Page 65 of Resurgent
Chapter Eighteen
Charlotte
One Month Later
“Hey Chaz, there’s a client who’s booked the penthouse at the Planters Inn for a proposal but wants us to go by and make sure everything is perfect. Can you do it? I’m meeting Noah at that gala in fifteen minutes, and Gemma says she’s hung up in traffic.” McKenzie’s chased me all the way down to the parking garage, just as I was getting ready to go home.
I sigh. Some things never change.
“Sure,” I say, climbing into my convertible cherry-red Challenger.Well,I think to myself with a smile,some things do.In the month since I’ve been back, I’ve been determined to keep the promise I made to myself that night Liam rescued me. I’m a little heartbroken still—I miss Liam more than I thought I would—but I’m riding the waves and staying afloat, taking it as it comes. I’ve realized I can’t control anything. Well, there are still plenty of things I can control, but Liam isn’t one of them.
“Thank you!” she says. “He’s left a list of what he wants you to do.”
“My kind of guy!” I joke.
It’s almost dark when I get to the inn, and the trademark vintage carriage lights flicker enticingly at the ivy-covered, stone-pillared entrance. McKenzie’s client couldn’t have picked a more romantic place to propose with its soaring ten-feet ceilings, charming fireplaces, and antiques. After telling the front desk who I am and getting the room key, I go upstairs to the room. It’s beautiful, with a sumptuous four poster bed, and pink roses—my favorite—everywhere. This guy is amazing. She’d better say yes.
I look around for the list McKenzie said he’s left, but I can’t find it. What I do find, though, is a sweet, chocolate lab puppy with soft brown eyes and enormous feet in the bathroom.
I bend down to pet him, and he bounds up to me, tail wagging furiously as he licks my face. “How did you get here, little guy?” I say, scratching him behind the ears. I didn’t know the hotel allowed pets.
I hear the door open and close. Shit. I wrangle the puppy back into the bathroom.
“Coming!” I call out. “I haven’t found the list you left, so—”
I stop short as I step back into the room and come face-to-face with Liam. I’ve never seen him in a suit before, and he looks sexy as sin. I, on the other hand, had planned to hit the gym after work and am wearing workout clothes. I inwardly groan, realizing it’s just like the last time. I am destined to continually be humiliated in front of Liam. I stand there, speechless, trying to figure out what he’s doing here. And why is he taking off his coat and unbuttoning his shirt?
“I got a tattoo,” he says.
“Oh,” I say dumbly.
He shrugs out of the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a tattoo of a magnificent phoenix rising on his right bicep.
I smile. “That’s perfect. Have you checked everything off your bucket list now?”
“Well, not quite. There’s one more thing. That’s why I’m here.” Taking a breath, he says, “The bucket list was a map, but it wasn’t a map to the guns. It was a map to you.”
“What?” I stare at him, trying to process what he’s saying. He takes a step closer, but then stops, unusually unsure of himself.
“When we were in Malaysia, the guy at the tattoo shop who made the medallion mentioned that I told him I was waiting for the woman I love when he asked if I wanted a tattoo. That didn’t make much sense to me until I found some drawings I’d made of the tattoo I wanted to get. This.” He gestures at the ink on his arm. “The phoenix.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The phoenix represented everything—where the guns were, and what I had to do to be worthy of the woman I’d fallen in love with. The woman I’d promised to come back for. You, Charlotte.”
I hold my breath, then remember to release it. “You remember what you said at the airport in Playa?”
“I remember everything, sweetheart. Falling in love with you in Playa del Carmen last fall, and then falling in love with you all over again in Mexico. You are my destiny. If I was torn from you a thousand times, I’d find my way back to you every single time. You were always mine, Charlotte. I dreamed of you constantly when I was in India, even before I woke up from the coma. I didn’t remember it, but I was still replaying our love story in my dreams.”
He looks down, shifts his feet. “I also remember seeing you at Kenzie’s a few weeks after Playa del Carmen. I’m sorry for that. I was afraid of putting you in any danger, so I didn’t say anything. I figured I would just carry out the mission and then come back for you and explain it all. It was wrong, and it almost cost me dearly, because then I lost my memory. You taught me the second time around that I don’t have to do it all alone, that I can trust the people I love, and who love me back, to share the burden sometimes. But at the time, I thought I was doing the right thing. My whole idea in taking the job Gray offered was to make enough money to quit the team and come back for you. And since I couldn’t claim you until I’d completed the mission, I put things on the bucket list that would lead me back to you. The weekend in Vegas, the salsa lessons, the tattoo, the mile-high club…” He grins. “The kinky sex. They were all things I wanted withyou.”
There’s a little yap and I look at him questioningly. “You said you wanted a lab from a shelter. I picked this little guy up this morning.” He opens the bathroom door and the puppy tumbles out, jumping and licking both of us.
“But you travel too much for a dog.”
“Iusedto travel too much for a dog. Now I’m a celebrity.” His eyes twinkle, and then he becomes serious. “Actually Noah, Walker, and I are starting our own security consulting company. I quit the team. I can’t do it anymore. You know why?”
I shake my head.
