likely they never would have gone near her baby sister. They would have done what they always did, had Daddy’s lawyers buy her off with money or, if that didn’t work, Daddy would have sent his MC “security team” to intimidate her into shutting up. There were so many “what-ifs.” So many regrets.
She would have to tell Absinthe about her family and about her time spent overseas and the threat Holden Sr. represented. She couldn’t admit guilt because incriminating herself would be just plain stupid and she wasn’t that. She’d worked hard to ensure she had airtight alibis for every death. She could live with what she had done. Absinthe shouldn’t have to, but he had to know there was a possible threat and it could turn very ugly fast.
Still, just the idea that she might actually have a real chance of being with a man like Absinthe. That he’d just walked in out of the blue and found her. He was … everything. Perfect. Just thinking that way was exciting. She was really going to do it—commit to a relationship with him. It was scary to actually think she could jump off that cliff with both feet and trust a man enough to have the kind of a real connection she wanted and needed to have with a partner.
Scarlet had the type of personality to be all in or nothing and she knew it. With everyone else over the last years, since she’d been seventeen and her boyfriend—Robert Barnes-Holden Jr.—had betrayed her in such a terrible way, she had refused to allow herself to ever believe in a man. Absinthe changed all that.
She had become aware of the fact that not only was she very intelligent, but she had psychic gifts as well. Before, when she was very young, she thought she was just intuitive. She began reading about various talents and how to improve them, especially once she was in prison. She began trying to work on the talents she thought she had to make them stronger. It wasn’t like she could find a mentor to help her, but she had a lot of time on her hands to work on herself. She did find references to different psychic gifts and how different countries had tried to utilize the gifts in various ways. She followed up on those references, tracking them from book to book, even learning languages so she could understand more.
Scarlet had a good, very fast motor in her little nondescript car, and several times she glanced in the rearview mirror, a little worried that someone was following her as she sped down the freeway toward the cutoff leading to Highway 20. It was more of a feeling than anything else. Sometimes her radar went off and usually it was good to act on it. She didn’t spot anyone following her, and she slowed down to allow anyone to drop in behind her just in case, but no one did. She waited a length of time before speeding up again and moving into the fast lane. No one seemed to move with her. Still, she was careful, frequently watching her mirrors.
She could drive when she had to, she’d spent a great deal of money on instructors teaching her how to race around every kind of obstacle and through streets and alleyways. She had confidence in her skills. She had worked at learning to spot tails as well. There had been months of training with experts recommended to her by women she’d met in prison. She never stopped practicing and working at those crafts.
Occasionally she visited the four women who had helped her so much, just chatting, knowing everything they said was being recorded. She wanted them to know she was still alive and doing well and that she would always remember what they had done for her. They had no idea the fullness of the dark path she’d traveled down, and she would never tell them. They thought they had provided her with the ability to always protect herself from men like Holden Jr. and Sr. In return for their generosity in helping her, she always did her best to let them know they had a friend with money on the outside.
The plan was for Scarlet to meet Absinthe at a coffee shop near Fort Bragg, not in Caspar, where he said he lived. She was grateful that he was still seeking to make her feel comfortable with him. It was a public place, not his