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I rounded the island to wrap my arms around his neck, kissing the top of his head. “That was really brave.”

“Or cowardly, depending on how you look at it.” He sounded wooden.

“No,” I said vehemently. “It was brave. You came to a place that was completely foreign to you, all on your own, to make a life for yourself, knowing how your shitty mom would react. That’s braver than anything I’ve ever done.”

After a pause, he turned his head to nuzzle my throat. “Thank you, Vince.”

“And your mom can make all the stupid fucking threats she wants, but she’s not going to win.”

He seemed calmer now as he rubbed his nose against my collarbone. “How?”

I chuckled, releasing him and nodding at his plate. “Finish your damn sandwich and then I’ll tell you.”

He huffed and shoved the last bit in his mouth, washing it down with some water.

“Feel better?” I asked, taking the plate.

“Yes.” He nodded, lowering the glass. “Thank you. Please tell me, Vince.”

I hesitated, putting the plate in the sink then turning to face him.

“Okay, so… I used to work as a janitor for this garbage disposal firm…”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Name

Crossbody

“Do you really think it could work?” I asked Vince for the twentieth time as we sat on the couch under a blanket. I’d admitted to my shameful reality television addiction, but he hadn’t laughed at me, just found a cooking competition show and put it on.

“It’ll work,” he said again, his tone confident and firm, allowing me to relax a little more.

I rested my head on his shoulder, reaching for his hand under the blanket and threading my fingers through his. Vince squeezed my hand hard for a moment, his breath catching, before he pressed a kiss to my hair and stroked his thumb over my skin.

He’d called Holt a while ago and asked if we could both take today and tomorrow off. Holt had immediately said it was fine and asked how I was, so Vince had told him something vague about me receiving bad news.

I knew I’d still be a complete and utter mess if he weren’t here, taking care of things. Looking after me.

Turning my head, I nuzzled his shoulder, pressing a kiss there and breathing in his scent. When he was here, I believed that everything would be fine. The thought of leaving him, of going back and marrying someone I didn’t even know, made me shudder with horror.

“It’ll work,” he repeated in a murmur when he felt it, kissing the top of my head again and squeezing my hand. “I’m not letting you leave.”

“Alright,” I whispered, believing that he meant it.

I wasn’t so sure whether it would be enough, though. Not against my mother and everything she’d threatened to do.

“Why now?” Vince suddenly asked, as if he’d known the direction of my thoughts. I could hear the frown in his voice. “Why did she let you live here with no interference for six years, and now she’s suddenly demanding you go back and marry that princess?”

Licking my dry lips, I lifted my head. “I’m not sure. Perhaps pride. Trying to drag me back would be like… admitting she’d lost control of me. And my mother never acts impulsively. She has clearly spent the last six years figuring out how to force me back with no margin of error on her part. She can’t stand to lose.”

“Yeah, but why now?” Vince was frowning hard, staring at the TV with unseeing eyes, like he was trying to figure it out in his head. “What made her suddenly decide that now was the time you had to come back, and she was so determined to make it happen that she came here herself?”

I pursed my lips and looked down as I picked at the blanket in my lap. “I don’t know. Maybe… well, she has obviously been having me watched at least some of the time. So maybe… maybe, if she found out about me going to that motel, maybe she realised I had… found someone. And that it would make me less likely to comply. To leave you. Them.” I corrected myself quickly, as if I was just speaking in hypotheticals.

He turned to look at me, brows still pulled low. “But you’ve dated people while living here, right?”

I flushed. “Not… dated. One-night stands here and there, but not… more than that. I don’t go out much,” I admitted hoarsely. “So it’s hard to meet people.”