Page 54 of Regret

“Fine.” He sighed. “I won’t call you that again. Not unless you ask me to.”

“Which will never happen.”

“But you need my help, whether you want to admit it or not.”

She remained silent and turned to look out the window.

“I am going to give you one more chance here, Scarlet. One more. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Just let me help you.”

She looked down at her hands folded on her lap, her thumbs nervously rolling around and around. That was when he caught his second glimpse of her vulnerable side she so desperately tried to hide. And for the first time he understood it, her need to hide her pain, to never show weakness. He understood it because that was what he’d been doing every day for the past few years.

“Scarlet.” He reached for her hand, but she jerked away, and he pulled back. “You can trust me.”

This was probably not the first time someone had said those words to her, so he really couldn’t expect her to trust him at the drop of a hat. He wouldn’t. Trusting people in her world was probably almost as difficult for him to trust people in his. Fuck, he really had no business judging or making assumptions when it came to her.

“Fine,” she said softly without looking up at him. “Okay.”

He wanted to smile, but he didn’t want to risk getting punched in the face again.

He righted himself in his seat and turned back onto the road. Somehow, someway he would figure out what the fuck was going on, and he would do everything he could to help her. Why? He had no clue.

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