it’s worth it,” I whisper, transfixed on him even though I know I shouldn’t be. I should run. Run in the other direction after that confession from him.
“This face isn’t worth you getting into any more trouble.”
His words pierce my heart. He’s so right yet so wrong. Doesn’t he realize he wears trouble like his fine fitting suit? His swagger. The way he turns heads in a room. His smile, his massive shoulders, it’s overwhelming and the best kind of trouble. I straighten my back and stand taller, using the few seconds to build up courage.
I lean in on the tips of my toes and bring my lips close to his ear. “You’re wrong, Detective Tate. I have a feeling you’d be worth… Every. Single. Second. But you’re chasing after the wrong girl if you think you can use me as a pawn in your game of get the bad guys.”
He pulls away at my closeness.
“You want to finish this. Meet me where you know I’ll be waiting.”
With those last words, I hightail it out of there without waiting for further rejection. I don’t know if he’ll show on the bridge, but I’ll wait all night if I have too.
My knees bounce, as I wait. I check my watch for the second time in the past ten minutes. I turn my head to each side of the Brooklyn Bridge, peering out through people walking and cycling by, to see if Roamyn’s going to show up. After I chose to walk away earlier today, I’m not sure he’ll bother. I stand, pacing back and forth the length of the bench we sat on four years ago, listening to cars pass with every nerve-wracking second. Letting out a sigh, I grab my phone from the seat next to me and check that too. Two messages light up the screen, one from Adriana asking if I want to go to a movie tonight with her, and the other a message from Lindsey thanking me for meeting for dinner with her last night. I ignore the messages and put my phone back in my bag. It’s my one night off for the week and I’ve just wasted it on a fantasy, waiting for him to show up like he did when I didn’t. It was stupid, but my heart doesn’t care. After I walked the whole way home this morning, I realized I have a million questions I want answers to.
“Why didn’t you come back? I came back every night. Every night for weeks. But you never showed. I was so fucking worried about you I drove myself crazy. Wondering if I’d done the right thing. I didn’t. I should have taken you to a hospital, the precinct. Something else.”
I spin around at his voice and there he stands, brows wrinkled, hands tucked into his pockets. Regret crystal clear in his pained expression.
“You know I would never have gone. You did exactly what I needed you to do, Roamyn,” I reply, confidence in my tone. I would never have told him a damn thing had I have known what he does for a living.
“How did I do that? ‘Cause I’m finding it real hard to believe I did the right thing when I look at you now, babe.”
I move closer to him and place a hand on his chest. Looking up at him with soft eyes, I try to comfort him with the truth despite him not believing it to be real.
“I couldn’t come back, Roamyn. I tried to. But Lucio saw you that night. He saw us here together. I didn’t know it until the next night when he caught me leaving with a bag packed. I was planning to go back to the bridge in the hope you’d be there too. Even if you weren’t, I was still going to leave. He must’ve been having me followed. After that Giuseppe and Lucio kept me locked away in one of their buildings for near on two months. They had me beaten, starved and dehydrated. They caused so much damage to my body that I needed to live on Oxycontin half of that time and for months after, just so my body could heal without me passing out from the pain. That and they couldn’t risk me going to the ER. Adriana and Valentina nursed me back to half human, but it didn’t take long to become addicted to the high oxy could give. One pill is all it would take to become painless.