Chapter 10
ASHLEY WRAPPED HERSELF in the blanket her father offered in his room. She couldn’t stand being in the room where Mitch’s mother had spilled her blood on the carpet, ruining the intimate moments she’d shared with Mitch only an hour before.
“Where is he?” she asked her father as she stared at her phone. Mitch hadn’t answered a single message since he stepped out to give his statement. She’d wanted to go to him right away, but her father needed to know she was okay too and since Mitch backed off a little, she figured he needed space.
But it had been two hours, and Mitch was nowhere to be found.
“I don’t know, but I’m sure he’ll be in touch soon,” her father said, handing her a cup of hot tea. “There might not be any love lost between him and his mom, but she was still his mother, and we have no idea the hell he lived in as a boy.”
She shivered, imagining what being raised by a monster would have been like. The entire time she’d been held captive, she stared at Mitch. His face contorted with pain. His eyes gave way to the deep wounds his mother had left. It amazed Ashley that Mitch turned out to be such a kind and caring man. Even with fingers curled around his mother’s neck, she knew he’d never be able to kill her. In that moment, Ashley saw the young man wanting justice for everything that woman did to him
And others.
Mitch was everything a man should be, and she was too blind to see it from the beginning.
She’d make up for it in the future.
If he’d return her damned text.
“I’m going to call him again,” she said.
“It’s three in the morning.” Her father sat behind the desk, swiveling his chair, literally twirling his thumbs, like he always did when he was forced to be patient. Something her father didn’t do well.
Neither did she. “Fine. I’ll text him.”
Ashley: Please let me know you’re okay. I’m worried about you.
This time a bubble appeared on her phone. Her heart fluttered. She wasn’t sure if she was excited he might respond or scared to death. The feelings she had for him were stronger than she expected. She wanted to lust after him, not care for him, but if she were being honest with herself, she’d started to care for him the first week he’d been under her care.
Mitch: I’m okay.
Ashley: Where are you?
She tapped her finger on the back of the phone, waiting for his response.
Nothing.
Ashley: I need to see you.
Now she sounded desperate.
She let out a long breath, willing him to tell her his location. She closed her eyes. “Come on, Mitch.”
“Why don’t you climb in bed and try to get some sleep,” he father said softly. “He’ll call you when he’s ready.”
“He texted me he’s okay, but now he won’t tell me where he is, and I know him, Dad. Better than I thought. He feels alone. I saw that on his face when he walked out of the hotel room to give his statement. He needs to know he’s not alone.”
Her father nodded. “Don’t push too hard.”
“Now you sound like Mother.”
“I married your mother because she’s smarter than me, so maybe some of it is rubbing off.”
Ashley’s lips curved up in small smile, but at the same time her heart tumbled into a pit of hell. She’d had a loving childhood, one filled with hugs and kisses. Mitch’s childhood consisted of abuse and terror.
Her phone buzzed.
Mitch: I’m at the beach.
Ashley: Don’t you dare move. I’ll be right there.
She jumped from the bed, splashing her tea everywhere, but she didn’t care. “I’ll call you in a bit.”
“Ashley,” her father said.
She glanced over her shoulder, her hand gripping the handle. “Yes?”
“I like this one. I think he’s a keeper.”
“Good, because if I have anything to say about it, he’s going to be sticking around for a long time.”
***
Mitch wondered if he would have texted had his mother not tried to escape, which forced the FBI to put a bullet in her head.
He stared at the bottle of whiskey he’d snagged from the bar. He’d taken it with the intention of getting about as drunk as a man could get, hoping to expel the memories of what it was like to be Marcus Nuniez. God, he hated that name with a passion. His gut twisted into knots just thinking about it.
Yet he had no remorse for his mother’s death. She knew they’d shoot to kill if they had to, and she made her choice. Besides, she probably would have gotten the death penalty anyway.
He raised the dark, rich liquid to his lips, but couldn’t bring himself to indulge. No amount of alcohol was going to change what happened. Leaning back on his elbows, listening to the waves crash on the sand, he stared at the stars.
The FBI had gone looking for Derek, only to have found him hanging from the light fixture. An apparent suicide.
But Mitch knew his mother most likely had him murdered.
He had no idea how many of her men she’d brought with her, but the Feds had captured five in total. None of them were talking much, but they would. They always talked if it meant they could cut a deal.
The FBI had told him his name would be kept out of everything. No one, but a handful of people would know who he was.
Mitch could only hope his mother’s pride had remained the size of Texas, and she’d told no one of her son’s betrayal. Her mission had been to take him out. Put him six feet under for real this time.
He took in a deep breath, expecting the smell of salt to tickle his nose, but instead he got a good whiff of a fresh tropical soap.
Ashley.
He turned his head and there she was, strolling down the beach, her sandals in her hand and the moon at her back, shining down on her raven hair as it floated in the slight breeze.
“Hey,” he said as she sat down beside him. He’d planned on renting a car and leaving Barefoot Bay without saying goodbye. Then he walked passed the bar and decided getting drunk was a better. By the time he made it to the beach, all he could think about was Ashley. She’d wormed her way into his heart, and she wasn’t letting go.
And he didn’t need twelve texts to tell him that.
“You’ve had me worried.” She tucked her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs.
“I know. I’m sorry. I need a little time to think.”
She touched the bottle of whiskey with her big toe. “Think or drink?”
He let out a little laugh. “I wanted to numb everything I was feeling, only after the first sip, I realized that meant I’d be dulling everything I felt for you and even if I was going to walk away, I wanted to hold on to that.”
“You were going to leave?” she asked, her voice filled with hurt.
“I was worried my mother would put a bounty on my head and I’d never be free of her, and I’d be putting you in constant danger.”
“She’s dead,” Ashley said with a harsh tone. “While I never wish anyone dead, that woman—”
He pressed his fingers to her lips. “She wasn’t human. She was pure evil. Trust me.”
She curled her fingers around his wrist, her soft skin sending heat across his body.
“My father told me part of what happened when you were seventeen.”
Mitch’s breath hitched, still humbled by her father’s reaction to his identity when they’d first met, and again this weekend.
Joshua Riggs was truly a great man.
“I remember when he came home. His face all bandaged, and he’d broken his arm. Watching him rehab was why I wanted to become a physical therapist in the first place.” She stretched out her legs and palmed his cheek. “It’s as if fate said we are destined to be together.”
A single tear fell from the corner of his eye. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d cried. His mother had told him only weak men cried. When he’d been seven, he’d fallen and cut his leg, needing stitches. His mother, in order to teach him a lesson, stitched him up herself, and every time he cried, she’d slap him, telling him this would make him a real man.
There was so much of his past he’d tucked neatly away in a box inside his mind. He thought locking it up meant he could forget.
But he’d never forget, and maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.
“For years I hid in the Navy. I never got close to people for fear that one day my mother would show up at my doorstep. I took mission after mission, and volunteered for everything, making sure I never had anyone that would miss me too much if I were gone.”
“That’s no way to live,” she whispered.
“I know that now.” He fanned this thumb over her cheekbone. “But I scared myself today. I worry that if you hadn’t been there, I might have killed her myself.”
The way her mouth tipped upward stole his breath and stopped his beating heart.
“She would have killed us both, given the chance. But you’re nothing like her, not even close.” Ashley pressed her hand on his chest. “I know you better than I thought I did and in unexpected ways. You’re the kind of man young boys aspire to be like.”
“Are you trying to make a grown man cry, because you’re coming awfully close.” While the tears that threatened to break free were of the happy variety, he didn’t want to shed them. All he wanted to do was take this woman into his arms and love her forever. He draped his arm over her shoulder, pressing her back to the sand, his lips only centimeters from touching the most decadent mouth known to man.
Her legs wrapped around his body as the water rose up the sand and kissed their toes.
“I love you, Mitchell Harrison.”
“I love you more.” Beneath all the lies, he’d found true love.