Page 128 of Dark, Forbidden, & Taboo

Part Five

Dottie & Cedar

Chapter 10

Dottie

Iwatched from hiding place as he walked away—as if what I had done for him didn’t matter. He looked so lost the further away from me he went, but I knew I couldn’t let him leave me again.

I pushed open the door to the cellar where I had been watching the scene unfold and ran out into the crowd. Thefire crews yelled at me, gave chase because they knew that I shouldn’t have been there.

I had hidden in the cellar where I knew the fire wouldn’t be able to hurt me and waited for Cedar—for the wolf to come home to me.

I ran past them all, pushing and shoving to make a clear path for myself, so that my best friend would know that it was me. I tried my best not to feel hurt because I didn’t want him to know how wounded I was that he had abandoned the vineyard like he had done to me so many years ago.

“Cedar!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs, my tone strangled as a sob escaped me, but I needed him to see me.

Just one more time, I wanted to hear his voice, to have him hold me and tell me a secret before they would have the chance to tear us apart again.

I could hear the angry crowd behind me giving chase and my pace quickened. I ran so fast that I was afraid my legs would break from the motion, but I was closing in on him and I wanted to feel the gentle caress of his hand again—I needed to feel it.

“Cedar!” I screamed as a pair of hands gripped me shoulders roughly and pulled me to a halt.

I almost lost my footing, but I managed to slip out from the grasp of whoever had caught me and continued to run.

I ran so fast and hard that I didn’t realize how close I was to him until I crashed into his back sending us both tumbling to the ground in a heap.

Chapter 11

Cedar

“What the fuck?” I barked out when I hit the ground.

The body that fell on top of me was frantic, almost hysterical and it took me a moment to be able to compose myself enough to push it away from me and look into my attacker’s eyes.

And that’s when I realized that it was no attacker at all.

It was my Darling Dottie Winslow from so many years ago and she was such a mess that I almost didn’t recognize her.

“Dottie?” I asked, pushing the hair out of her face. I knew in my heart that it was her, but I had to be sure.

“It’s me, Cedar, it’s me!” she confirmed hysterically as she collapsed into my arms and started to sob.

I struggled to get to my feet, but when I did, I held her close and looked at the fire crew that had given chase.

I shook my head at them, and my fire captain stepped forward, “She came running out of the cellar like a bat out of hell. She needs to tell us what she was doing down there.”

“She’ll tell me,” I responded evenly as I began to a hand gently over her hair, “But you’re going to have to leave us alone for that to happen.”

“Let me take her away and I’ll find out what’s going on,” I snapped back. “Can’t you see that she’s in no position to be interrogated right now?”

“You’ve got ten minutes, then I need to talk to her,” he finally relented after a minor stare down.

When he walked way, I watched as the rest of the men and women turned to follow him. Once they were at a safe enough distance that I knew they wouldn’t be able to hear us, I looked down at Dottie and used my thumbs to wipe her tears away.

“I knew it was you starting these fires,” I admitted softly with a small smile. “The patterns were always the same way I taught you when we were younger.”

“Then why didn’t you come when I called for you?” she asked in a shaky breath.

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