Written with You (The Regret Duet #2)(37)

I shook my head and swallowed hard, doing my best to keep the tremble out of my voice. “He…he thought I was Hadley. I think she stole something from him. I don’t know.”

“All right. Okay,” he mumbled, and I was vaguely aware of him pulling his phone out. “Just breathe. I’ve got you. It’s all good.”





CAVEN


“She’s fine. She’s fine. She’s fine,” I chanted to myself as I white-knuckled my steering wheel.

I’d just gotten home from the office when Ian had called to tell me that a man had mistaken Willow for Hadley and assaulted her outside the grocery store. He’d assured me that she was fine, but she was Willow. Fine was not fucking good enough. Leaving Rosalee with Alejandra, I’d darted out of the house, and the worst-case scenario played in my mind as I’d all but peeled out of my driveaway.

Because Ian knew me so well, I received a text a few minutes into my drive, warning me that an ambulance had arrived, but it was only a precautionary measure. In all caps, he repeated that Willow was fine.

It was crazy how a mind worked sometimes. I was ready for the ambulance, had mentally prepped for it the entire fifteen minutes it took me to arrive. However, the second it came into my view, a savage anxiety slashed through me. With nausea rolling in my stomach, I frantically searched the area for any sign of her red hair. It wasn’t until I caught sight of her sitting in the back of her Prius with the hatch open, shading her from the sun, that my pulse slowed a fraction.

She was okay.

But as I took in the fact that she had an icepack pressed against her face, I was not.

My car was barely in park before I was out the door, storming her way. The thunder of my steps caught her attention and her head slowly turned my way. The surprise that hit her face might as well have been a sledgehammer to my gut. Things were bad with us at the moment, but what the hell? Had she really not thought I’d come when I found out some idiot had attacked her in the parking lot?

Or maybe she’d hoped I wouldn’t.

“Nooooo,” she moaned, swinging a glare at Ian. “What did you do? I don’t want to be in this box, Ian. I don’t want to be in this box.”

He shrugged. “A man puts his hands on you and I’m there to see it? I’d end up in a pine box if I didn’t tell him about it.”

I had no fucking clue what the two of them were talking about. Nor did I care. My only concern was making sure she was truly okay and my swirling mind wouldn’t still until I did a full inventory of her injuries. I rested a hand on her thigh, the other going to her hand holding the icepack as I squatted in front of her.

My throat was gravel as I ordered, “Let me see.”

She sighed. “I’m fine, Caven. Really.”

“Fantastic. Then let me see.”

She stared at me, her chin quivering and her green eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “Please don’t. I don’t want to be in this box.”

“What are you talking about? What box?”

She glanced over at the cops, who were congregating behind a cruiser, then whispered, “The one in your head where I’m the girl at the mall who you have to rush in and save all the time.”

“Babe, I have no idea what you are talking about right now. But I really need to see what’s going on beneath that ice because the shit in my head, seeing you surrounded by police and paramedics again, it’s not pretty. Okay?”

Her face got soft. “God, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about that.”

As she moved her hand, revealing nothing but a quarter-size bruise on the apple of her cheek, I physically swayed with the movement of my world tipping back on its axis. All the garbage from the past crashed into place, hidden in the recesses of my mind where it belonged, but it left the most beautiful woman sitting in front of me. Despite everything that had happened between us over the last month, I didn’t think twice about kissing her forehead, allowing my lips to linger as my anxiety ebbed, leaving me lighter than I had been in weeks.

Nothing like an overdose of fear and adrenaline to put life into perspective.

“Caven,” she whispered, covering my hand at her thigh. “I’m okay. Really.”

And she was.

This time.

Using her wrist, I guided her hand with the ice back to her cheek and rose to my full height. “I’ll be right back, okay? Shout if you need anything.”

She nodded, and I felt her gaze track me as I walked to the front of her car with Ian on my heels.

Careful to keep my voice low, I rumbled, “What the hell happened here?”

His jaw got tight. “Some douchebag Hadley stole a flash drive from wants it back. Snatched her ID, roughed her up, then took off when he saw me.”

“He took her ID?”

“Gave her two days to find the flash drive. My guess is he plans to pick it up in person.”

Molten lava hit my bloodstream. “Fucking Hadley.”

“Basically.” He moved in close. “Look, we have to figure out this shit with her identity. After this crap, it’s not safe for her to be walking around as Hadley Banks. Who the hell knows who else that woman could have pissed off. She’s been dead for over eight months and this guy is just now coming back for something she took? For all we know, it’s going to be a never-ending parade of idiots wanting their shit back.”