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“No, you aren’t.” Quickly, he shakes his head. “Do you know how I know that?”
“I don’t care,” I growl, releasing the hold on the gun with one hand just long enough to wipe my eyes. “I don’t care!”
“I know that because Hudson loves you, Briar.” His voice is different now. Sad even. “He hasn’t so much as looked at another woman since Cami.”
I’m too far into whatever fucked-up state I’m in to be intrigued by the name. So, I say nothing, keeping the gun drawn, waiting for him to attack me.
Only he doesn’t.
“Cami was Hudson’s wife and the love of his life. They were married young. Like, twenty-two years old, I think? And within two months, they found out they were pregnant.” He swallows. “She was a nurse. A few months later, she worked all night long to save people’s lives in the ICU.” He pauses, looking down for a split second. “She was six months pregnant when, on her way home from work, a drunk driver hit her head-on.” He reaches up, wiping his eyes. “She died instantly. And … Hudson has never been the same.”
I feel a different pain now from before. It’s no longer the feeling of sadness for my parents or guilt for being ashamed of them. But instead pain for Hudson and all he’s gone through. But I can’t put my guard down with Rossi. After all, he’s keeping me in this room.
“Why are you telling me this?” I whisper, lowering the gun slightly.
“Because, Briar, I’ve known him a long, long time. And he’s never looked at anyone the way he looks at you. Not since Cami was alive.”
We stand there in a silent standoff for minutes.
Eventually, he speaks. “I want to take something out of my pocket, okay? I swear it’s not a weapon. Please … trust me.”
My lips tremble, and I suck in a shaky breath as I keep the gun pointed at him. But finally, I nod. “Okay.”
Reaching into his pocket, he takes out a picture and looks down at it for a moment before holding it up for me to see. And when I look at it, I see an attractive woman kneeling down with her nose pressed against a little girl with curly brown hair.
“This is my wife and my daughter—my whole world,” he utters. “If I lost them … I don’t think I could go on living.” He looks me in the eye. “And if they lost me … they’d be devastated, Briar.”
I move my eyes back to the photo. So much joy in a small, wallet-size picture. It’s like I can hear the little girl’s giggle and feel the warmth of her mom just from looking at it. Tears begin to fall from my eyes faster, and I toss the gun onto the chair before sitting on the edge of the bed and covering my face with my hands.
“I’m sorry,” my voice croaks weakly. “I’m so … so … sorry.”
I feel the bed shift next to me as he takes a seat.
“It’s okay, Briar,” he whispers. “But we’re going to be okay, I promise. I’ll make sure of it.”
I hope he’s right. Not for me, but for himself. Because that beautiful woman and the precious little girl need him.
Wiping my eyes, I sit up straighter and turn toward him. “Tell me what you need me to do to help get us out of this place, and I’ll do it.”
For a moment, he looks surprised. And then he grins. “All right, let’s do it, Ms. James. Let’s do it.”
Now that Poppy’s attackers have been found, my job description looks slightly different. At first, I planned to catch a flight to Italy and get Briar out of that house. But this morning, I got word from Rossi that he and Briar will be flying to Beckett’s place in South Carolina tonight and will likely land sometime in the morning hours.
Even though my official work for Walker and Poppy is done, I couldn’t stand seeing them both so down. So, earlier today, I showed up on campus, practically kidnapped Poppy, but in a not-creepy way, and I promised her that I was not going to let Walker’s uncle force either Briar or Walker into a marriage that they didn’t want. I have enough dirt on that motherfucker to bury him. And now that I’ve turned in every bit of evidence I have on not only him, but also the Romanos to my boss, they are both pretty much fucked. But Poppy doesn’t know that I’m an agent. So, to her, I had to make it sound like I could blackmail them into letting Walker and Gia go.
Tomorrow, I’m due at Beckett’s house for the wedding to make sure nothing crazy happens. Even though I’m shocked as shit that he actually hired me to work as security at a wedding where no one but immediate family was invited. Not to mention, I figured Enzo had blacklisted me from anyone and everyone.
Tonight though, I have nothing but time on my hands. So, here I am, about to pull into a property I can’t bring myself to sell, yet I’ve avoided it for six years—the home I shared with my wife before she died.
As I turn, getting closer to it, my chest tightens. Sidewalks line the streets, and I hear Cami’s voice talking about how great it would be to raise children here. She was newly a nurse, and I was weeks away from being an agent. We had the whole world in front of us, and I don’t think either of us could wait.
Pulling into the driveway, I gaze up at the blue house. The tree on the front lawn still has the swing hanging from it. All because she saw it in another person’s yard, and right away, she knew we needed one. I teased her that she probably wouldn’t even swing from it, yet on my next day off, there I was, building her a damn swing.
For years, I’ve paid someone to mow the lawn and keep the place running. I can’t bear the thought of even being here. Yet here I am, suddenly brave enough to do it.
Shifting the truck into park, I give the place one last glance before I kill the engine and push the door open. Slowly, my feet carry me to the front steps until I’m jiggling the key in the door before it opens up.
The first thing I see is Cami’s rain jacket hanging next to mine. Underneath it, I see a pair of bright yellow rain boots that I swear she only wore maybe five times. A sharp pain shoots through my chest, and when I look around, seeing our wedding picture on the wall, it only gets worse.
