home. She had decided the fastest route would be to take the 101 freeway straight up to Willits and then cut over on 20 to Fort Bragg. She wasn’t certain why Absinthe wanted to meet her at the coffee shop, but now that she was a little anxious, she thought it was just as well. She didn’t want to lead Holden’s people to him just in case she was being followed.
She had packed enough clothes for the weekend and brought the one thing that really mattered to her: her sister’s photograph. She had a picture of her parents as well, but she had that in the go-bag in the wall back at the rental. She hadn’t been able to make herself look at them. Maybe someday. They’d left her alone to face her sister’s death. Perhaps they blamed her the same way she blamed herself.
There was a part of her that wanted to pull her car over and go through her phone to look at all the text messages Absinthe had sent to her. She’d done so a hundred times. Probably more. She lay in bed at night, unable to sleep, thinking about him, going over every word he’d said to her when they’d been in the redwoods together. Every expression on his face. He couldn’t fake that. Not what was in his eyes.
Out in the redwood forest, she had deliberately touched him, bringing one of her strongest psychic abilities into play, almost hesitant to do so at first, moving her hands over his body, exploring the play of his muscles. But there was very little information she retrieved, other than that he was really, really into her. Intensely into her. That had added to the excitement of being with him. Everything about being with Absinthe was intense.
Whenever his blue eyes looked directly into hers, she felt her stomach drop away, and with it, walls inside her mind seemed to crumble to reveal the woman behind them—the real Scarlet. He was gentle. He didn’t pound her defenses down, he just looked at her and the carefully constructed bricks and mortar just fell away.
He had talked to her in that voice, so low and soft, so commanding, and it resonated through her entire body. She loved being with him every single moment of that day in the redwoods. On the motorcycle. She’d felt safe to be herself the instant she had climbed up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. When the big Harley roared to life and they’d begun to move together through the streets with the cars so close, she hadn’t cringed, she’d just held him tighter and moved with him.
The entire day with Absinthe felt surreal, a dream, a fantasy out of one of her romance novels. She told herself it was too perfect. Men like Absinthe really didn’t exist and there had to be a terrible catch she wasn’t seeing. She had proven already she didn’t have good judgment when it came to choosing men, yet here she was, her small bag sitting next to her in the passenger seat, and her stomach in knots while a thousand butterflies flew around in a chaotic mess. The closer she got to the coffee shop, the more her heart accelerated out of control and her blood went hot and rushed through her veins straight to her sex.
She’d even gone shopping for more sexy lingerie. She couldn’t help herself. She had a favorite boutique online and she’d had the bras and panties overnighted to her along with the sexiest transparent boyfriend shirt she could find. She hoped Absinthe liked green. She looked really good in green. Just the thought of his eyes moving over her body had her nipples getting hard and her breasts aching for his touch.
She really needed to get some perspective. The light turned green and she was on Highway 20, a twisting, turning road that was really only thirty-three miles to her destination but took an hour to drive due to the road conditions. Panic began to set in. What was she doing? She was crazy. She couldn’t make a commitment. She needed to pull over on one of the turnouts and think. Get her head straight. She couldn’t let the best sex in the world sway her. Or just knowing he might be the smartest man she’d ever met. Or the kindest.
Her heart really began to pound, but not in a good way. Her lungs burned for air. She had killed people. Murdered them.