Take the Fall (Take the Fall, #1)(5)

“Don’t you f*cking touch her,” Seth barks, jerking back and putting himself between the guard and me. Hope springs in my chest. If he didn’t care about me, why would he bother to say that? “Unless you like going to prison for a crime you didn’t commit.”

Stunned, I stare up at him. Seth’s dark eyes search my face, like he’s trying to memorize it. This isn’t the boy I love, but he’s in there. I know it. Finding my nerve once more, I take a step toward him. “Seth, I—”

The guard clears his throat. “You can’t go with him, Miss.”

My lips tremble as Seth turns away without another word and walks out the door. “I love you, Seth,” I cry, right before the door closes.

My knees give, and I crumple to the floor, sobbing. This isn’t over, I silently vow. I’m not giving up on us.

If Seth won’t let me visit him in prison, then I’ll find another way to keep in contact and let him know how much I care. I won’t let his change in attitude toward me drive us apart.

All I have to do is remember who Seth really is. Who he’s been since we were children. Who he’s been since he first told me he loved me.

Wiping my tears away, I stand and then grab my purse. When I leave Western Prison, it’s with a sense of purpose.

I’ll get Seth back, no matter what.





Seth


SEVEN MONTHS LATER

“Another letter, O’Connor.”

I take the letter and place it on my bed. For a minute, I almost give in to the temptation of opening it. Every week, without fail, for the past twenty-eight weeks, Rowan has sent me a care package and a letter. The care package, I open, because I’m not stupid.

But the letters are another story. I don’t want to read them. I don’t want my heart to soften toward her. All I want to do is finish out the next two months and join the Marines. I want to go far away from this place, from my old life, and never look back.

The hatred that lives inside of me now fuels me. I eat, sleep, and dream about taking my revenge, about actually killing Tony with my bare hands—at least I’d have a reason for being here. Not my bullshit luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time while letting love rule my brain.

But really? can I blame her? She didn’t force me to stay. She didn’t sit on top of my chest and pin me to the ground until I cried uncle.

I run my hand through my short hair, then pick up the letter and smell it, imagining that it’s her perfume lingering on it. That, instead of piss and vomit and the bleach that never quite cleans it all up, the scent that surrounds me is Rowan’s.

Images flash through my mind of our last time together, down by the lake, her golden hair spread out on the blanket, her breasts tipped upward, displaying her hard nipples. Rowan is beautiful with creamy skin and long-ass legs. One thing I always found sexy is how damn tall she is. How I didn’t have to bend very far to kiss her. How I could take her standing up, once we figured out the mechanics of it.

How she laughed, how she smiled, how she wrinkled her freckled nose; she made every day brighter.

“Come home to me,” dream-Rowan breathes. She holds out her arms, but remains out of my reach.

Shaking my head, I force the fantasy away, but then I do something I never do. I open the envelope.

“Fine. I get it. We’re over.”

My gut caves in, like I’ve been repeatedly punched. My throat gets tight, and my vision blurs.

This is what you wanted, I remind myself.

God, but I didn’t think it would hurt so damn bad.

Tucking the letter back into the envelope, I walk to the other side of my cell—all four steps—and carefully place it on top of all the other ones. Then I take the pile and shove it under my mattress.





Chapter 1





Rowan


SEVEN YEARS LATER

Nothing but death could make Seth O’Connor come home and face the girl he left behind. He had made that completely clear with seven months of ignored letters and care packages I sent him. But that wasn’t what hurt the most—oh, no.

The deepest cut came a year and a half later, when he’d returned to the States from a deployment and arranged for his grandmother to visit him in Jacksonville, North Carolina, at Camp Lejeune instead of coming home to Forrestville. Naively, I had thought that time in the Marines would make him see what he missed; that even though he’d hurt me, I couldn’t completely cut him out of my life. I don’t think my heart ever stopped racing at news reports of fallen Marines.

But in the end, and once again, none of that mattered. When he got home from yet another mission, he finally came to town, visited his grandmother…and left before I knew it, like some kind of * ninja.

So, I let him go. Again.

Instead of pining over Seth, I forced myself to go out with a couple of guys, and although I had fun, it wasn’t special. But I’m living my life. I’ve been making a life without him.

Over the years, I convinced myself that I was over him. That I didn’t need him. That this hole in my heart could be filled with other things. It worked.

Liar, liar, a voice whispers in my head, but I ignore it.

A part of me wants to thank Seth for what he did. He reminded me of something I had forgotten, that no matter how much a man said he loved you, in the end, he would abandon you. Just like my dad. Just like my brother.