Page 125 of Wild Embers
I grimace. “What? No.”
“Then what is it?” The sound of her hands slapping her lap resonates in the cab of my truck.
“I mean about me,” I amend.
“You think you’re some big mystery to me? Sorry to burst your bubble, but you’re not that complicated, Walker Maddox,” she claims belligerently, but she doesn’t stop there. “I know it’s been a while for you, but that’s the point of a relationship—to get to know the other person.”
She has a point, but that doesn’t change the facts.
She doesn’t know the truth.
And I’m not sure I can be the one to tell her.
Blake sighs, some of the fight leaving her bones. “What are you afraid of, Walk?”
What am I afraid of?
The answer is simple yet complex.
Losing her.
I assume I’m silent long enough that Blake’s patience wears out as soon as I maneuver my truck into Santiago’s driveway.
“Right. Roger that, Sheriff. Loud and clear,” she snaps as she hops out of the cab.
On instinct, I reach for her, but she dodges my hand. “Blake—” Her name leaves my mouth too late.
With her hand on the door, she uses her other to scold me. “Let me know when you get your head out of your ass.”
Shutting the door, she stomps off into the house.
Blake slams the front door hard enough to rattle the windows.
Resting my head along the back of the bench, I tell myself repeatedly that I did the right thing.
Every instinct in my body tells me to go after her. Instead, I sit in my truck like a coward.
Of all the fuck ups in the world…
I can feel sorry for myself at any time. Someone is threatening Blake.
Scrolling through the contacts in my phone, my thumb hovers over a particular name. We grew up more like brothers than cousins, even though we only saw each other in the summer, and if there’s anyone I trust with this case besides Levi and Santiago, it’s him.
After I tap his name, the phone only rings once before he picks up. “Special Agent Roman Cassidy.”
Despite everything going on, the corner of my mouth still twitches upward. “Still making people call you that?”
“Only when I know it’s you,” he quips back, then his tone shifts. “What’s going on?”
Silence grips me for a heartbeat.
“Walk, who died?”
“It’s a case.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
Sharp as a tack as always.
