Page 206 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Slowly, I swiveled around to face her, the sweater I was folding fisted in my hands.
Her face deepened in empathy and understanding, her warm, brown eyes creasing at the sides as she tipped her head in emphasis. “It’s a different life, Piper. One with added fear and danger and complexity. But it’s a good life. One I’m proud to be a part of. And when one of them loves…”
The low toll of a rumbling motorcycle engine suddenly cut through the air, and my attention jerked to the big plate-glass windows to find Theo swinging around in the middle of the road on his bike. He pulled into an open spot at the curb.
He turned his face toward the windows.
I doubted very much that he could see me from where I stood against the far wall, but it felt like he was staring directly at me.
Through me.
Or maybe into me.
Locks of black hair whipped around his obscenely handsome face as he sat at the helm of his motorcycle.
Tattooed hands stretched out to the handlebars and his worn motorcycle boots planted on the pavement below him.
Foreboding.
Menacing.
The most terrifyingly beautiful man I’d ever seen.
“Theo doesn’t love me.” I whispered it like grief.
He couldn’t.
He told me.
His heart belonged to someone else.
Emery pulled her gaze from where she was looking at Theo and returned it to me. “I’ve never seen him this way, Piper. You changed something in him.”
Silence wound around us before she implored, “He’ll hold whatever you’re hiding from. Whatever you’re running from. He adores you.”
Was it that obvious? Did they all know? Could they all see right through me?
I expected Theo to push from his bike and come striding in the way he always did.
But he remained there, the low grumble of the engine vibrating the glass and trembling the floor beneath my feet.
Disquiet rushed through my being. “Is he…checking on me? Making sure I’ve kept quiet?”
A frown marred her brow, and she barely shook her head. “No, of course not, Piper. He trusts you. And even if you went directly to the police, he would never hurt you.”
She glanced at him again before she looked at me. “It looks to me like he’s waiting for you to make a choice on him.”
Emotion swelled.
A swill of hope that bashed against the barrier of fear.
Battering and beating against the stones that surrounded my heart.
Theo pulled back on the throttle and revved the powerful engine.
The reverberation hit me like a call.
“Only girl sitting on the back of my bike ismine.”
