Page 84 of Living with Fire

Everything is done and on this USB. The accountant will know what to do with it.

The bar will be fine with a little effort—a fundraiser, your grandparents. I think you should also have a ladies night, and a karaoke night. I was going to talk to you about that when I accepted your offer.

Don’t worry about me. I got this.

Xoxo

Sav

I’ve hardly finished reading the words before I’m out the back door and in my truck. If she’s not here, maybe she’s at home. I have this sinking feeling that if she is there, she won’t be for long. If my hunch is correct, I already know what’s going on in her mind.

By the time I pull into the alley at home, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions.

First, Vincent was in the bar. Second, Savanna saw him. Third, she’s doing to me what she did to her family. At least she’s trying.

That’s the thing when you open up to someone; they can read what you’re going to do before you do it. I know I’m right when I see her car parked in the parking pad at the back, relief causing some of the tension to drain from my body. At least I haven’t missed her.

I throw the truck into park behind her car, effectively blocking her in, and jump out. I’m at the back door in record time, throwing it open and striding inside.

“Savanna?” I yell, quickly making my way towards her bedroom.

Rounding the corner, I come to a halt just inside the door. She’s sitting on the bed, head bowed, an old t-shirt of mine clutched in her hands and held to her face. Her suitcase is open and half packed beside her.

Under normal circumstances the sight would have gutted me, but I’m so relieved she’s still here it’s hard to feel anything beyond that.

I get the same sense I had the night she broke the glass at the bar. A wounded animal who will flee if I move too quickly or do the wrong thing. Moving slowly, I stop in front of her and crouch down, tentatively resting my hands on her knees. Nothing moves except for her eyes. They open and rise to meet mine, and now I am gutted. She’s petrified.

I know better than to push her to talk to me, so I just gaze at her, our eyes locked, until she’s ready. It takes her a minute, but then the t-shirt is coming away from her face, dropping into her lap along with her hands.

“He found me,” she whispers, the sound of her voice destroying me further.

“I know,” I say, then add quickly when she sits up straighter, “Liam. I put it together.”

Giving me a small nod, she casts her eyes downwards. “I was going to leave.”

“I know.” When her eyes pop back up in surprise, I smile gently at her. “Trying to do the best thing for me, right?”

Fresh tears well in her eyes, and I reach up, brushing one away as it falls down her cheek. “I can’t stand the thought of you getting hurt.”

“Do you remember when you sat down in the office and told me that you could help me with the mess in there?” I ask, and she nods, confusion clouding her eyes. “You remember how I put my faith in you because you asked me for that chance?”

Another nod, this time accompanied by more tears. She knows where I’m going with this, the protest already taking shape in her mind. I can see the wheels turning, see her wanting to tell me this isn’t the same, so I press ahead.

“I need you to have faith in me now, to trust I know what I’m doing, and that I won’t get hurt,” I tell her, squeezing her knee gently. “Even if I did, it would be my choice, Sav. I would go through anything, do anything, if it meant keeping you safe, because I care about you. So much.”

The words were right there on the tip of my tongue to tell her that I love her. They almost came out. The only reason they didn’t is because I don’t want those words to have anything to do with Vincent. I want it to be a moment that is just us, because of us.

Just because I didn’t say them out loud, however, doesn’t mean she doesn’t see it in my eyes. I know she does just by the way she’s looking at me.

A sob bubbles up her throat before she’s launching herself at me, causing me to fall back on my ass as her arms wrap around my neck. I brace myself with one arm behind me, the other snaking around her waist to pull her closer as she buries her face in my neck, the emotion bursting out of her.

“Shhh, it’s okay, I got you,” I murmur against her hair, rubbing my hand up and down her back. Shuffling backwards until my back hits the wall, I’m finally able to envelop her in both my arms, tethering her securely to me as she lets go of everything she’s been holding in for so long.

I’m sure we could sit here all night, me rubbing her back, her letting it all out, but a noise from the front room puts me on alert. That wasn’t a normal noise my house makes.

My body stills, listening intently over the quiet sounds that Savanna makes, and I hear it again. I really hate to scare her, but I’m not going to have a choice.

“Sav,” I say gently but urgently, “I gotta get up and check on something. I need you to stay here.”