Page 18 of Saving Scarlett

For a moment, she turned her gaze to me, her smile genuine and unbelievably breathtaking, but it was only for a moment. Something inside me shifted as I sat beside her, watching her as she watched the unrestrained, yet beautiful, waterfall. Somehow, this woman had poked holes in the carefully constructed, impenetrable walls I had built around myself for everyone except Caroline and Evelyn, and I wasn’t sure what I thought about that. Either she was going to tear them down completely, creating a door to allow herself inside, or I was going to have to reinforce those walls and push her out. The thought of doing the latter, especially after all she’d been through, turned my stomach. I didn’t think I could do it.

“I would love to see that.”

So caught up in my head, I’d forgotten what we were talking about. “Sorry, my mind wandered. See what?”

Scarlett giggled, bumping my shoulder with hers. “The flowers and the butterflies. It must be amazing. When we walked through the forest, I kept expecting to see fairies, or gnomes, or something. It’s just magical up here.”

Gazing back at the tree line, I nodded. “Sometimes it’s nice to at least pretend there’s magic when you get out into the forest. It’s one of the reasons I don’t have much technology here. Well, that, and because I don’t find the time to come here enough to make it worth it. When I am here, it forces me to get outside more.”

Scarlett nodded, picking up a small piece of rock and twirling it in her hand. “It’s good to unplug sometimes. Society is too dependent on technology. It has its benefits, but, at least for me, I wish I had the opportunity to get away to a place like this more often. For a bookstore owner, I don’t read nearly enough books.”

Although I grinned, the longing in her face made me want that for her too. “Maybe when this is all over, you’ll be able to find something like this for yourself — some place you can go to when you need to get away from the city.”

Silence fell between us for a while. In the corner of my eye, she took in the picturesque landscape, seeming to be deep in thought. I wondered if she was thinking about her husband, or if she was fully in the moment with me. That answer came a moment later when her smile fell, her eyes going distant.

“I never bothered planting flower beds at my home,” she said, longing in her tone. “Although I always thought they were beautiful. It’s just that…” Her voice trailed off as she plucked one of the few remaining wildflowers out of the ground and twirled it in her delicate fingers. “Most women love getting flowers from their spouses, but for me…”

A tear slid down her cheek and I couldn’t help myself from wiping it away with my thumb. “What’s wrong, Little Red? You know you can speak freely with me.”

When she looked up to meet my gaze, there were so many unsaid words behind her eyes, yet all I wanted to do was kiss her, but I didn’t dare.

To my relief, she looked away quickly, clearing her throat. “For me, flowers would show up as an apology—an apology for things I could never forgive, and things he would only do again. Maybe, one day, seeing them will bring me joy.”

As the sun made its way toward the western horizon, Scarlett and I hiked down the mountain and back toward my cottage. We’d spent a few hours near the waterfall, eating lunch and talking, but the admission about Joshua’s abuse ceased after she told me he gave her flowers as apologies. All it made me want to do was kill him more, but as long as I was hours away and looking after her, my hands were tied.

The conversation remained light-hearted after that. She told me more about her childhood memories and favorite things. I learned she loved working her way through the banned books list, but her guilty pleasure was the genre of smutty monster romances. Just the thought of such a thing made me laugh, and it certainly gave me ammunition to pick on her later. Although a reader myself, I had never heard of such a thing.

The temperature dipped as late afternoon set in, threatening a cold night. Scarlett didn’t have a coat, so I was glad we got back to the cottage before nightfall. The last thing I wanted was for her to get sick.

Dropping our hiking gear by the door, I crossed the room, stacking logs in the fireplace and setting it ablaze. She walked past me and stepped into the bathroom, shutting the door. I intended to go into the kitchen and plan dinner, but before I even had a chance to think about what I was going to do next, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket.

Pulling out the device, I recognized Phantom’s number, so I answered it immediately. “Let me go outside.”

I took one more glance at the bathroom door to make sure it was still closed, and then stepped outside, shutting the door behind me. Once I was on the deck, I sat down and then put the phone up to my ear. “What’s up?”

“I’ve been worried about you, Boss. I’ve been calling you all day.”

Although my phone had never rang, I wasn’t surprised. Cellular service was hit or miss once too far away from the cottage.

“Sorry about that. We went on a hike. Cellular service is spotty. Is something going on?”

With a huff, Phantom’s fingers tapped against the keyboard. “There’s something I need you to see. Do you have your laptop with you? You may want to watch it on a larger screen than your phone and then tell me how you want to proceed.”

It was clear by the tone of his voice that whatever he had to show me was a serious problem I would need to solve. After a relatively relaxing day, it was the last thing I needed. Even without knowing what it was about, a pit opened in my chest.

“Yeah. I have my laptop. Should I allow Scarlett to see whatever this is or not?”

Phantom went quiet for a moment, aside from the occasional keystroke. “If you want her to hate her husband more, then yes. Let her watch it. The encrypted file should be in your inbox now. I’ll be waiting for further instructions.”

Chapter 17

The Savior

For several minutes, I remained on the deck, tapping my fingers on the arm of the chair as I watched the sunset over the ridge. There was no question that I wanted Scarlett to hate her husband—I wanted her to support me doing what I needed to do to ensure her safety and freedom moving forward, but I didn’t want to see her hurt even more. Without knowing what was on the clip, I had no way to know if it would do more harm than good to her psyche.

As I thought, I went through the messages on my phone, deleting the four from Phantom, but hesitating when my finger landed on a message from my sister. I didn’t have time to call her back at that moment, but the message said that Evie was having a good day with her treatments, so that was a sliver of good news to fill the darkness inside me. When things settled with the video, I would need to give Cara a call.

Blowing out a breath, I stood, making up my mind. If the video had something to do with Scarlett’s husband, then I respected her enough not to keep it from her. Whatever it was, we would watch it together, and then we would deal with the fall out.

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