Page 37 of Taking Root

“The man you saw is my father. He’s also the reason my mother and I have been separated in witness protection all these years. Kyle Peterson is a serial killer who’s been on the run for too many years to count.” Danny’s tone was closed off and perfunctory, like she recited a rehearsed speech.

Adrian swallowed hard, cold slithering through his veins. So, the man who’d knocked him out had stained his hands in blood? He could’ve ended up on the body count and never would’ve known. “When you disappeared in high school,” he said instead. “Was that after his first kill?”

Danny shook her head, those eyes distant, like she existed on a different plane. “I found his room,” was all she said. She sucked in a shaky breath and seemed to snap out of whatever memories held her prisoner. “But ever since then, the Feds have been chasing him, and he’s remained out of reach. I’ve been hopping from city to city, identity to identity.”

Everything crystallized in his mind. The loneliness in her gaze, the scrape of sadness in her tone. She had pushed him away even when her tone and actions made it clear she wanted him as much as he did her, but now it made sense. Once her cover got compromised, the Feds would move her to a different city. Danny was the same girl he’d known, but she’d been forced into a life of tumbling from town to town like dandelion fluff in the breeze.

Adrian reached out, threading his fingers through hers. She looked down at their joined hands, and a sad smile reached her lips. The sight shredded his heart to pieces that Danny would carry such a heavy burden alone all these years.

“If your father’s showing up here, is he close to getting taken in by the Feds?” Adrian asked. The unspoken “can you stay” weighted the air, evident in the shared glance between them. After knowing the truth, Adrian couldn’t ever forget Danny. He’d never been able to let those loose threads go before, and if they moved her to another city, all the shattered potential would devastate him.

“That’s what they say,” she murmured, her tone so dejected he squeezed her hand tight. “I think the protocol now would be to hop in my car this moment and head to the next town on my stateside tour. Except technically, they never called me with the command.”

A lump formed in Adrian’s throat. She couldn’t go. Not after he’d discovered she’d always burned with the same feelings. “You don’t think they’ll catch your dad?”

Danny heaved out a sigh and let go of his hand. She hopped up, walking barefoot across the room to where the shattered planter lay and a note had been left discarded on the floor. She scooped it up to brandish the paper in front of him. “Mom and I are the last on his hit list, so he means business. He left this note with you after he tied you up.”

He scanned the words, the perfunctory note turning his blood to ice. “Why would he go after you both now?”

“Why not?” She shrugged, a corrosiveness to her tone. “He has no compulsion when it comes to killing, so why not his own family?”

Fuck. He couldn’t imagine the terror she lived with all these years, the fear that her father might be coming for her at any point. As much as it would kill him to let her go, he’d rather her be alive and out there than to become another one of her father’s victims.

Danny shook her head. “No, don’t say it.” She leaned forward and pressed a finger to his lips. “You’ve got the same serious, resigned look on your face my handlers do. The ‘let’s pull you out for your protection’ look. I’m sick of it. All I’ve been doing my entire life is running from this man, and every time I’ve left it to the Feds, they play it safe and let him get away. I can’t do this anymore.”

She sat on the mattress beside him, still not wearing a stitch. This time when he reached out to bring his arm around her, she leaned against him. The way she sank into him, the sigh of relief that caused her entire body to shudder, tore him to pieces. She’d never had friends or family to rely on from the sounds of it—he couldn’t even imagine a solitary life like that. The loneliness shattered him.

Adrian sucked in a breath. In her shoes, he wouldn’t have survived. He’d built an entire life around control when she had hers stolen from her at such an early age. As much as he wanted to protect, and as much as the words of safety rose to his lips, instead, he found himself asking a different question.

“Well then, what do you want to do?” he asked.

Danny looked at him, a bemused expression in those emerald eyes. Her brows furrowed in confusion. “You know, no one’s ever asked me,” she murmured. Her fingers balled into fists around the sheets as she let out a sigh. His stomach tightened. Even now, orders leapt to his lips, the protective side of him thrumming like an engine. But that wouldn’t be fair to her—not here and now.

“Honestly?” she said, nestling further into his embrace. “I want to stay. I want to work with the Feds to bring him down, not get shunted off to the next location to sit and wonder if my father escaped again to threaten more lives. I’m a good shot, vigilant, and I’m the best bait they’ve got.”

His stomach tensed at the idea of her putting herself in danger, but he kept his mouth shut. She unfurled like a spring crocus, opening up in the first real way she’d let herself since she vanished. No way would he let his feelings on the subject slam that door closed. The itch to dive in and try to take care of the problem for her crept in, but he shoved it away.

Sometimes, trust meant leaping blind. It meant letting someone else in the driver’s seat.

“While I don’t think the Feds are going to work with you—at least not knowingly—how would you go about entrapping your father? What can we do?” he asked, fighting the clench to his gut. He might be at risk but not as much as Danny. Her father pretty much spelled out a death sentence on paper, and here they sat discussing a confrontation with a serial killer like it was a Saturday night meet-up at the bar.

She let out a ragged breath, and it wasn’t until she looked at him that he caught the tears filling her eyes.

He swallowed hard. “Did I say something wrong?”

Danny shook her head. “No, God, no. You have no idea what it means for someone to ask me what I want to do for once. I’ve spent my life obeying my handler’s orders and running in fear for my life. I know you’re restraining yourself—don’t think I missed how you’ve been shifting your jaw as you’re thinking. Yet you’re not only placing the decision in my hands, you’re also offering to back me up, no questions asked.”

She leaned up to press her lips to his, a gasp of sweetness even as the tears slid down her cheeks. He tasted the salt of them on her lips, but he wove his fingers through her hair, deepening the kiss. She tasted like hope, and he found himself addicted. Their mouths met over and over again, far gentler and teasing than the inferno that had descended between them earlier.

The soft brush of her skin to his had him growing hard, and he pulled away before this turned into rolling around in the sheets again.

“That’s what it means to love someone, darlin’,” he murmured against her lips. “Whatever you choose to do, I’m by your side.”

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed before tilting her forehead to touch his. “I love you too, Adrian.”

Whatever was to come, he would stand by Danny Reynolds, even if it meant facing her serial killer father and sidestepping the Feds. They’d fight her past, together.

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