Page 48 of Fury

“They were on the floor.” Her voice cracked. Apparently, it didn’t make a difference how far from that day she’d gotten. It was still a vivid scar in her psyche. “Almost like they were sleeping. But when I saw the bands wrapped around their arms, I knew—could feel it in my gut.” Shame curtained her. Would he think less of her because of them? “They’d overdosed. I called for an ambulance, and they rushed us to the hospital. I sat alone in those plastic chairs for hours before anyone finally talked to me.” Curse the man for making her think about this! The memories were going to crush her.

She felt Davis shift. He crossed his arms. Though she didn’t look around, she could hear the police radios going off intermittently as they worked the scene. The ambulance drove away.

“A doctor came out and told me they’d done their best but my parents were dead.” Hollyn could still picture the way the doctor’s nametag had been clipped at a weird angle on his white lab jacket. How it’d kept tapping the side of the pen in his breast pocket every time he moved his arm. The metallic scent of blood had lingered on him despite having washed up, and strongly contrasted with the hypochlorite and peracetic acid used to keep the hospital clean.

This time Hollyn dared to meet his gaze and saw Davis’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “He said it so callously. Like. . . because I was nine, it somehow wouldn’t hit me as hard as it would an adult, and I could just move on. Just get a new family, you know?” She shrugged. Gripped the blanket tighter. Her fingers brushed her necklace. “He acted like my parents’ struggle with drugs made them less worthy of mourning or compassion somehow. But I didn’t care about any of that. They were my parents! I just wanted them back!”

Davis shook his head, sympathy washing his handsome face. He ran a hand over his jaw in thought, chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm, but for the first time since he’d come here, he looked rattled.

A warm breeze tugged at the edges of the blanket currently trapped between her clenched fingers. It was filled with the salty scent of the Persian Gulf waters and rustled through nearby palms.

“I’m sorry, Hol.”

“Then CPS came and took me to my first group home.” She shook her head, tears welling. “I didn’t even get to say goodbye to them. For months I was convinced that they weren’t actually dead and would come get me.”

Davis didn’t say anything else. Just released a weighted breath and closed the distance between them. He gently slipped his arms around her.

When he pressed a kiss to her forehead, it was nearly her undoing.

Hollyn sank against him. Relished the way his strong arms were like a shield from the nightmares raining down on her. For the first time in years, she allowed herself to relax. Her nose hurt where it pressed into his chest, so she turned her head to the side. Clung to his firm waist.

Maybe she should’ve told him this years ago.

Pfft. Right. Nobody had been ready for that back then, especially her. And though she hadn’t planned on telling him at all, she was so thankful no secrets stood between them anymore. It was . . . freeing.

Fury pawed at her shoe and pressed his weight into her leg. She smiled at the pressure. The three of them felt like a family.

Wait, wait, wait. No!

Hollyn chided herself.

A hug and innocent kiss, and she’d been swept off her feet again without so much as a mild protest! Emotions couldn’t be trusted! It was just the car accident messing with her. She wasn’t thinking clearly. She thought she’d done a good job reining them in over the years. But Davis hadn’t been in her everyday life then. Now, he was throwing her for a loop. She needed to snap out of it.

Seriously.

It was nothing more than a surge in endorphins from his comforting reaction to her story that had her hurtling down the path toward Happily-Ever-Afterville.

However, the moment her gaze met Davis’s, an overwhelming surge of something—call it bravery or insanity—washed over her, and Hollyn threw caution to the wind. Forgot about emergency personnel still going over the crash. Ignored all the screaming warning bells blaring in her head and pressed up onto her tippy toes . . . and kissed him.

She, Hollyn Reinhardt, kissed Davis Ledger.

He went rigid beneath her hands as they slipped up and over his shoulders, then his arm came around her waist. Tugged her close as gloriously, shockingly, he returned the gesture. For a moment, all her starry-eyed dreams came to fruition. However incredible she’d imagined this would be, real life blew it out of the water. In the arms of the man she’d loved for so long, she felt perfectly at home, and he was drinking her in like she was water in the desert.

But then he pulled back. Held her at arm’s length. “Hold up,” he said breathlessly.

Hollyn slanted forward in the wake of pressure.

Davis’s heavy gaze raked over her face, looking like he wanted to do anything but stop.

“I’m sorry,” she heard herself say, suddenly very aware they had an audience. “I didn’t mean . . . ”

He just stared at her for seconds that seemed endless. “I can’t,” he finally replied. “Wecan’t.”

Right. She knew that. “Of course.” She stepped back, gathering the blanket tighter. “I just . . . I was caught up and . . . adrenaline, you know?” Her excuse was weak. Even she could hear it.

Davis just gave a small nod, jaw muscle popping.

No. They’d never be a family.

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