Page 13 of Vengeance

She folded her arms over her chest. "You sound like you've done this before."

Too many times, but that wasn’t something that he’d admit to her. "I have."

She studied him in the moonlight. "Who taught you?"

His jaw tightened. "The wrong people." She looked away, and neither of them spoke for several moments.

"Thank you,” she said, looking up at him.

He blinked. "For what?"

"For saving me,” Chloe said.

His chest tightened. "I was just doing what anyone would've done."

"No." She shook her head. "My dads would've—Bowie, Savage, and even the club. But you—” Her voice softened. "You didn't have to."

If only she knew the truth. He needed to save her to make amends for what his family had done to her. "I couldn't let them take you."

"Why not?” she asked. He looked into the dark woods. All the things that he wanted to tell her were playing through his head. Because my father already stole your childhood from you. Because I was there and watched what they did to you. Because I've hated him every day since. Because I swore if I ever found you, I'd spend the rest of my life making sure nobody ever hurt you again.

Instead, he went with a version of the truth. "Because you're innocent."

She smiled sadly. "I don't feel innocent anymore."

His heart broke a little. "You are."

"You don't know me,” she insisted.

"I know enough,” he breathed.

She laughed quietly. "That's what you keep saying."

He smiled despite himself. "I do, don't I?"

"All the time." Silence settled between them again, and she wandered toward the edge of the trees. "You know,” she said without turning around, "I almost skipped therapy today."

He looked over. "What?"

"My therapist wanted me to go to an appointment with her before my Dad's funeral." She kicked at a pinecone. "I think she wanted to help me so I’d be able to go to his funeral, but I just couldn’t do it."

"I get that,” he said.

"No, you don't,” she insisted.

"I probably do,” he said. He was pretty sure that he should have been in therapy most of his adult life, but living life on the run put a damper on his needs.

She finally looked at him. "Anyway, I went to my appointment, and told her I wasn't afraid anymore."

"Were you lying?" he asked.

She hesitated. "Yeah." Her honesty surprised him. "I'm terrified most of the time."

"You've got every right to be,” he said.

"I keep thinking that if Savage had just gone to the doctor again—” Her voice cracked, and she covered her face. "He'd still be here."

Vengeance walked over but stopped a respectful distance away. "You can't do that to yourself."