Page 50 of Damned
It dawned on her then, how close they’d come to landing in the river. Where everything would be wet. Where, in the worst scenario, she and Kruze could’ve drowned. Could she have gotten him out of a burning plane then? With cold water pouring in on them? Just the thought of him drowning and her watching while he died, sent a wave of anxiety flooding her already nerve-racked body.
Bree shook the panic off. It was time to run. Instead, she walked backward, dragging the makeshift travois carefully over rocks and driftwood. God, she was going to have a heart attack before this day ended.
Hurry.
At that subconscious demand, her foot slipped and she dropped to one knee. Didn’t slow her down. Bree kept her head and moved her precious cargo farther away from the danger she’d so cavalierly waltzed into just moments ago. The stupidity of her grandiose plan to re-enter a burning plane floored Bree now. What the heck had she done? She wasn’t brave, and she wasn’t a risk taker. She could’ve died in that fire. What would Robin have done then? Cry her pretty eyes out for the rest of her life, wondering why her mother and her father never came back for her?
Her. Father.Tears dripped down Bree’s cheeks at those choice words. It turned out Robin’s father had been absolutely right when he’d made the decision to divide the Banks family, to send Robin one way and Bree another. If Bree’d had her way, Robin would’ve been in that plane with her. Would that little girl have survived the crash landing? Look what happened to Kruze. He’d been injured, and he was twice Bree’s size. Ten times the size of his daughter.
A cavern of despair opened inside of Bree at the mere thought of Robin in the plane during that crash landing. Lord, that screwdriver could have hit her instead of Kruze. She looked over her shoulder to where he lay. He’d saved his child the terror of the crash. In a weird, abstract way, he’d also saved Bree. It was time to stop fighting him.
Because Robin already loved Kruze, and Bree knew it. Finally at the edge of the trees, she dropped to her butt on the first cushion of pine needles and moss she came to, exhausted. Yet so, so thankful she’d told Kruze about Robin.What if she hadn’t? What if she’d continued lying? He could be dying right now, having never met that sweet little imp with the exact same color eyes as his. His daughter, for God’s sake. Bree had denied Kruze his fatherly rights and the unconditional love of that darling little girl.
“What have I done?” she asked the noisy river. She was not a cruel person, and the night she and Kruze created their precious little girl, they had surely done it out of love. Yes, they’d been impetuous, and their lovemaking had been wild and crazy. Almost hedonistic. There was no doubt they’d been caught in a wicked tidal wave of lust that night.
But Bree knew there was a different side to Kruze than just the randy, devil-may-care veneer he hid behind now. He’d been so sweet and thoughtful in Paris, so intent on pleasuring her. That big, brave, former SEAL had even gone downstairs to the hotel’s gift shop and bought a tiny purple box of bubble bath. Okay, so he’d done that before he’d known there wasn’t a bathtub in her room, but the thought counted. What was more, Kruze counted. And Robin already loved her daddy.
Bree’s cheeks ballooned as she let a heartfelt sigh escape. She still had to drag this stuff back to Kruze, but they were alive and safe and…
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Before she got any more melodramatic or emotional, Bree swiped the back of one tenderized hand over her sweaty forehead and brushed her hair out of her face. It was time to make amends. Kruze knew about Robin. That was what mattered. Bree would make sure he knew he was always welcome in his daughter’s life. If that meant keeping a guest room ready for him, so be it.
Bree crafted her tangled hair into a single braid to keep it out of her way and lifted to her feet. Twisting two corners of the blanket together, she continued the slow drag back to their haphazard excuse of a camp. For the first time in months, she knew what she had to do, and she would do it. In the process of making room for Kruze in her life, Bree vowed to love him the right way—unconditionally.
After that, everything was up to him.
