Page 317 of The Trouble With Bad Boys

I hadn’t shared this much about that night with anyone. Not even my friends.

Eva placed a hand on my back, rubbing circles.

“He didn’t deserve to live. And he only would have hurt someone else if I didn’t stop him. If I’d been home, I would’ve been able to protect my mother. My mom was half his size. He was always an abusive man, but drugs and alcohol made him worse. My disappearance probably depressed her, and she died not knowing I was still alive.”

Tears spilled from Eva’s eyes. “I think your mother knows you love her and would’ve done everything you could to save her.”

I hoped so. Eva was the second woman in my life to make me want to protect her with everything I had. I thumbed the tears away.

I didn’t know why I asked, “Do you think I’m a bad person?”

“No.” She cupped my face, and I leaned into it. “I think you protect those you love at all costs. That’s admirable. I can only imagine the emotions you had to deal with. Sometimes we have to do what’s right even if it seems wrong.”

She had doubts that I was too old for her, but she had more wisdom than most people.

Offering me a warm smile, she asked, “So how did you end up with Hawthorne?”

“I was kidnapped with two other kids when I was thirteen, but he moved them elsewhere. I never saw them again.”

“How many times did you try to escape?” She took my large hand in her small palm.

“Once.” I paused, remembering what I’d seen from a kid who had been caught. Hawthorne dismembered him while I hid the supply closet with the door ajar. He had removed that kid’s organ and placed it into a cooler. The fucker had been listening to classical music throughout the sick ordeal. But I didn’t want to share this gruesome part with my perfect flower.

“Others had tried to escape, but ended up dying. If you escaped the bunker, you still had to deal with the traps he’d laid out around the property.”

“How did you escape successfully?”

“Hawthorne trusted me because I complied with his demands. He sent me out of the bunker to his nearby house to retrieve supplies or drop off coolers for his men to pick up. Sometimes he made me do stupid chores at his home while his men worked in a room full of computers. He told me where the traps were hidden along the paths, so I avoided the bombs or an electrical wires that would’ve triggered my death.” I gestured to my tattoos. “Before bed, I’d sketch down what I remembered on a napkin and hid it. It was an escape map. So these tattoos depict my survival—my freedom.”

Eva stared at my tattoos, running her hands up and down my arm. “Etched in ink is your salvation. All of the designs and the colors are reflections of your life after the darkness. This is your soul etched into your arm.” She met my eyes, and my heart skipped a beat.

How could she understand me like that? We hadn’t known each other that long for her to see into my soul. No wonder I’d been attracted to her the moment I saw her.

“The art looks like a maze made from intricate vines. You made something dark and ugly into something hopeful and beautiful.” She stopped at the dark rose. “Why didn’t you remove this tattoo?”

I shrugged. “I thought about it, but I guess I wanted the reminder that I survived. So I created a story of my life around a dark chapter.”

“You left some room between the rose and the maze.” Eva’s fingers heated my skin as she caressed the area without any tats.

I knew exactly what I wanted to go there now. A thrill rushed me through as I envisioned the art.

She kissed the black rose, and I gasped at the surprised gesture. It was like an angel kissing the face of the devil. It wasn’t right—but somehow it was the perfect remedy. My body sighed as though the darkness from that tattoo escaped, as though it feared the angel’s power.

My love had just chased the darkness away for me.

I banded my arms around her, hugging her tight. “Thank you.”

She laughed. “For what?”

I drew back, studying her. “For being you. For caring. You have no idea the power you have over me.”

She considered me. “It’s what you do when you love someone.”

My heart just exploded into confetti at the joy I felt. “Is that right?”

She nodded. “I had my doubts about us, but I can’t help what I feel.”

“Doubts?”

---