Page 160 of The Puck Stops Here

Blake’s gut iced over. ‘That’s not true.’

‘No? Think you’ll find the paramedics thought otherwise.’

‘Blake, don’t listen to him. Come on.’ She shrugged on her coat. ‘I shouldn’t have come. I’m sorry. Please. Let’s go.’

She’d got one thing right. She shouldn’t have. But now his feet were rooted into the wooden boards, his eyes planted on his father’s sneer.

‘They wouldn’t have even got to you if I hadn’t called them.’

‘Bet you wished you hadn’t bothered.’

She pulled on his arm, but he wasn’t done.

‘It would make you feel better for me to say “yes”, wouldn’t it? To paint me as bad as you. But I’m not. I’ve spent the last ten years fighting you. And I’m done with it. I’m not you. I’m nothing like you. And for the first time in my life, I can truly see that.’

His father flinched, Blake’s words landing harder than his fist ever could, and then he turned away. Wrapping his arm around Astrid’s waist, he led her to the door.

‘See you in another ten years, son.’

‘Not if I can help it,’ he murmured under his breath.

Getting the last word should have made him feel better. It didn’t. As he pushed out into the cold night air and unlocked the truck, his relief at seeing her waned in the face of what could have gone wrong.

They were in the middle of nowhere for fuck’s sake. Anything could have happened, and she knew no one. Had no support. No protection. No nothing.

And it would’ve been his fault too.

‘Get in the truck, Astrid.’

Blake ground the command out through his teeth; he couldn’t look at her now without feeling like he might puke. He rounded the vehicle and pulled open the driver’s door. But she hadn’t moved.

‘Astrid—’

‘I had to see him, Blake.’

‘Hadto?’ he shot back at her. ‘Not enough that you got all the gory details from us, you justhadto see the man himself.’

‘Yes.’ She met his gaze head on.

He gave a harsh scoff, steam wafting up into the freezing air. ‘What was it? Morbid curiosity? Didn’t believe he could be as bad as all that? Or do you just like to scare the shit out of me by putting yourself in harm’s way?’

* * *

‘I—’

Astrid’s words stole away as she realised it wasn’t fury that she saw blazing back at her, but fear. Fear over her.

‘I’m a journalist, Blake, this is what I do.’

‘Putting yourself in harm’s way isn’t work, it’s reckless and it’s stupid!’

She gave a tremulous smile. ‘You put yourself in harm’s way on the ice all the time.’

‘Don’t make light of this.’

‘I’m not. But this is my job, and like it or not, he is a part of your story.’

He swung the door closed and strode up to her, the intensity in his gaze leaving her breathless. ‘Thenwhydidn’t you tell me you were coming here?’

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