Page 11 of Truths

Chapter Five

Summerville

Dax

After eating dinner, Dax was able to convince Dani, with the help of Lex, to come to their new house. He has yet to touch his wife, and it's killing him. But watching her eat, it's obvious they fed her the bare minimum. Likely just enough to keep her strength up, and she looks like such a shell of the person she used to be. He hates the fact he could have been searching and saving her from three years of being locked up but didn't know. He could have had her back months ago if Chance wasn't such an asshole he wants to punch in the fucking face again and again.

“We'll get you clothes tomorrow,” Dax says as Dani follows him into the house while he gives her a tour now that they’re alone. They walk into the master bedroom and attachedbathroom, and she looks frightened. “We'll get everything else you need, too.”

“What... what happened to my old stuff?” Dani asks. “Did you throw them out when you thought I was dead?”

He gapes at her. “They were destroyed in the fire.”

Her fear quickly changes to curiosity, and she tilts her head. “What fire?”

The fire that made me believe you were dead and gone forever.“Why don't you shower and get cleaned up, and then I can fill you in on everything.”

How does he explain that he should have poked holes in the story about her death but didn't? To tell her he could have been looking for her, but he let people convince him otherwise to try and move him past his grief?

Shrugging, she walks into the bathroom, and he hears the water turn on. In another life, he would be in there with her as she showered. He’d help her wash every part of her body while their tongues danced and hands toyed. The memory causes him to use every ounce of strength he has not to break down into uncontrollable sobs from both grief and relief.

How do I tell her I never looked for her? That we buried a body that isn't hers? She has a grave and a headstone, and my grief allowed me to just take everything at face value. How do I tell the woman I love more than life that I just gave up on her? That I let her down and put her through unspeakable hell?

He wrestles with his thoughts as she walks out of the bathroom wearing nothing but one of his T-shirts. Her legs show bruises and scrapes in various stages of healing, and she's far too thin. But seeing her in the same attire she used to wear all the time reminds him how much he loved it. This was his favorite sight to see.

“I hope this was okay,” she says. “I found a shirt in there.”

“You never have to worry that it's okay.”

Her eyes look around the room. “It looks familiar.”

“I tried to replicate everything we had. In a way, it let me pretend, even for a second, that you were still here with me.”

“What fire, Dax?”

Sighing, he looks at the ground. “I was on a run with the club, and when we came home, the house was burned to a crisp. Only our home. The neighbors’ houses were fine, and no one saw a thing. That they admit, anyway,” he says and holds back the lump in his throat. “There was a body burned in our bed beyond recognition, and every report said it was accidental. Because it was our house, and the body was female, it was identified as you.”

“I have... I have a grave?”

Dax can't stop the tears from flowing freely now. “Yes.”

“I remember that night,” Dani says, and she leans against the bathroom doorframe when he dares glance up at her. “Men broke into the house and grabbed me from the bed. Our bed. I tried to fight, but there were too many of them. The neighbors... the ones to the left, I think, watched them take me, but they didn't do anything to help. The guys shoved me into the trunk of a car, and that's the last I saw of our house.”

His head snaps up. “The neighbors saw you being taken?”

“Yeah, uh, Hanson? And Travis. I think I saw Omar, too. Those names are right, right? It feels like the past few years are a jumble of everything.”

Growling, he clenches his jaw. “Yep, those were our neighbors. The ones who said they never saw anything suspicious when they were questioned about the fire.”

“If I'm alive, who did you bury?”

Letting out a dry laugh, he shrugs. “I have no fucking idea.”

“Are you going to hurt our old neighbors?”

“I'm going to have a chat with them,” he says and stands. “Dani, can I... Can I hold you?”

Sliding away, her back presses against the wall next to the dresser. “Dax-”

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