Page 1 of Blood and Sand

Prologue

Louisiana

“I’m not leaving my job, DeeDee!” Rey tossed his hands up in the air. “I’ve worked too damn hard to get to where I’m at to throw it all away.”

“And I haven’t? This is my dream, Rey! It’s been my dream to work for the FBI even before I met you. They’ve offered me a chance of a lifetime, and you want me to give it up? For what?”

“You know why!”

“Do you understand how big this opportunity is?” I looked at him, shocked he would take this stance. “I’d be the youngest FBI Behavioral Analyst in the Bureau’s history, Rey.”

“Dana…”

“No!” I pointed my finger at him. “Don’t you dare Dana me, Rey LaCroix.

Rey always slipped to calling me Dana instead of DeeDee when he felt I was too upset and wanted to “calm me down.” But I needed him to know how angry I was that he wanted me to pass up this fantastic opportunity just so he could stay in his beloved Louisiana, which made me even angrier. Fury choked me the more I thought about what he wanted me to give up. “I can’t believe you would want me to give that up!”

It has always been his way or nothing since we’ve been together, but not this time. I won’t relent. I tossed my luggage on our bed and finished packing some of my immediate necessities. The rest, I would have shipped.

We’d been having this same argument for the past two months, and I wasn’t making any headway with him. I’ve always compromised with my husband, but on this, I wasn’t willing to. There was no way I’d give up the opportunity to finally do what I wanted because my husband refused to put in a transfer to another precinct. He didn’t want to leave his hometown. I had already uprooted my life once for Rey LaCroix. For love. No matter how much it pained me, I refused to do it again. It was his turn to put me first.

If he could.

We met at a conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’d been pursuing my master’s degree in criminal psychology and working for the Charlotte FBI Field office. He’d just been promoted to detective in the homicide division in Louisiana. After dating long distance for two years, I decided to pursue my doctoral degree in psychology in Louisiana to be closer to him since neither of us wanted to continue to be apart, and he didn’t want to transfer to North Carolina. Rey traveling to North Carolina and me to Louisiana was too much for either one of us to continue. So, we decided to start our life together in Louisiana.

We were together for three years before we got married. Now, seven years later, including four years of marriage, were down the drain because neither one of us would give in to what the other wanted.

“What are you doing, Dana?” he asked, leaning against the large dresser mirror in our master bedroom, wearing that same smug ass smirk he gets whenever he thinks I won’t follow through on what I’m saying.

Well, he was in for a rude awakening because my ass was headed to Atlanta tonight to get settled before I started my new job on Monday morning.

“What does it look like I’m doing, Rey? I’m packing my shit because I have a job to report to in two days.” I tossed more clothes in my suitcases, not caring whether they’d be wrinkled in the morning. “We discussed this two months ago, and every day after I was offered the position, remember?”

Of course, his ass remembered. He just thought I wouldn’t accept the job because he said so. “Remember when I asked you to put in a transfer so we could spend the rest of our lives together?”

“Yeah, I do remember.” He looked at me with a sarcastic expression that sent my temper soaring higher. “And I also remember telling you to turn it down, DeeDee, because there was no way we could move. There was no way I could leave my job!”

“Well, I also told you there was no way I would do that, Rey. I amnotpassing on this opportunity. Now you’re giving me no choice.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean, DeeDee? You’re my goddamn wife!” He punched the wall, leaving a gaping hole in the drywall, then jabbed his index finger into his chest. “My fucking wife!”

“And Rey, you’re my husband, and I love you.” I zipped up my suitcases and placed them by the door, swallowing the crippling sob rising in my throat. Just thinking of what I was about to do shattered me. “Lord knows I love you with everything I have in me. But I’m not turning down this opportunity. I can’t.”

“You can’t, or you won’t?”

I fought to control my swirling emotions. I wouldn’t bend on this. I couldn’t, no matter how much my heart urged me to stay. This was the path I needed to take, with or without my husband.

I walked back over to the nightstand by our bed, grabbed the legal pad from the drawer, and scribbled down my contact information, my vision clouded with tears. Ripping the paper from the pad, I ambled over to the only man I had ever loved, the one person I had vowed to spend the rest of my life with. I held his face gently between my palms. His eyes fluttered as I rose on my tiptoes, and his lips touched mine like a whisper.

Deep down, I knew this was goodbye, even though my heart held on to the hope he would fight for us. See that I was worth it. Thatwewere worth it.

I stepped back and placed the paper on top of the mirrored dresser. “I won’t turn down this opportunity. Here is my flight information and where I’ll be staying once I arrive in Atlanta. If I don’t hear anything from you within a week, I’ll assume you’ve made the decision to stay here in Louisiana, and I’ll have no other choice but to make mine. I love you, Rey LaCroix. Always and forever. Please never forget that.”

There was nothing more to say. We both drew our lines in the sand, and I gave him a choice. He could choose me, or he could choose to stay here in Louisiana without me.

With no more words spoken, I pulled my suitcases out the front door to an awaiting rideshare to take me to the airport. Before I entered the idling car, I turned around to gaze one final time at the man I loved with all my heart and soul while he stood in the doorway of our home. My heart clenched in my chest. This was our final goodbye, even if I hadn’t accepted it yet. Maybe, just maybe, he loved me enough to choose me, but the man I knew was stubborn as hell. He wouldn’t leave Louisiana, even for me, and I couldn’t stay, even for him.

With his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his blue jeans, he said nothing, did nothing to stop me. Although I saw the sadness, hurt, and uncertainty in his eyes, I did the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life—I entered the awaiting car to start my new life, in a new city, without the love of my life.

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