cold and the police stopped actively looking,Idecided to hunt him down and ensure he faced justice.”
She forced herself not to retreat from his touch. “You intended to kill him all along?”
“What?” His brow furrowed. “No. I planned to find him and alert the cops.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this beforehand?” Now, she better understood the reasoning behind his argument to go to the compound without her. If he’d told her the truth, would she have let him go after Megan alone?
Not likely.
“I should have.” He grimaced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to doubt me, to think I was only going up there because of Pete.”
Well. She sat back. It didn’t get any more straight than that. “Were you?”
He shook his head. “No, that’s my point. I would’ve gone after Megan with or without you, Pete or no. There was no guarantee he was there. I was just following a lead.”
She hadn’t doubted him before. And, honestly, she didn’t doubt him now. God help her, she believed everything. But Megan’s betrayal—and her own inability to see it—struck deep. Could she afford to trust Todd again so easily?
It came down to motive. Megan had needed to hide her unlawful activity. What could Todd’s motive be for lying to Lindsey now? Running into her had complicated his life in every way.
Except motives could be invisible, unexpected. She couldn’t see inside his head to know what unfathomable rationale he might have. But her mom always said, “Words mean nothing. Actions mean everything.” Actions were something Lindseycouldsee. Todd’s very first act had been to pull her off a cliff, and every single thing he’d done since then had been to protect her. Fighting for her, treating her wounds, carrying her, feeding her, concealing and clothing her. Killing for her.
He’d risked his own life for hers from the moment they’d met, and hadn’t once stopped.
So, yeah, she trusted him. “I’m glad you chose to follow Pete to Montana,” she said. “If you hadn’t, those men would’ve caught me and I’d probably be dead.” Just the thought of it made her body turn cold.
His expression hardened as he squeezed her hand and met her gaze. “For that reason alone, I can’t regret it.”
Desire flared to life, her body’s memory of their lovemaking heating her blood and urging her toward him. And desire was far preferable to the shattered sensation provoked by recent events. “For what it’s worth—“ she leaned over to whisper in his ear “—you’re still my end-of-the-world pick.”
His faint smile as she pulled back made her heart flutter. “And with such incredible competition,” he said dryly, gesturing to the empty auditorium as the lights dimmed and the tinny music cut out. “I’m honored.”
“Don’t forget the kid at the counter. All that untapped potential.”
“Maybe a little too untapped.” He set the tub of popcorn near his feet, wiped his hands on a napkin, and shifted closer, his smile slowly leaching away as he searched her face, his gaze landing on her mouth. “Lindsey.” Her name fell rough-hewn from his lips, turning her pulse manic. He tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, the brush of his fingers making it hard to breathe.
She should’ve resisted, protected herself, but she couldn’t make herself do it. They were alive, and that was worth celebrating. Instead, she closed the gap between them, pressing her lips to his in a kiss that went from tentative to desperate in an instant.
His mouth was both soft and urgent, melting away all the stress and fear, flooding her body with a new kind of tension, a taut need that twisted her up inside.Thiswas pure truth. The electric feel of his skin, the champagne bubbles of desire that buzzed through her veins, the fiery lust that chased away her chills.
One of them moaned and she pressed closer, ignoring the armrest that dug into her ribs.
Splat.
She pulled back, startled. The nachos had hit the floor, cheese side down, of course. “Shit.”
Todd blew out a breath and bit his lip. “Sorry.”
“I’m not.” She used a few napkins to scoop as much of the gooey pile back into the paper dish as possible. “They were pretty terrible.”
He chuckled.
“My only regret is that we wasted your money on them,” she said.
