Page 48 of The Moments You Were Mine
When my insides twisted this time, it was with a completely different emotion—soul-deep longing. While I couldn’t deny wanting him here, it was selfish to keep him close, especially when he had Theo. The last thing Parker needed was to add my worries to his own. What had Jim been thinking in calling him?
Parker had always insisted he never wanted to be a dad, yet he’d stepped up to the plate and taken Theo anyway because he was honorable. Good down to his very marrow. If you could see a soul, Parker’s would be as bright as the heavenly gates themselves, pure and white and stunning. Whereas mine would be marred with black.
I’d been born in betrayal, one of many committed by myancestors. Did that darkness etch itself into a person? Did my insides look as hollowed and destroyed as the cabin had looked this morning? Would keeping Parker here so I didn’t feel quite so alone add another permanent dark mark?
I bit my cheek and closed my eyes against another rush of tears.
As much as I didn’t want to add to Parker’s burdens, his honor and bravery would prevent him from leaving me when he thought I was in danger. The only solution was to identify who was responsible for this and put an end to it, so Parker could return home to his life and whatever new plans he was making for himself and Theo.
If I did nothing else right in the next few days, I promised myself it would be that.
Chapter Fourteen
Parker
EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE
Performed by The Police
FIVE YEARS AGO
HER: Kermit, I need tacos.
HIM: Are you drunk?
HER: No. Yes. Maybe.
HIM: Are all your friends no-yes drunk as well and unable to take you to get tacos?
HER: They’ve all hooked up for the night and are more interested in sex than food. I’m at a bonfire, surrounded by college kids smooching.
Minutes passed.
HER: Fine. I’ll walk to The Taco Bar and then catch a CarShare to the apartment.
HIM: Don’t you dare walk on that strip of road at night by yourself.
HER: ***GIF of a frog tapping chin in thought*** Tacos… disappoint the broody SEAL… Tacos… SEAL… TACOS!!!!
HIM: I’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t fucking leave the bonfire.
PRESENT DAY
I watched Fallon stride down thehall and felt the weight of the world going with her. She’d regressed into the teenwho’d dealt with enormous responsibilities on her own and awed me with her ability to act more like an adult than the actual adults in her life. It pissed me off that she’d been forced back into that box. Whoever was doing this, whoever had come for her, her family, or the ranch, would have to deal with me now.
Theo tugged at my hand, and guilt buzzed through me like a jet taking off from a carrier deck. Strong and fierce and fast. How could I protect Fallon and go after the asshole pulling these stunts while keeping Theo out of harm’s way too? Maybe I should have gone to Vegas first and dropped him off with Mom. But I’d become his stable ground, his safety net, and if I disappeared on him for days, that might cause even more damage.
“I’m hungry,” he told me.
We’d been up for hours. The hard bed and loud noises from the parking lot of the motel in Santa Clarita where we’d stopped last night had kept us both up. Eventually, I’d given up on the idea of sleep in the wee hours, poured us into the truck, and headed for the ranch, knowing we’d have a first-class breakfast waiting for us.
All thoughts of food had been shoved from my brain when I’d seen the fire trucks and smelled the charred remains of the cabin. Seeing Fallon being held up by Kurt and a firefighter, I’d almost lost my mind. The fear—the absolute despair—that had coiled through my heart had been so powerful I’d barely been able to park the truck without wrecking it.
For the torturous seconds when I’d thought Fallon had been hurt, my insides had felt as if they’d been ripped out and left for the carrion birds to devour, peck by brutal peck.
When I’d called her name and she’d turned that blackened face toward me…
It made my hands shake all over again.
