Well, that went well. Very inconspicuous,” Daniel sighs, flagging down the bartender in the corner of the giant ballroom and ordering a scotch and soda. “Tell me again why you wanted to come to this thing? And felt the need to ruffle Georgia Eubanks’s feathers five seconds after you walked through the door?”

I feel like an asshole telling Daniel earlier that I wanted to tag along to this thing because it was time I get out of the house and start socializing, and there was no better way to do that then attending a charity function to support my brothers in arms. Daniel’s snort at my explanation proved he wasn’t buying the bullshit I tried selling, but he kept his mouth shut and let me do my thing.

“I’d appreciate it if you tone down the stink eye you keep shooting in her direction, considering her right-hand man and our future senator, Landry McAllister, sends clients my way.”

This news comes as a shock, but I don’t let it show as I continue to take casual sips of my bourbon on the rocks. I know Daniel represents half of the people in attendance tonight, but I had no idea the man standing possessively next to Shelby a few minutes ago helped Daniel with clients. After what Daniel’s done for my sister, taking care of her and giving her the love she so badly needed when I was gone, I feel guilty for the thoughts swirling through my brain, wondering if because of his association with Landry that he’s privy to any illegal activity Georgia has been conducting behind the scenes. There’s no way that woman had the power to send an entire unit out on deployment a year before they were due without throwing money around or having some sort of allegiance with the wrong people. I don’t want to involve my family in this mess, any more than they already are, but Daniel could be my ticket to finding out the truth.

My thoughts are put on hold when the woman in question steps up to the mic on the portable stage in the front of the room. I throw back the rest of my bourbon in one swallow as all two hundred people in attendance listen with rapt attention, hanging on her every word as she drones on and on about how special and important our military is to this country. When she finishes, the room erupts in a chorus of clapping, whistling and cheering while she goes on to introduce the band that will be playing music until it’s time for dinner, inviting everyone to have some fun out on the dance floor.

Setting my empty glass on the bar next to me, I see a flash of green out of the corner of my eye and my head turns to see Shelby walk gracefully into the room, shaking hands and talking to people as she moves, one of her long gorgeous legs sliding out between the material of her dress as she goes. She’s every bit the professional ass kisser, just like her mother, smiling politely and laughing at whatever bullshit these rich assholes are saying to her. Part of me wants to hate this woman I see before me, behaving nothing like the firecracker I knew six years ago. The one who refused to follow in her mother’s footsteps, the one who hated every part of this life and wanted nothing to do with it, and the one who worked her ass off night and day to get as far away from this place as possible. In the time I spent with her, I saw another side of her, one that made me regret ever thinking of her as a spoiled princess, unable to make a decision for herself to save her life. She had hopes and dreams and a fire inside her that burned brighter than anything I’d ever witnessed and it was the hottest fucking thing I’d ever seen.

She quickly made me feel like an ass for what I did to her the night of her high school graduation. I’d spent the next four years while she was away at college, dreaming of that damn kiss she gave me in the stables, her small body pressed against mine, her fingers clutching the hair at the back of my head and her tongue tentatively pushing past my lips until I lost myself in her. Four years of jerking off to thoughts of that kiss and four years of remembering the hurt in her eyes when I called her a princess, pushed her away, and accused her of slumming it with the help for a cheap thrill. She came back to town a different person, a grown woman with attitude and determination, and I’m not gonna lie, the way she tried to ignore me that first week was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.

I wanted to know that Shelby. I wanted to find out why she kept her dancing a secret when it meant so much to her and she was so fucking amazing at it that I kept sneaking back into that damn studio day after day just to watch her.

I’m alive and standing here right now because of that Shelby. I brought myself back from the brink of death for that Shelby. Now there’s not even a trace of her left. I know things change and I know the news of my death would have affected her and never left her untouched by sadness and pain, but why did it have to be like this? Why did she have to give up everything she’d worked so hard for and turn into her mother? It’s like she never existed even though I have six months filled with memories of us, lying naked in bed while she told me about her dreams, dancing together in her studio, doing whatever I could to make her laugh and watch her face light up, feeling her breath against my lips when I moved inside her and she gave me everything I never knew I wanted and more. Her dreams became my dreams, her hopes became my hopes, and I was determined to do whatever I could to make her happy and make all those things come true for her. I put in a transfer request for a base in New York so I could be close to her because I knew without a shadow of a doubt she’d nail that audition she spent all summer practicing for, I made plans for our future, and I did it all for her because I thought she was different.

I know I hurt her when I left. I know I could have handled it a thousand different ways than how I did, but when someone is threatening your family and the woman you love, it’s hard to put things into perspective when you’re given less than an hour to pack your shit and get the fuck out of the country. It only took me a few weeks to get my head out of my ass and try to make things right. Every day for the next three months, I tried to make things right by her, and she never responded, but I never gave up hope. Thoughts of her following her dreams and being happy kept my heart going through every beating, every day without food and water, every month without her touch, and every year without knowing if I’d ever make it out of there alive and make it back to her to beg for her forgiveness for the way I let someone else control me.

She wrote me off, turned right into that spoiled princess, making me now wonder if those six months were all a lie, and yet, I still can’t take my goddamn eyes off her. Even in a fancy dress that probably costs more than I made in a month with the Marines, I know there isn’t another woman in this room who can even come close to her beauty. Standing here, wanting to hate who she’s become, I clench my hands and lock my knees to stop myself from stalking over to her, dragging her into the nearest empty room, pushing her up against the wall, and fucking her until she magically turns back into the woman I loved once upon a time.

Rylan’s voice echoes through my head from earlier tonight when he lounged against the door to the spare bedroom at Kat and Daniel’s house and watched me get ready. He didn’t like the idea of me putting myself right on Georgia Eubanks’s radar, but at least he didn’t try to stop me. He knew how determined I was to get to the bottom of everything. He knew I wouldn’t be able to move forward with my life until I got answers as to why Shelby stayed here to work for her mother and until I made Georgia pay for what she did to us. He might be able to let things go, but this is personal to me. She fucked with my life and she fucked with my best friend’s life. She got half of our unit killed because of her low opinion of me and because she knew I was getting close to something she wanted to keep buried. My brothers. My fucking brothers lost their lives because one woman abused her power and influence to get me away from her daughter and the truth. Men who will never see their wives again, who will never kiss their children good night again, who will never get to spend another holiday with their families or grow old, all because of her. And now Shelby, the woman I loved more than my own life, follows her around like a fucking puppy, dresses like her, acts like her, and has erased any trace of the woman I gave everything up for.

“I’ve got some ass kissing to do. Will you be all right by yourself?” Daniel asks as he slides his now empty glass across the bar behind me.

I give him a pat on the back and a smile. “Just gonna ruffle a few feathers. I promise to keep my stink eye to a minimum.”

Daniel chuckles and shakes his head at me before he moves forward into the crowd. Smoothing down my tie, I slide my hands into the front pockets of my tuxedo pants and head in Shelby’s direction.

As I make my way through the dance floor, moving around couples locked together and swaying to the music, I see Landry McAllister walk up to Shelby’s side, wrap his arm around her waist, and pull her closer. He looks like every other douche bag in this place with slicked-back hair and a bow tie and I hate him on sight. When he leans forward and whispers something in Shelby’s ear and she pulls back and smiles at him, pressing one hand to his chest in a familiar, easy way, something violent churns in my gut and my feet start moving me faster across the floor until I’m standing right in front of the happy fucking couple.

I smirk at her when her eyes widen as she looks up at me, quickly dropping her hand from douche bag’s chest and pulling away from his possessive hold on her.

“How about a dance, Princess?” I ask, holding my hand out toward her with my palm up.

For just one second, so quickly I would have missed it if I hadn’t been staring into her eyes, I see a flash of something that looks like hurt, before it’s quickly masked with irritation.

Knowing if she refuses me, it will most likely cause a scene since a few people are standing close by and heard me ask her for a dance, Shelby has no choice but to put on a brave face in front of them, tell the fancy-pants jerk-off next to her she’ll be right back, take my hand, and let me lead her to the dance floor.

I came here tonight because I wanted to show Georgia Eubanks that she couldn’t push me around anymore. I wanted to make Shelby admit she was lying when she told me she’d moved on. I wanted to see that she missed me as much as I missed her; I wanted her to take back everything she said in those stables and tell me she still felt everything as deeply as I did, and that she never let me go. Being here tonight, seeing her interact with all these assholes and watching her with another man, just makes the anger inside me grow and fester until there’s nothing I can do to hold it back.

I want her to feel the same searing pain that has settled inside my chest, taking root and taking over all over my thoughts and actions.

I want her to know what it feels like to be stabbed in the heart and forgotten.

I want her to hurt as much as I do right now.