Where Lightning Strikes (Bleeding Stars #3)(96)

When I didn’t respond, she spun around and ran up the stairs. I could hear her banging around up there, and I was all of a sudden aware of the heat of Ash’s glare burning like daggers into my back and the unease radiating off Zee where they stood in the niche of the kitchen entryway.

Just what I needed.

A damned audience while I cut down another life.

She came hurtling back down, suitcase bouncing on each step as she dragged it behind her. She blew by me like a tiny ball of fiery energy, yet so f*cking big and profound.

This girl larger than life. All sex and sin. Pure and soft and sweet.

An enigma.

Temptation.

I raked a hand through my hair, feeling like my insides were getting ripped to shreds.

She headed for the door, not even glancing my way.

Panic flapped all around me like frantic wings and before I could stop myself I was calling her name. “Tamar.”

She froze.

Shit.

Was that the first time I ever called her that? But I knew anything else would amount to nothin’ but a snub. Another insult thrown her way.

Slowly she turned, and my gut clenched, because this girl was so damned beautiful it knocked the breath from my lungs. So damned pretty. And she was looking at me like she was begging me to beg her to stay.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I dug my wallet from my back pocket and pulled out all the cash I had.

Six neatly pressed hundred dollar bills.

She was just standing there, dazed, lines of confusion darting all over her forehead. I urged them into her hand and closed her fingers around them.

Hopefully that’d be enough to at least get her home. To get her away from this place. Away from me. Where I couldn’t hurt her like that bastard Cameron had done.

And I wondered just how different we were, me and him, destroying something so utterly good.

Finally, she looked up at me. Her eyes narrowed. A flash of Red. “What the f*ck is this?”

I swallowed hard. “Money…to get you home.”

Her face twisted. Offended. Words bitter and incredulous. “What? You think I’m your whore now? You think I want your money?” She balled it up, fisted it in front of her, before she threw it in my face. “You can go to hell, Lyrik West.”

Not a problem.

I was already there.

She rushed for the double doors, yanked the right side open. It crashed against the interior wall.

She was halfway out it when she flew back around, like she’d changed her mind. “Do you know what?”

As she stared across at me with her chin lifted high, those bits of Red that’d tried to make a resurgence were gone.

And it was just my girl.

Blue.

Brave, beautiful Blue.

She pointed at the ground beside her, like she was staking a claim. “No.”

No.

My chest tightened.

In all the times I’d begged her to tell me no, this was when she was going to use it on me? When I couldn’t do anything about it? When I couldn’t respect her in the way I knew I should?

Hate me, Blue.

“You don’t get to do this,” she said, taking a step forward as I took one back. “I’ve spent years hiding and I know what hiding looks like.”

She touched her chest. “And I know you. What you said upstairs…”

I fisted my hands at my sides. Trying not to lose my cool.

“I don’t know exactly what it means but I heard what you meant.”

I rubbed my hands down my face, and she just kept on talking, like she didn’t get she was completely tearing me apart.

“You asked me for two months. Two months, Lyrik. And in those two months you changed everything. You forced your way into my life, shook up everything I thought was right when the way I’d been living was so very wrong. You breathed the life I didn’t know was missing back into me. I thought we had a time stamp. An ending. And it turned out you were just the beginning.”

I squeezed my eyes closed, like maybe it could block her words from impaling.

Piercing.

Crucifying.

Except I was no saint.

Hope made its way into the sadness on her face. “I’m going home, Lyrik. Home to Arizona. To the place I’ve been running from for years. I’m going because you reminded me what it’s like to be brave. You showed me it’s okay to be scared and vulnerable. That sometimes that’s the best place to be. And no, I’m not healed. I have a lot of scars to work through…”

She swiped at the tears still streaking like shimmery rivers down her face and sucked in a steeling breath. “And yeah, it’s going to f*cking terrify me to sit on that stand and testify against Cameron. But I’m going to do it because it’s the right thing to do. Because I can no longer run from who I am. Because you made me stop and look at her.”

She took a step back. With a shake of her head, she cast her attention to her feet, her grip firm as she held onto the handle of her suitcase.

Contemplating.

Finally, she looked back up at me.

So brave and bold. Vibrant colors. The darkest dark and the most blinding light.

“I love you, Lyrik West. And when I walk out that door, I promise you, it’s going to hurt.”

She stared me down. “But you are worth all the pain.”

Grabbing the door handle, she turned to leave.