“All right. Well… if you find anything, will you let me know?”
He sighs again. “Yeah, you got it.”
We say good-bye and after I hang up, I lean back in my chair and sigh. My mind drifts from the cases to the other huge problem in my life right now.
Piper.
What in the hell do I do about her?
Scrubbing my hand down my face, I close my eyes and the image of her looking up at me last night pops into my head, her green eyes boring into my flesh and I suck in a breath. My eyes pop open and I check my watch again, contemplating driving over to her place and demanding answers again before I stop myself.
Shit.
Should I really be doing this?
Maybe I have just finally lost my mind and this whole plan to get Piper back is a delusion, fueled by my insanity. Then again, I haven’t felt this good in fucking years and even the frustration of the cases is not enough to damper my mood. Not when I can still feel her skin under my fingertips and her lips pressed against my neck. Fighting back a smile, I shake my head.
There are a few things I’m absolutely certain of - one, Piper never cheated on me. There is no possible way that is how things went down ten years ago because more than once I’ve caught her giving me the same damn look she used to give me when we were kids, like I’m her whole damn world. And yeah, she is still keeping secrets from me but that brings me to number two. Whatever she is hiding, whatever she has kept locked up for a decade doesn’t matter. We’ll get through it together. Last and most important, I’m not going to stop until I get my wife back.
If Piper thinks she’s seen me determined before, she’s got a whole other thing coming.
Letting my smile break through, I stand up and swipe my keys and phone off of the table before heading toward the door, ready to do whatever it takes to win her over. As I climb on my bike and it rumbles to life beneath me, I try to imagine what happened back then to make her leave. Since working with the club, my mind is full of awful scenarios but none of them really explain why she would leave. Did something happen to her? Did someone hurt her? The thought makes my blood boil and I swear I’ll hunt down whoever it is and make them pay. But it still doesn’t explain her disappearance…
I shake my head and steer my thoughts toward how I can convince her to open up to me as I pull out of my driveway. Clearly, I can’t use our connection because we’ll just end up in the same spot we were in last night, naked and all over each other, and if I try to push her, it will only make her lock up. I definitely need to drop the baby thing, though. As much as I want that for us, it’s not the only thing I want or even the most important and getting her to open up to me is going to be hard enough without adding that little element into the mix.
Fuck.
It scares the shit out of me to think about giving her the ability to crush me again but what else can I do? If the last week has proven anything to me, it’s that I have to get her back. The pulsing ache that has been a constant in my life since she left is fading each time I’m around her again and for the first time in a long time, I can see my future, painted so clearly in my mind. Before now, I was walking around in a fog, only able to plan the next step but blind when I tried to gaze further ahead until she walked back into my life. So, she can fight me as long and as hard as she wants but I won’t stop.
Her front door opens as I pull up in front of her apartment and she looks up, her eyes widening as we stare at each other and I can see the moment she shuts down, locking away her feelings for me in an attempt to protect herself. Why the hell does she feel like she needs to protect herself from me, though? After climbing off my bike, I walk up the sidewalk to her front door as she turns away from me to lock it.
“Pip,” I say as I come to a stop a couple feet from her. She takes a deep breath as she turns around and meets my gaze.
Aw, hell.
She’s pissed.
“What are you doing here?”
I shrug since it should be pretty fucking obvious. “I’m here to see you.”
“Why?” she hisses, trying to push past me but I block her path. “Didn’t get enough last night? I hate to burst your bubble but I’m on my way to work and I think the neighbors would have an issue with you bending me over the bushes.”
Yeah…
Walking out without a word after I fucked her up against the counter was probably not my smartest move.
“I’m sorry about last night, Pip.” I place my hand over my heart. “Honest.”
She glares up at me, her gaze dropping to my hand before meeting my eyes again and I swear I can see a trace of pain shining back at me. “Well, at least we both agree it was a damn mistake.”
“Hold up. I didn’t say that. I’m apologizing for just walking out on you afterward… that was the mistake. Not us, never us.”
“Stop saying us like that’s a thing,” she sighs, trying to push past me again but I pull her into my arms.
Fuck.
She fits against me like she was made for me and it only hardens my resolve to work things out with her. She is the only woman in the world for me and I can’t believe it took me this long to figure it out.
“It is a thing. It’s always been a thing and you know it.”
Shaking her head, she looks up at me and defeat slips into her gaze. “What is it that you want, Wyatt? I don’t have the energy to play this game with you anymore.”
For the first time I notice the dark circles under her eyes and I can’t help but wonder if she was up all night thinking about us just like I was or if the nightmares of her past still haunt her. Reaching up, I brush my thumb along her cheek and she leans into my touch for just a second before jerking back.
“What’s keeping you up at night, baby?”
She sucks in a breath. “Don’t call me that.”
“Why not?”
“You know why, Wyatt,” she breathes, her voice full of pain as she looks away from me. “I haven’t been your baby in a long damn time.”
I nod, tucking a stray lock of red hair behind her ear. “Yeah, about that…”
Her gaze snaps to mine.
“I’ve been thinking lately that maybe we should revisit things, you know… re-evaluate.”
She jerks out of my arms and stares up at me like I’m insane. “What does that even mean?”
“It means I want my wife back.”
“But,” she whispers, her eyes wide and her mouth agape. “I cheated on you…”
I shake my head. “No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Pip,” I scold as I reach out and pull her back into my arms. She struggles for just a second before her body practically melts into mine and she meets my gaze. “You know you’re lying. I know you’re lying. So let’s just stop and you tell me the real reason you left me back then.”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“I’m getting real damn tired of that word,” I growl, remembering how much it annoyed me last night as she refused to give me what I wanted. Scoffing, she slips out of my hands again and tries to push past me. With a sigh, I stop her and she glares up at me.
“Let me go. I have to get to work.”
“As soon as you tell me why you left.”