Page 42 of Torment

As she stared into his eyes, all hope had once again been stolen from her as reality slammed against her chest. No matter how hard they tried—how hardshetried—things would never work out for them. They would never just be a normal couple who fell in love. Normal just did not exist for people like them.

“You want to know why we keep on fighting it, Ace?”

She pushed against his chest, and he stepped back, allowing her to put her feet back on the ground.

Hunter watched as she crouched down and picked up the chain from the floor—the chain which had become both their regret and their torment.

Scarlet held it out to him. “Thisis why we keep on fighting it.”

“Scar, please don’t—”

But she was out the door before she could hear him finish his sentence. Even though her body was screaming at her to stay, to let them finish what they started, her heart was telling her to run. To run as far away from that man as possible. During the past few weeks, the threat on her life had shifted. It was no longer Brent who was her biggest threat.

It was him. Hunter. The only difference? It wasn’t her life that was on the line this time…it was her heart. And no matter how much she tried to deny it, how hard she tried to fight, her heart was on the line from the very first moment he walked into her life and turned everything upside down.

On her way down the hall, rushing toward the front door, it felt like all the air had been sucked away and she couldn’t take a breath. There was a gnawing ache carving its way through her heart and out of her chest, like it wanted to rip her soul to shreds. It was a kind of pain she had never felt before.

When she reached the front door, she shoved it open and rushed out onto the patio. After taking a few deep breaths, allowing the oxygen to fill her lungs and calm the storm raging inside her, she gazed around.

It was late afternoon, the sun starting to settle down in the horizon. It was beautiful, how the light painted the treetops, birds flocking back to their nests in the huge oak trees. It would be easy to forget about the city life buzzing just behind those trees, where people rushed through their lives day in and day out.

Scarlet sat down on the top of the stairs and kept her eyes on the picture in front of her. It would be so easy for her to feel sorry for herself. To sit there and wonderwhy her?Why did her life have to be such a damn mess? Why couldn’t she have been one of those girls who met the man of her dreams at the age of seventeen, married him at twenty, had their first born son at the age of twenty-three, and spent every Sunday barbequing on the back patio of their cottage in the country overlooking the lake?

She pulled her palms down her face. “Wishful thinking, Scarlet.”

“What’s wishful thinking?”

She glanced up and saw Colton towering over her from behind.

“To have a cottage in the country with a lake of Jack Daniel’s running through my backyard.”

“Hmm.” He sat down next to her. “Husband?”

“Husband?”

“Well, if you’re wishing for a cottage in the country by a lake of Jack Daniels, it would be real boring without a husband.”

“Oh, there will be a husband. He’ll just be safely tucked away in a closet, only allowed to come out on barbeque Sundays.”

Colton snickered. “Poor man.”

“Hey, he should be thankful he’s allowed out at all.”

Colton laughed and nudged her with his shoulder. “You’re a real tough one, aren’t you?”

“Is it that obvious?” She smiled.

“If your personality doesn’t give it away, those boots sure do.” He looked down at her knee-high leather boots.

“They’re my shitkickers.” She winked at him.

“No shit.”

Colton leaned back on his elbows and stared out in front of them. It was quiet, except for the chirping birds flying around on their way to their nests.

Scarlet glanced at him. “Tell me about her.”

“Why?”

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