Page 11 of Beatitude

“Oh I know all about that, my wife is currently pregnant with our third. Those red and white peppermints help her when she’s in the car and she starts feeling ill, I might have some in the glove box if you want some.” He starts walking toward his car and I take a step, waiting for Ronan to stop me—he doesn’t. I take another, and another until I’m at the man’s car, out of earshot from my captor. The man comes back out of the car with a small handful of wrapped mints in his large hand.

“You sure you're alright?” He whispers, a smile on his face as he hands me the mints. “Scrunch your nose and I can protect you. I promise.” My heart squeezes as my heart rate picks up. He could save me, and this all could be a horrible memory. But I can’t walk away from Ronan…I don’t know why, but leaving him now, like this, feels like a betrayal. It makes no sense, I owe that jerk nothing, I can’t even say he saved me because if it weren’t for him taking me in the first place, I wouldn’t have been in the situation to begin with! Still…

“Oh!” I laugh lightly. “Because of my face? I went on a hike, stumbled and raked my face on the tree then landed in a creek! I feel so bad because my poor husband over there has been getting all kinds of dirty looks over it all day. I told him we could cut our trip short since I seem to be hellbent on messing things up but he’s determined to give me one last vacation.” I give him a friendly smile, making sure my nosedoesn’t move. “Thank you for the mints though. It’s our first and I don’t know what I’m doing.” The man stares at me for another moment before nodding and getting into his car.

“You take care of yourself,” he states and I move away as he pulls back onto the road. Once he’s out of sight, my smile drops and I head over to Ronan. His eyes are wide and his jaw is slightly lax as if he’s in shock by me standing here.

“What?” I ask as I pop a peppermint into my mouth. Before I can close my lips, Ronan sticks his fingers into my mouth and rips out the mint, gagging me in the process. He takes the mint and throws it against the ground before his hand grips my throat softly as he moves me so my back is against his car.

“You don’t take candy from strangers, Angel.” I roll my eyes which seems to annoy him further. “Okay fine, you don’t take anything from another man. It’s bad enough you walked over there in nothing but my hoodie.”

“And whose fault is that?” I snap back, causing him to lean in, his lips just a breath from mine.

“Next fucker to offer you a hand, loses it. Now get in the fucking car,” he grits out. His eyes betray him though. He looks nervous, confused but also relieved. His jaw isn’t as tense and his eyes aren’t as dark. Why though? Why ishenervous?

I slide my foot into the car as he releases his hold on my neck to allow me to take my seat. He closes my door and walks around to the driver’s side, getting in before putting the car in drive and taking off down the road once more.

“You didn’t leave.” His voice is soft and almost timid. It’s unnerving coming from him.

“You won the game,” I reply softly while looking at my hand, the blood spot is gone, but it’s like I can still feel it. Using my nail, I scratch at the spot, trying to make the feelinggo away.

“Don’t bullshit me,” he snaps while whipping into the parking lot of the hotel. I’m shocked, it’s actually a nicer looking hotel than I thought he was going to take us to. I don’t know why but I saw a by-the-hour room in my future.

“Ronan, I can't go in there like this,” I say while gesturing to myself. Ronan looks me over and shrugs.

“Stay in the car then, I’m going inside and taking a shower.”

“You’re going to make me walk in there, filthy, with no pants or underwear?” A small smirk pulls at his lips as he stares at my lap before frowning.

“What are you doing?” He asks, gripping my hand and jerking it to him. I look to see I’ve dug at my skin so deep I'm bleeding.

“I had an itch, I wasn’t thinking.”

“Why didn’t you leave me?” He asks again while reaching in his glove box and pulling out a tissue pack.

“Because I couldn’t,” I whisper as he pulls the tissue out and dabs at my scratch. He’s so gentle it’s almost unnerving. This man is a killer, right? Why is he fussing over my scratch?

“You could’ve,” He says, though he seems distracted as he reaches back into the glove box again and pulls out a tiny first aid kit. “You’re an attractive woman, and you told him you were pregnant. I watched his protective side flip on. I know he asked you to give him a sign if you needed help. He could’ve gotten you in the car and drove off before I could’ve stopped him. So why did you stay?” He places a bandage over the scratch as his green eyes bore into my soul.

“You asked me not to,” I whisper, my gaze falling to his mouth.

“I never asked you anything,”

“I felt it,” I swallow before touching my chest. “Here, I felt something. And I think it was you, begging me not to leave you.” His earlier words hit me and I reach out with my hand and touch the side of his face. The act seems to almost scare him and as he flinches away, I repeat his words. “It was as if you needed me. Like I’m needing to save you.” His eyes look almost fearful as he looks down at my hand.

“If that’s really what you think, Angel,” He shakes his head before opening his door. “Then you should’ve dove into his car when you had the chance.”

RONAN

FIVE

Iinhale deeply, watching the red tip at the end of my cigarette glow as I rest on the balcony of the hotel. Usually I prefer things a little more low-key. Not a roach motel or anything, the last thing I want is to be sleeping on someone else’s dried fluids or end up with bed bugs. But a suite with a balcony overlooking the mountains isn’t something I’d splurge on if it were just me.

She’s special though, and despite having to lock her ass in the trunk a couple of times, I do want to show her some semblance of niceness. Especially after earlier…

What was that? She could’ve left and there's no way I would’ve been able to stop her. Now, it’s true that I would’ve eventually found both of them and after taking back what belongs to me, I would’ve crushed that fucker’s skull with my boots. But she didn’t know that. She chose to stay; she lied without hesitation. She says she felt me begging her not to leave. I want to say it’s a ridiculous notion that she felt some sort of otherworldly connection causing her to sense my thoughts and feelings after only knowing me a fewdays. Or it would be ridiculous if it weren’t exactly what happened.

I was begging her. I don’t beg for anything. I learned a long time ago that begging didn’t help and only showed your weakness. But for her, I don’t think there’s anything I wouldn’t do for her. I stood on the side of that road, staring into the woods while silently pleading that she wouldn’t run again. I didn’t want to lose her, I didn’t want her to get in his car and to leave me, all alone. Funny, I always preferred to be alone but the thought of not having her heart beating in the same vicinity as my own… It’s enough to drive me insane.

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