Page 240 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Pulling back, he tucked a lock of hair behind my ear, his perception and care so thick. “Want him to experience it here first since he already has his tree, and I know he’s had to move around so much.” He paused, then urged, “What do you think?”
What did I think?
I thought I was hopelessly in love with this man.
I stared up at him through the babbling shadows of the room.
The man written in menace and peril.
Dangerous.
My perfect peace.
The horizon I could finally reach.
And I repeated what my son had told him earlier.
“I say yes.”
FORTY-EIGHT
PIPER
NINETEEN YEARS OLD
“This is it.Pull over right here,” Justin said.
Confusion wound through Piper as she pulled to the curb in front of the enormous house. The silence was thick in the upscale neighborhood, and she squinted as she peered through the driver’s side window at the front of the home that was completely still.
The windows were blackened, the only light the faint rain of the moon and the glow of the city lights that forever crowned the city.
Her brow pinched, and unease twisted in her belly. “What are we doing here? I thought we were going to a party?”
“We just need to make a pit stop really quick.” Justin gave her one of his cocky grins as he said it. The one that told her she didn’t have to worry about anything.
Except she couldn’t hang onto that sense right then.
She hadn’t been able to in the last few weeks.
She’d become more and more certain that she’d bitten off more than she could chew.
More than shewantedto chew.
Along the way, she’d realized Justin didn’t just look bad.
Hewasbad.
Involved in sketchy things that she didn’t want any part of.
But when she tried to dodge his texts, he showed up at her door and told her he had big plans for her farewell.
She’d tried to divert and toss out excuses about why she couldn’t see him again, but he’d made her feel…
She tried to process what it had been.
Scared, she guessed.
Intimidated.
