Page 102 of Hold Me Before You Go

“Brandon wouldn’t—”

“Until Hayes gets on a lock on him, no one in Astoria can know you’re safe, Carrie. Brandon Hale is unhinged and desperate. He will do anything—hurt anyone—to get to you,” I told her firmly.

Realization dawned, and slowly, she nodded. Tears welled in her eyes, and she pressed her lips together as she looked back to Jake. “He’s right, isn’t he?” she asked.

Jake looked pained as he answered, “He usually is.”

Carrie looked down to her feet and closed her eyes for a few stretched seconds. When she lifted her head again, she said, “Don’t tell him anything. Just leave it. When the time is right, we can explain the whole story to them.”

“We?” Jake parroted, raising a brow.

“Oh, I’m not facing Margo, Sarah, Michael, and Rossy alone. All of you are coming with me,” she explained, looking at me.

“Whatever you want,” I assured her.

“Margo scares the shit out of me,” Jake muttered, looking down at his laptop and pressing a few keys.

“She’s harmless,” Carrie promised, laughing a bit as Dominic walked in, squeezing past Jake.

“Be sure to remind Hayes of that when he gets back,” Dominic said, coming for me.

Carrie and Jake exchanged a look as I shook my head. “Don’t go there, Dominic,” I warned.

“Already there,” he returned, looking at his phone, moving swiftly and smoothly across the space. “Unpacked and set up shop.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jake inquired. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” I answered, holding my hand out for the file Dominic was here to give me.

Dominic handed the file to me, pocketed his phone, and looked over to Carrie. “You doing okay? Need anything?”

Jake cocked his head to the side and stepped in front of Carrie. “Don’t bypass that, Dominic. What do you know?”

“I know everything.”

Jesus fucking Christ.

I shot Carrie a look and shook my head. She gave me a smile in return, the sight of it, the raw beauty of it, nearly gutting me where I stood. Clearing my throat, I moved around my desk, opening the file as I went. Dominic had done his own research, compiling a list of Robert’s victims’ family members and their addresses. Now, we had everything. We were set to do the right thing, but it wasn’t my decision anymore. After last night, hearing Carrie’s confession, things had shifted. I wasn’t ready to throw away the happiness I’d found with her, and I sure as fuck wasn’t strong enough to do it. Red Snake and the reputation my boys and I worked so hard to build was on the brink of extinction.

Yet, I could pull the fucking trigger. It didn’t matter to me if it was the right thing. Everything that was right and good about me was standing twenty feet from me, smiling up at Dominic and Jake. I couldn’t be the one to make this decision.

It had to be Carrie.

Until that happened, this file would remain in my top left drawer.

Sometimes making the right choice was the hardest choice of all.

“We have to talk about it, don’t we?”

My jaw tightened as I stirred the soup that had been simmering all afternoon, wishing I could just take Carrie away to somewhere warm and filled with color, somewhere we could both start over and leave our pasts behind us.

However, that wasn’t possible. “Yeah, Sunshine,” I said softly. “We do.”

I turned to face the woman of my dreams sitting on the island, her hands in her lap with her ankles crossed, wearing one of my shirts and a pair of sweats. The brightness in her eyes from earlier was now gone, sadness looming over her like a dark cloud. She’d been through so much, and yet there was still so much to be done.

The world never stopped, not even for her, and it killed me on the inside. If I could stop it, I would. If I could protect her fromall the pain coming for her—and me—I would. I’d do anything to prevent this, but only if she’d let me.

My team’s dark suggestion lingered in the back of my mind.

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