My face scrunched up in confusion. “What?”
Luke backed up. “I’ll see you around, Princess.” He turned and started to walk away.
This couldn’t be happening. The world couldn’t be doing this to me. I ran around in front of him, almost twisting my ankle in the heels I wasn’t used to wearing. “Where are you going?”
He stopped short. “Home. I can’t stay. I promised to keep you safe, and I have. I did. You’ve got your family now—your real family, the ones you deserve.”
Tears welled up behind my eyes. “But what about us?”
“I didn’t promise you a rose garden, Princess. I promised to keep you safe, and I did. Look at you. You’ve made it. You have everything you ever wanted. Now I have to get back to my side of the state line.” He moved to go around me.
I moved to block him, with tears streaming down my cheeks. “But I don’t want you to go.”
He moved toward me and lifted my chin with a single finger, his signature Vulcan-mind-meld move. “You got what you wanted. You’ve been reunited with your kind, your family.” He released his finger and stepped around me. “See you around, Princess.”
I hated that nickname. I wanted to be his Red once more.
With tears clouding my vision, I watched him walk to the door, taking my chance at happiness with him. “Luke,” I called.
He didn’t turn. He lifted a hand in a wave before the door closed behind him.
When I turned to return to the elevators, I noticed my aunt by the concierge desk and quickly averted my eyes.
It took me fifteen minutes back upstairs in my room to get my crying under control enough to even attempt to clean up my face. This was supposed to be my happiest day—without the threat of Dom or jail, and reunited with my family, but with Luke walking out, it now felt like the opposite.
I’d decided the night I walked out of Dom’s house that I would make a new future for myself, and I could take whatever life threw at me. Tonight I wasn’t so sure.
A knock sounded at the door.
After wiping my eyes with another tissue, I stood and approached the door. “Who is it?”
“Robin,” came my aunt’s answer.
“I’m not ready yet.”
“Can I come in?” she asked.
I opened the door for her.
She took me into a hug. “I’m so sorry, dear.” She’d seen, or heard, or both, and it wasn’t like I could deny what had happened to me.
The waterworks began again as I cried on her shoulder.
Chapter 43
(Four days later)
Luke
This morning was like every one of the last several without Debbie. A stupid bird woke me again. The awful squawking made my head feel like it would split open. Ducking under the pillow provided no relief. The bird was taunting me, just like at the cabin.
The stupid bird was damned lucky I didn’t have a gun in the house. They had traps to get rid of pests like rats and mice. Maybe an Amazon search would net me a blue jay trap. I could hope.
I’d already tried a fake owl. The jay just landed on it and shit all over the plastic bird’s head, so now I couldn’t return it to the hardware store.
A full bladder and a dry mouth made a trip to the bathroom mandatory. After mouthwash and Advil, a hot shower was on my list.
Keeping my head under the spray was the only way to drown out the squawking that threatened to drive me mad. Each night, I tried to drink my troubles away, but the lack of a quiet place to sleep it off had me questioning that strategy.
Seeing Debbie come out of the elevator at that hotel—changed from the Harley shirt I’d given her into that elegant black dress—had cinched it. The dress had transformed her from my Red into a rich princess in the incredibly wealthy Benson family.
It had only taken a few minutes on the computer at home that night to confirm that the Bensons of Los Angeles were the elite of the elite, with more zeros on their bank accounts than I had pairs of socks.
Uncle Lloyd’s reaction to my record had foretold the whole story: “I don’t like the sound of that. We’d better keep him away from Deborah.” It was the story of my life since Augusta—instant suspicion. There was no way Debbie and I could continue with that lot hounding her to drop the riffraff from her life.
The rich always got what they wanted, and Lloyd Benson’s intentions couldn’t have been clearer. Fighting it would have meant pushing the boulder up the hill for both of us.
Cutting her off had hurt like hell, but it had been the only way to keep from ruining her life.
She’d called for four days straight. I hadn’t answered. I had to be strong to save her from attempting the impossible.
Debbie
It seemed like forever since Luke had left me at the hotel.
The dinner that first night with my family had been a mixture of great and terrible. They were all so welcoming, so nice, and so caring. But Luke’s absence was like a sore that couldn’t be ignored, yet also couldn’t be discussed.
I’d had to explain about Luke as I told them what had happened to me recently, but they’d gone out of their way to avoid hurting me by not asking where he was that night. If they’d asked whether they’d see him tomorrow or ever again, I would have broken down completely, because I had no idea.
I was able to learn some about my parents from the group that night, and that had helped a little. But since I’d already grieved and accepted their loss years ago, it was probably easier for me than they’d expected.
For three days straight after that, I’d endured entire mornings of questions from the FBI and the lawyers about not just the bank episode, but my entire life that I could remember.
And I did all of it on almost no sleep. Every night, all I could think about was Luke, and each evening I called him. He never took the calls. Each night I laid in bed, tossing and turning as I tried to figure what I could have done differently to keep Luke and me together.
Each morning, I got up after a fitful hour or two of sleep without an answer.
On the second day, I’d learned during the interviews that my former nanny, who I could barely remember, had been arrested because she’d been instrumental in my abduction and had admitted as much to the authorities.
Since it was so far in my past, I didn’t care to talk about the days surrounding my abduction. Further discussion could only lead to more anger at Sylvia and a sour stomach for me. I wanted to be done with that part of my life.
On the fourth day, I finally exploded as the continued questions began to retrace over the same material we’d already covered several times.
Mr. Covington, my attorney, asked the others to give us a few minutes alone in the room.
After the door closed behind them, I let loose. “I’ve had it with this. I’m not answering another fucking repeated question. Not a single fucking one,” I told him.
“I get it, Deborah.” I’d not been able to get him to call me Debbie, despite repeated requests. “The only way to stop it right now is to leave here and go back to Los Angeles.”
My jaw dropped. Luke was here. He couldn’t leave the state. If I got on a plane, I’d be giving up on him. I’d be the one leaving. “My life is here. I don’t want to go to LA.”