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“I know, but I’m okay and I’ll heal.” She licks her lips. “You deserve better than to waste your life on this piece of shit.”

I can feel that door pulsing with energy, desperate to escape.

“Think about it. Please think. You can’t shoot him execution-style. I’ll lose you, and I can’t lose you. I need you.” Her voice breaks, and she starts to cry. “Please, Charlie. I love you.”

And with the three little words I’ve never heard from anyone in my entire life, the door behind which I keep everything hidden blows open and consumes me.

Blind fury races through me.

Followed by crushing loss.

Grief—for the boy I was and the parents who were too young, fucked up, and addicted to ever give me a real life—crashes over me like a tsunami and drowns me.

My emotions spiral out of control, like a tornado whipping around me at dizzying speed, and almost bring me to my knees.

But then I see Jessica’s face through the chaos.

The storm calms.

“Please, Charlie, I love you. I need you.”

The dust settles, and what’s left behind is new and unfamiliar.

Trust. In her. In me.

In us.

I take out my handcuffs. “Russ Decker, you are under arrest.”

Chapter 29

Jessica

Charlie slams through the hospital door so forcefully, I jump.

His expression is thunderous as he storms into the room and bellows, “I swear to god, Jessica Moore, the second you’re at 100%, I am going to turn you over my knee and smack your ass red.”

From the second Charlie handcuffed Russ Decker, it had been a madhouse of activity as cops swarmed the cabin. After a tearful reunion and Charlie raging about my injuries, they carted me away in an ambulance, and I haven’t seen him since.

Just the sight of him looking all hot and grumpy in his tactical gear has my heart bursting with love for him.

I press my lips together and gesture to the occupants sitting in vinyl-covered chairs at the side of my bed. “Charlie, I’d like to introduce you to my parents.”

He comes to a crashing halt, his gaze swinging to my parents, who are watching him with amused interest.

He lets out a frustrated growl and rakes his hand through his hair. “Fuck. Um. Wait.” He looks at me imploringly before turning to my parents. “Sorry?” He ends it as a question.

Oh my god, he’s adorable.

What has happened to me? I’m soft now.

Falling in love and almost dying has changed me.

“No, no, I get it.” My dad holds up his hands. “I mean, I don’t want to hear about it, but I get it.”

My mom assesses Charlie. “Maybe you can cut him some slack, considering he saved our daughter’s life.”

My dad nods. “Sounds reasonable.”