Page 55 of Corbin
She’d wondered if those two had gotten in a fight and Corbin had run away from home. Even so, she believed he would come back to her one day—that they’d have a chance to be together.
With nowhere else to go for answers, she finally gave up waiting for him to respond.
Her heart pounded wildly at a possibility she had never considered. Had something bad happened to him? “Corbin?”
He nodded.
Tears threatened at the corners of her eyes. “What happened to you?”
He cocked his head and asked, “Do you really not know why I disappeared?”
“No.”
“Truth.” He sounded shocked and then sad. “I was on my way to meet you in the cemetery. I’d smelled your scent there more than once, which is why I suggested we meet there.”
Her head would explode any minute now. “I still have your note with those words and the little wooden wolf you’d wrapped up in the paper. I went to the cemetery to let my wolf run that night. We stayed as long as possible, but then we had to go home.”
Corbin sat right next to her.
How many years had she dreamed of finding him and demanding why he vanished without a word? How many times had she wanted to see his warm brown eyes and heart-warming face?
The boyish face of her memories had morphed into a strong-jawed man. Those eyes had seen far more life since that fateful night.
How many times had she wanted his arms around her when life yanked the ground out from beneath her feet time and again? Where had he gone?
He inhaled slowly and said, “I was grabbed by your dad’s two security goons who followed you constantly.”
She blinked. Had she heard him correctly? “I don’t understand. I told no one about the note or the meeting. My father would never have approved. I was careful leaving for my standard run and made sure no one followed me.”
A hint of disbelief tinged his words. “Your bodyguards didn’t have to follow you. They were too busy at that moment delivering me to a Romanian gang leader who needed a shifter slave. He gave the bodyguards cash, enough to pay off my dad to stay quiet. He would never miss me anyhow.”
She covered her mouth with a hand to keep the wail from escaping. Why had her dad’s men done this to him?
Now she understood why Corbin had accused her of treating him badly in the past. Pulling her hand down, she asked, “Why did you sayIscrewed you over?”
His chest moved with a deep breath. Every word seemed to be pulled from deep inside. “For years, I believed you’d played me that night. The tall goon handed me the note I’d written you as proof that you’d sent them. He said you had ordered them to send me far enough away that I’d never make the mistake of talking to you again.”
Her emotions were stumbling through a mine field, hitting one at a time. She gasped, “That’s not possible. I told you I still have the note.”
Taking a moment to reply, he asked, “Did it stay in your possession the whole time?”
She gripped her forehead, thinking back to that night. “I found it in my locker and took it home. Then I put it in my jewelry box where I keep my mother’s necklace and the few things I cherish.” She raised her gaze to his with a sick feeling in her stomach. “I went to the library to do my homework at record speed. When I told my father I was done and going for a run, he said his usual ‘have a good time’ but be sure to take one of my bodyguards. Time was running out, so I rushed to put on clothes easy to remove for shifting and took off.”
He sat silently as she replayed that night.
She could see how it all happened now and whispered, “I didn’t think to pull the note out again until I hadn’t seen you for days. I smelled no other scent, which means they must have worn gloves. After that, I left your note hidden away for years.”
Corbin filled in the missing parts. “They must have seen me put the note in your locker and figured out something was up.”
Her chest hurt from learning the truth. How would she have felt if someone had done that to her? She’d have been out for blood. “I don’t think my father knew, which makes me wonder if someone else had paid his guards to do that.”
“Who?” Corbin asked with genuine surprise.
“My trustee has been around since my birth. He was my father’s best friend and business partner, but he is now fully in charge of my life. I can see him paying those two to keep an eye on me and removing anyone he believed would be a threat to his power down the line.”
“That’s awful.”
How could Corbin have any sympathy for her after she’d been the reason that he’d lost his freedom? “I am so sorry they did that to you, Corbin.” She wanted to hug him more than anything, but she understood why he had been what had at first seemed like unreasonably angry with her.
