Page 26 of Second Chance Savior

“Why should I believe you? You love swooping in whenit’s time to be a hero. But the minute you get bored, you move on.”

“Not true.”

“Then where have you been the last five years? That’s how long it’s been since I last saw you, and that wasn’t exactly a lengthy visit either. You cancelled on me last minute, said you’d call, and never did.”

“You’re refusing my help because I suck at keeping in touch? Isn’t that a little childish considering what’s at stake? Your life is in danger.”

Her eyes went even colder. More distant. “I have resources. I can arrange my own protection. Even if youhadkept in touch, you wouldn’t be the right person to play my bodyguard.”

“Because we’re not a good combination?” I asked, borrowing her words from earlier.

“Yes. Would you let me leave now? This room is suffocating.”

“Charlie, don’t do this. If something happens to you…”

“Thanks for passing on the intel. Now you can go back to Hartley and play someone else’s hero. I don’t need you to be mine.”

Reluctantly, I backed off. She slipped past me and disappeared down the hall.

Cleo eyed me sardonically, tail twitching.

“Yeah, I know I screwed up.”

Fuck, I thought. Now what?

Eighteen Years Ago

“Let’s do this,” Charlie said.

She made sure no one else was shooting, then walked out onto the range to grab her spent arrows so she could start fresh. I went to grab a recurve bow from the shed, ignoring my brother’s disapproving stare. I strung the bow, grabbed a set of arrows, and went back over to meet her.

Charlie didn’t waste time. She lined up her shot on the thirty-yard target. Back straight. Arms lifted, sighting down the shaft of the arrow. She held it at an angle to compensate for the distance, the wind, the natural imbalance in her aim.

Thunk. The metal point slammed into the center ring of the target. She shot twice more. The second went a little wider, but she still wound up with an impressive score.

She turned around with a smirk. “Your turn. Want to warm up? Or is that beneath you?”

I took several warm-up shots, getting a feel for the bow and the conditions. They barely hit the outermost ring of the target.

I rolled my shoulders. “Just getting the hang of it. I’m ready now.”

“You sure?” Charlie was grinning. Ross and the younger girls were watching too.

I lined up my first scored shot.Bam. Then another.Bam. The last. Quick succession.

Silence.

Then cheers erupted from Megan and Cora. “That was amazing!”

“How did you do that?” Charlie hadn’t taken her eyes from my target, where three arrows with blue fins were clustered near the center.

“There’s an archery elective at my school. I signed up. You got better since last year, and so did I.”

She rounded on me. Pink flush in her cheeks, lips parted slightly, eyes wild.

My stomach tightened. Heated. A spark of something equally wild inside me.

“So you took an archery class at your fancy rich-boy school and decided to make me look like an idiot?”

---