Page 123 of Vengeance

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Black Valley

Bodie

Bodie drives up to the house of the only woman he's ever let himself fall in love with. The only person who ever saw him when things started getting really bad. And when he was certain he was about to die, he had to let her go because he couldn't stand the thought of watching her watch him die. He loved her too much to put her through that.

He may have had a shit heart, but it didn't stop him from falling in love. When he neared what he believed to be the end, he wished it had. He had nothing to live for without Evie Halstad, and he loved her too much to let her go through that. It was a damned if he did and damned if he didn't situation.

The Griffin's Beach tech guy, Brock, looked her up and made sure Evie hadn't moved or gotten married or something. She still lives in the house she did when he made love to her for the first time. The night he took her on her first ever motorcycle ride. It was too damn hard when his heart stopped him from being able to take the love of his life to bed. That in itself felt like death.

He stares at the brick house for a moment before walking up and knocking on the door. He hopes it's not too late. It's after ten, and she was never an early sleeper before. In fact, she'd stay up later than he would and sleep until early afternoon if she didn't have to work in the morning. Watching her sleep was one of his favorite activities.

The door swings open, and Evie stares in stunned shock, her mouth hanging open. The moment he realizes she's wearing a man's shirt, a dress shirt that never belonged to him, his stomach begins to churn.

It's been over two years. Did you really expect her to wait when you were guaranteed dead?

“Bodie?” Evie asks, her voice barely above a whisper. “You're alive?”

“I am,” he says.

Maybe it's just a shirt she walks around in. It doesn't mean someone's in there with her. That they were fucking just minutes before I pulled up.

But even as he thinks it, he knows whoever that shirt belongs to is inside with her. Especially when she steps out onto the porch and shuts the door behind her instead of inviting him in.

“Oh my God,” she says and hugs him. “I thought you were dead!”

Her hug turns into three hard slaps on his arm, and he just chuckles. “So did everyone else.”

“What happened?”

Pulling the collar of his shirt down, he shows her the top of the scar. “Got a new ticker.”

Her arms fall to her side, slapping her bare thighs. “You should have called and told me.”

“I wanted to make sure it took. That I didn't reject it and die all over again.”

“What are you wearing?” she asks as her fingers run over the DRIFTERS patch on his chest.

“Turns out, the Phoenix Rising got patched over by the Deranged Drifters. I'm just lucky they didn't make me prospect again.”

She forces a smile, and Bodie knows she tries to figure out how to get out of this without telling him the words he knows will kill him. He's a masochist, so he doesn't give her an easy way out by telling her something frivolous like “call me when you get a chance” or “let's meet up for dinner sometime.”

“I'm really happy for you, Bodie.”

“Who's inside?”

Evie's eyes flash up to his. “What?”

“Who's waiting for you inside, Evie?”

“Why do you say someone's inside?”

His fingers reach out and unbutton the top button of the dress shirt. “You're wearing his shirt. Just like you used to wear mine after we had sex. And you opted to step out on the porch, shutting the door, instead of inviting me inside. Plus, your eyes keep darting towards the door like you're praying whoever waits on the other side doesn't open it.”

“Bodie, I thought you were dead. You broke my heart when you sent me away, and I had no way of knowing what happened,” she says, tears filling her eyes. “I thought you were dead.”

Her hands cup his face, and she tries to kiss him, but he pulls away. He doesn't know where her mouth's been tonight, and he doesn't want this to be their last kiss. “Don't.”

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