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Moonlight glinted through their abundant leaves, casting a pale glow over the wild grasses that grew at the shore.
River killed the engine.
In an instant, silence surrounded us. The only sound was the distant hoot of an owl and the lapping of the waters against the embankment.
That and the frantic beat of our hearts that refused to slow.
River curled his arms around me as another sob hitched in my throat.
“I’ve got you, Charleigh. I’ve got you.”
I hiccupped as I wept into his shirt, and words started tumbling out, “It’s my fault. I never should have come here. Never should have entangled myself in your family. Put you in danger. It’s my fault.”
That’s what this was, wasn’t it? Frederick had found out where I was. Had found out I was alive. I should have known I could never sit still. Should have known I could never stop watching behind me.
Could never stop moving.
Running, running, running.
River held me tighter, and I could feel the hostility bristle in every muscle of his body.
“No, Charleigh. Don’t think that was about you.” His voice was hoarse. “Think it’s me who put you in danger. Me who’s getting you entangled in my shit.”
His words barely cracked through the tumult that wracked me through.
“Me,” he wheezed, somehow pulling me closer.
A thousand questions spun through my mind, thoughts breaking through and penetrating the disorder.
The confessions he’d made.
The warnings he’d issued.
“I’ve done terrible fuckin’ things.”
A slow awareness crept over me. I’d been so shocked that I hadn’t recognized River’s reaction. The way Trent and Jud had gotten out oftheir SUV with guns drawn. The way Theo and Kane had taken off after the shooters on their bikes.
And no one had called the cops.
No one.
And rather, River had run with me to this secluded spot.
Trepidation clotted in me like curdled milk.
Sour and fermented.
“What do you mean?” How I managed to get it out around the rocks in my throat, I didn’t know.
River shifted, edging back to take me by both sides of my face. Those storm-cloud eyes raged. A hurricane in this false calm. They flicked all over my features as if he was the one who was hunting for answers.
He swallowed hard, and the words tattooed on his throat bobbed and writhed.
No mercy.
“Warned you I was a bad man, Charleigh.”
My insides quivered, and part of me wanted to hop off his bike and run. The rest of me was pinned, unable to move beneath the weight of the man that’d had me hinged since the moment I’d first met him.
