Return To Sender (The Hart Brothers #2) - J. S. Cooper Page 0,30

I have my self respect.” I walked away from him, my heart pounding and tears threatening to fall. I’d been through so much in the last two days and he was here in the woods? Had he just left because he didn’t want to be around me? Maybe he’d been hoping I would leave before he came back. Maybe this was all just a big joke to him?

“You signed a contract, you’re not leaving.” He grabbed the top of my arm and I turned to look at him. “Please, Savannah.” His voice cracked slightly and it was then that I noticed there was a slightly dazed and manic look in his eyes. He looked like a complete neanderthal. A man of the woods. Or rather, a man that was one with the woods. He looked wild and primal and I was embarrassed to note that even though I was still terribly angry with him, I was still imagining what it would be like if he were to pick me up and carry me out into the woods and have his wicked way with me. What the hell was my problem?

“Savannah, say you’ll stay, please?”

“I want some answers, Wade.”

“I will give you answers.” He sighed. “Look, you and Lucy go back to the house with the mutt and I’ll be up there in a couple of hours.”

“You’re not coming with us now?”

“No, I need to let Henry know I’m going back.” His lips thinned. “He needs to take care of some stuff for me.”

“What stuff?”

“Where did you find the mud? By the door or in the house?”

“What do you mean?”

“Was the person that came into the house in the house all the way or?”

“I think they were in multiple rooms.” I shivered slightly. “I felt like I was being watched, Wade. If it wasn’t you, who was it?”

“I don’t know.” He looked uncomfortable for a few seconds and his eyes left mine. I wasn’t a detective, but I certainly knew when someone was lying to me.

“Okay, well, I’m going now.” I looked over at Lucy and nodded. “Shall we head back to the house?”

“Sure.” She nodded back to me. She seemed to know not to say anything else.

“Will you still be there when I come in a couple of hours?” Wade asked me softly and I just gave him a half-smile.

“Maybe.” I shrugged and just walked away. There were many things I wanted to say to him. Many words I had to get off of my chest. But my head and heart felt heavy. An invisible weight was sitting on my shoulders. I was up to my ears in stress and I could feel the anxiety overwhelming me. I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry. I didn’t know if I was coming or going. I didn’t even want to hear what he had to say. I was on the precipice of falling to pieces. I knew that I was close to a breakdown. It had all been too much in the last few weeks. Too much stress and worry. And to be fair, the stress had started before I’d even gotten here. But my money stress had been something different. It hadn’t been all-consuming. Not like this situation with Wade. My brain felt feverish and my skin felt clammy and all because he said and did things to me that I couldn’t fully process. Maybe I just needed to leave. How could he have been on the property the whole time? I felt like a piece of me had been ripped out and I had no way of getting it back in.

Chapter 12

“So we’re leaving then?” Lucy broke our stretch of quiet after a few minutes. She was surprisingly calm and gentle in her questioning and I knew that she knew that I was in a delicate state of mind right now. “Or not?”

“I don’t know what to do.” I chewed on my lower lip contemplating my choices. “What do you think I should do?”

“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “He’s cute.” She half-smiled. “A lot hotter than you gave him credit for. I know why you fell for him.”

“He’s not all that.” I lied.

“He’s all that and a bag of chips.” She laughed. “And he really seems to like you as well. His hands were all over you.”

“Most probably because he was debating whether or not he wanted to kill me.”

“I think he was debating whether or not he wanted to take you then and there.”