Page 42 of Savage Rule

“I’m Scarlet.” She bites my nipple. “Tamberleigh died a long time ago.”

“We all have a past.”

“Gideon did some research on you too, you know,” she says. “Not just the things your man can dig up.” She doesn’t look at me, her eyes glued to a spot on my chest as her fingers dance across my skin.

“What did he find?”

“Your name is Gunner Sinclair. And… You’re an orphan like me.”

“It’s true.”

She remains quiet for a long pause. “Do you remember your actual parents?”

“I was abandoned as a baby, so no.”

“Oh.” She continues to stare ahead. “I remember mine.”

I realize this is a chance, a rare opportunity to know more about her. Beyond what any document Kyle digs up can give me.

“What do you remember about them?” I ask.

Swallowing what must be a huge lump in her throat, she says, “I remember everything about them. The way they laughed. The way my dad used to take me fishing. The way my mom sang to me when she put me to bed. And the way they died.”

“You saw it.”

At this, she nods and sighs, as if there’s a great amount of pressure in her chest and she needs to release some of it. Oncemore, she swallows hard and for a split second, I think she might cry. Though she manages to hold it together, when she speaks again, there’s a thickness to her voice that tells me it’s not easy.

“I was eight. I begged Momma to get me donuts. Actually, it was more like I threw a fit and Daddy gave in. Momma was so angry that he said yes after she’d told me no. But she went with us anyway. The donut shop had just been robbed when we stepped through the door. My parents got in the way.” She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. “If only I’d listened to Momma when she said no, they might?—”

“It’s not your fault.”

“But I made them?—”

“You were eight years old,” I cut her off before she can go down that road. “They were the parents and the final decision was theirs to make.”

Her breathing still erratic, she nods, but I’m not sure if she truly believes it yet. Then she does something that sets off an alarm in my head. She reaches for her back, almost subconsciously, and begins to search among her scars. I realize, she’s searching forthemamong the bodies she’s claimed.

“Scarlet, look at me.” I touch a finger to her chin and she lifts her emerald gaze to me. “Their deaths were not your fault.” Gently, I take her hand and bring it to my lips. “Did they catch the men that did it?”

She shakes her head. “The police didn’t even try because of who they were. Some fucking drug dealers that had shit on the sheriff. Although, I didn’t understand that until I got older.”

“When you became Scarlet.”

“Scarlet Black,” she corrects.

I scowl, not liking the association with The Ferryman. “Gideon gave you his last name?”

Scarlet laughs as she smooths the lines between my brows. “He gave me my first name, for obvious reasons.” The scars onher back. That means, she was already doing this to herself even before she met him.

My heart twists and something like rage settles in the pit of my stomach that anyone would let a kid go that long without help.

“What about the last name,” I say through gritted teeth. “He give you that too?”

“The last name I took.”

“Scarlet Black.” I let the name roll off my tongue, and hate it. “Why would you do that?”

Then she says something I hate more than her taking Gideon’s name.

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