Page 104 of Desolation

I nod. It makes sense. “What if my husband was the one who… who… sent someone after me? What about my kids? I can’t put them in danger.”

“You are still separated, Mar. He won’t be in the house with you.”

“What if he decides he needs to be?”

Landon looks to Jackson. “We’ll find a way to keep you safe. We always do.”

Chapter Thirty

Mari

I stare out the window of my office. I’ve been home for two weeks and I’m miserable.

It’s humid as hell. I miss the smell of the ocean in the air. I miss walking along the beach. I miss the tacos from that food truck.

But mostly I miss Landon.

I press my eyes closed as I think about our goodbye. After I revealed all my truths to Jackson, he sent me home to pack my things. I was on his private plane within two hours. Landon came with me to Dax’s house. We both knew we had to say goodbye. His life was in San Diego. Mine was back in Boston.

He kisses me fiercely, making my knees give out. I struggle to let him go.

“We can still make this work, Romeo.” His eyes close at the nickname I gave him.

“Mar, my sea, my ocean. I love you. I love you with all my heart. A heart that I thought could never love anyone with. But you brought it back to life. You let me see it was okay to let someone in. But we both know this can’t work.”

I shake my head and bang my fists on his chest. “No. It will work. It’s just our timing. But once this is all figured out, those dreams we talked about two nights ago can come true.”

He presses his lips to my forehead. “I don’t know if our timing will ever work, Mar.”

“I’ll come back for you. You are where I belong. My own ocean. My calling. The tide will bring me back to you. I love you. God, I love you more than I ever thought I could love someone.”

His lips are back on mine. I feel tears on my cheeks as he kisses me with a passion I’ve never felt before. He pulls away just as we hear Mark yelling from outside the door.

“I love you,” I say one more time.

His hand cups my cheek, his thumb brushing over my lip. “Until the tide brings me back to you.”

I feel the tears on my face before I realize they are even there. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would meet a man who brought me to my knees, who made me feel things I hadn’t felt in years, who I would love so fiercely I was willing to give up everything.

But it’s been two weeks and I haven’t heard a word from him.

I know it’s for the best. I can’t let myself think too hard about it. I need to have things as normal as possible.

And they have been. I came home and my husband wasn’t around. Unsurprisingly. When I reached out to him, I found out he was in DC. I asked why he filed a missing person report and he said it was because the housekeeper at the home I live in Beacon Hill said she hadn’t seen me in a few weeks. When I asked him why he didn’t call me, he told me he had to report to a meeting.

That was the only time I’ve talked to him since I came home. We’ve had a few random texts, mostly me asking him about the divorce papers but he doesn’t respond.

I haven’t felt that creeping presence of someone following me since I have been home either. It almost makes me even more scared than before. But I try to shake off the feeling. I know there is always someone around. Mark has been my ever-constant security presence. And when he isn’t around a guy named Ben is.

A knock on my door startles me from my thoughts.

I look up and Rebecca is popping her head into my office. “Hey, you okay?”

I wipe the tears from my eyes and nod.

“You ever going to tell me what happened while you were in San Diego?” she asks me as she adjusts her black pencil skirt as she sits down.

I shake my head. “There is nothing to tell.”

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