“You never really told me the entire story. Just Dominic.”
“Red Snake policy says I have to tell him,” I returned.
He nodded. “Yes, but you can also tell me.”
“You giving me an order?”
“If I have to.”
I gave him my back, letting out the air in my lungs as I walked over to the far end of her porch. The wood dipped, and I snapped my head down, lifting my boot.
Shit.
Her fucking porch was rotting.
“So what was your plan?” Grayson asked my back. “Come into town every now and then, doing your best to avoid her?”
I moved back and faced him once more, making a mental note to tell Margo about that. I didn’t need Angel or anyone else falling through the porch. “What do you want me to say, Gray?”
“Does Angel mean something to you?”
I scoffed. “Of course she fucking does.”
“No. Not as a rescue. Not as a failed mission. Does shemeansomething to you?”
My body was on fire, the flames in my chest spreading out in every direction, destroying the walls I’d built. My ears began to ring. The image of her, starved and bleeding, began to merge with the memory of her coming into Rossy’s. I dropped my head and braced my hands on the railing. “I can’t talk about this.”
“Why can’t you?”
“Because what difference would it make? In my life? In hers?” I clipped, looking at him over my shoulder. “I already feel guilty enough for standing here on her damn porch. She doesn’t want me here.”
She doesn’t want me.
“You don’t know that.”
“Margo told us—”
He cut me off gently. “That was over a year and a half ago. Angel is settled. You left, and now you’re back. Things can change.”
“Not this. What she went through—” I snapped my mouth shut as the screen door opened.
Carrie stepped out onto the porch, her blue eyes dim, the corners of her mouth turned down. She didn’t bother shutting the main door, and I tried to push away the thoughts of Angel’s home. I was the one who’d had to carry her inside, after all. She was in my arms, cradled to my chest, with her eyes closed as I stood in the middle of her beautiful living room, watching Margoscramble around, turning on all the lamps. As soon as I laid her on the couch, I dipped my head and went back outside. Carrie and Grayson had arrived two minutes later.
My spine snapped straight. “What’s wrong? Is she okay?”
“Yes, she’s fine. Margo is trying to get her to go to bed, but she won’t,” Carrie softly explained. Grayson put his arm around her waist, pulling her to him. She looked up at her fiancée and then back at me, chewing on her bottom lip. “She’s…”
I stepped closer, anxiety coursing through me like a damn virus. “What? She’s what?”
“She’s asking about you.”
My knees nearly gave out and my chest deflated. “What?” I rasped, my heart drumming in my ears.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
