Page 38 of At the Edge of Surrender

I gasped around it, trying to purge the memory from my brain, but he had to go and exhale this seductive sound that made me sure he knew exactly where my thoughts had been.

“You got lost and randomly showed up at my door?” His voice was a rough scrape whispered near my lips. “The man who had you spread out on his desk the night before? You just randomly showed up at his door the next morning?”

My knees knocked, but I managed to force out, “Yes.”

“No need to lie to me, Little Warrior.”

Little Warrior.

Tingles ran through me. Head to toe.

That’s what I had been doing for years.

Fighting.

Fighting the fears.

Fighting the grief.

Fighting the demons so I could find who I was supposed to be.

But right then?

What I was really fighting for was Maci.

“Know you’re in trouble.” He rumbled it like a threat.

Confusion narrowed my eyes, and the question slipped free before I could contemplate what I was opening myself up to. “What do you mean?”

His thumb began to stroke over the sensitive flesh at the inside of my wrist, and it took a second for me to realize what he was touching.

The words that I’d forever marked on my body.

Find me in the darkness, bring me to the light.

Fear. Gratitude. Hope. Grief.

They were all knitted in those ten little words.

“You think I can’t see the ghosts that play in your eyes?” he rumbled.

My chest clutched. God. He shouldn’t see. Shouldn’t know.

“I know you’re afraid of something. That you’re running or hiding. That you’re scared.” His thick throat bobbed as he swallowed, his voice deepening further as he murmured, “I’ll hold it if you’ll let me.”

A gush of air escaped my throat. I’d been afraid for so many years I no longer remembered what it was like not to be. But this fear had nothing to do with whatever he’d sensed in me the same way as I could sense the darkness in him.

This was about what my sister had asked me to do.

“And your little girl…” He trailed off, his tongue stroking his bottom lip in clear agitation.

My little girl.

My eyes went wide. I finally understood what he thought. The assumptions he must have made when he saw her in the car. He thought we were running from someone who was trying to hurt us, when I was pretty sure he was the only one who could hurt us right then.

I let go of a ragged exhale, reservations seeded deep when I finally gave. “We need to talk.”

Surprise seemed to bluster through his face, then he dipped his head, stepped back, and asked, “Where’s your daughter?”

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