happened to me.
If that isn’t karma, I don’t know what is.
Did I deserve this all along?
Three
Heaven
Staring at that closed door reminds me of a dream I had last night. Granted, it wasn’t a door I was looking at, but the closed iron bars of a prison cell. I press my forehead against the barrier between us.
Another damn barrier after so many years of being forced to be away from her, I have another one to charge through. I’ll do it. I’ll do it every time. I won’t stop now. I can’t now that she is here. Quitting would be pointless, especially now that she is here, but circumstances…
Fuck!
The circumstances are beyond climbing over.
How can I earn her trust after everything she has been through? It’s why I let her hit me. Hell, I know I shouldn’t, but I’d let her beat the fuck out of me if it made her feel better. I can’t imagine what kind of pain she’s been holding inside, and a lot of that does have to do with me because she testified against an innocent man, and I know in my gut that she knows that.
She’s lost.
I’m going to find her and bring her home.
A place she has belonged since I’ve known her since I was fourteen.
She’s more than a quick glance, a stammering conversation, a movie date; she’s the kind of woman a man spends forever with. I’m going to be that man. I have my work cut out for me, but I don’t care what it takes.
I’ll break.
I’ll bleed.
I’ll kill.
Whatever she wants me to do for her, I’ll do if it means this door is no longer between us.
“You have a lot of explaining to do, Heaven,” Sebastian says from my right, crossing his arms and legs as he leans his shoulder against the wall.
“Do I have to?” I pout, not wanting to leave this area. What if she opens the door and she wants to talk to me? I have to be here.
“Considering you know the woman— more than know— the woman staying in that room, especially with what she has been through, I think it makes sense that you tell us, so we aren’t taken by surprise by anything. I don’t know, like…” Sebastian ponders, tapping his chin as he profoundly thinks about how to save me.
Eye roll.
“Like getting slapped in the middle of the hallway or maybe we will find you two making out next—”
“—Don’t,” I point my finger into his face and crowd his body as the need to protect Heather surges through me. “Don’t talk like that. I don’t expect anything. I do not want that from her, not right now, and if not ever, fine. I came to the conclusion when I was seventeen that I wouldn’t have a chance with Heather Thomas. If I have to make do with living the rest of my life without her, then I’ll do that because that is what she wants. It’s always about what she wants.” I push by him and walk down the hall, passing a new picture on the wall of all of the team. Quinn was super pregnant in this picture. She looked miserable, poor thing. I turn my head over my shoulder, wanting to make sure I add one more thing so Sebastian doesn’t think I’m crazy. “Now, if she wants to kiss me, that’s another story,” I say calmly. “Obviously, I’d kiss her back, but only if that is what she wanted.”
Sebastian chuckles and kicks the wall to push himself off. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
I mock him, and I thought I hid the childish gesture, but I didn’t. He hits me on the back of the head, and I stick out my bottom lip in a tantrum.
“Toughen up. I doubt Jaxon will be as easy on you.”
“Psh, easy is my last name. I guarantee you I get a warning.”
“Fifty bucks,” he bets, sticking out his hand to seal the deal.
“One-hundred and a basket of chocolate muffins.”
He eyes me, debating if I’m serious or worth it.
I’m both.
I’m always worth it.
“Fine.”
Ha. Sucker.
While poking fun is a good time, I know what Sebastian is trying to do. He wants to take my mind off what just happened. I appreciate it. It’s needed. The woman I was in love with when I was a teenager is here, under this roof, and I finally have the ability to show her the kind of man I am.
When I saw Heather’s name on the news earlier as I drank my