a statement, hoping she would hear the conviction in his voice. She had to hear that he would fight for her, fight for them. He tried to find a way to appeal to her that would give them both a way to calm down and then start over to figure it all out. If they could move the conversation away from Savage and put their attention somewhere else even for a few minutes, he was confident they could get past this.
“For one thing, you’re in trouble. Holden has sent word to all the clubs and they’re looking for you. Marrying me gives you that protection.”
She didn’t bother to turn around. She donned the matching bra to her panties. She had the sexiest underwear and he loved the idea of her librarian clothes, knowing what was underneath. There was something deeply sensual about Scarlet, the way she moved, the way she thought, just that little detail, the prim and proper clothing over the sexiest lingerie. He fucking loved that about her.
“I know places I can go out of the country they won’t find me, even with their chapters there. I have go-bags stashed with plenty of money and a couple of very good passports. You don’t have to worry about me.”
Scarlet dragged a T-shirt over her head and fished around for her favorite pair of jeans. She kept her face averted as she dragged a small bag from the closet and began to throw clothes into it, but he could see tears still tracking down her face and she was still shaking. He couldn’t decide whether she had gone from fear to fury or if it was a combination of the two.
“Do you really think you’re going to get past me? It’s too dangerous for you to leave, Scarlet, and you know it. You’re acting crazy. Just because I don’t want to talk about something that happened a long time ago, you’re going to walk out on me? You’re going to put your life in jeopardy? Does that even make sense to you? It isn’t logical.”
Deliberately, he lowered his voice another octave, desperation putting temptation in his mind. He had vowed, sworn, that he would never use his ability on someone he loved without their consent, and he loved Scarlet Foley. No, Scarlet Solokov. She was his wife. What the hell was she thinking leaving him? And what was he thinking that he might consider using his voice on her to force her to stay?
He rubbed his pounding temples and breathed. “Scarlet, I don’t want you to go. I know I’m screwing up all over the place here, but I don’t know how to make this right. I want to make this right. Tell me what the fuck to do and I’ll do it.”
She swung around to face him, and the pain etched into her face gutted him. It added to what he was already feeling, nearly taking him to his knees. He’d done that to her, put that look there. Betrayal. Shredding her. She’d believed in him and he’d torn her apart. He didn’t know how to make it right between them, he wasn’t lying. He might be one of the smartest men on the planet, but he didn’t know how to fix things between them.
“Baby.” He wasn’t even trying to soften his voice. The plea was real. “I’m begging here. I don’t want to lose you. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Tell me what to do to fix this. I swear to you, I want this to work.” He held out his hand to her. “We don’t have to stay in the bedroom. We can go anywhere you want and just talk. Just talk. Talk to me.”
She didn’t take his hand. She just looked at him. “No, Absinthe, you have to talk to me. That’s the only way this is going to work. I told you everything about me. All of it. You have to do the same. It’s the only way I can understand you and your family. Why you champion them in the worst of circumstances. I need to know why you need to have a kitten in the bedroom at night …”
“I don’t. We can stop …” His heart started with a slow acceleration and then began tripping overtime at the thought of talking about his past. The pounding in his temples increased. His mouth went dry.
If she knew the things he’d done. What all of them had done. The killings were