His gaze softens slightly. “Then we go somewhere else.”
“No, you’ve done enough.” The words come out too soft, my eyes scanning the ruin of my life again.
“You’re not staying here,” he says again.
This time, I don’t argue. Because now, I can’t.
I nod once. “Okay.” The word feels like surrender. “Where?”
He doesn’t ask if I trust him. He assumes I will. And he isn’t wrong even though I’m all out of trusting anybody right now.
“My place.” He says it without hesitation or doubt, like there was never another option.
“Your place?” Panic rushes through me. And relief.
“Well, we are married,” he observes drily, flexing a muscle in his jaw.
I stare down at the ring of fire on my skin. I should turn him down. Say I’ll go wait things out at Mrs. Evergreen’s.
But I don’t.
And I don’t know why.
Instead, I nod, inhaling slowly.
I’d rather do that than think about the past or the future. Or all the things I’m still running from.
Because I know exactly who I’m supposed to call. And I know what happens when I do.
My life will be uprooted and re-routed in a flash. It’s the only way to stay safe.
But after last night, I want more than one word. I want my life back.
There isn’t a more dangerous thought for a person like me.
Chapter
Ten
SCARLETT
His place is order. Mine is chaos.
I see boots lined by the door, a jacket hung where it belongs. A row of Stetsons hang from one wall, like he needs a hat for every occasion. The faint scent of pine and a woody spiciness fill the air.
Everything about this space says one thing—though I shouldn’t trust it.
Safe.
I feel it the second I step inside, and I hate how much I need it.
“Sit,” Donovan says, already moving past me.
I sink onto the edge of the dark leather couch, hands clasped tightly in my lap, listening as he moves through the kitchen.
Drawers. Cabinets. The low hum of the stove clicking on. The kind of normal that shouldn’t matter. But it does when you’ve been utterly lonely… and on the run for a year.
I close my eyes for a second, letting everything settle in. When I open them, he’s there, setting a glass of water on the table in front of me.
