Page 56 of When the Smoke Clears

My throat goes tight.

“I was going to leave,” she says. “I packed. I got into my car. But my tire was flat. I couldn’t go anywhere. So I went to the bar because I needed people around me. I needed not to feel…” She shivers. “Hunted.”

“And Gabe was there.”

“He saw me shaking,” she says. “He asked what was wrong. I showed him the text, but that’s all. He said he’d try to trace the number.”

“You wanted to run again,” I say, not accusing, just stating facts.

She looks at me, eyes wide and shining. “That car could’ve just as easily hit you, Luke,” she says. “It almost did. It’s selfish to stay. But Gabe told me to fight for my life back. And then I read my mom’s letter, and—” Her arms wrap tight around her torso. “I’m scared. Not just for me.”

I pull her back against my chest. She quivers in my arms like a wire stretched too tight.

“Do you think you can ever trust me again?” she whispers into my shirt.

Trust used to be the air between us—so natural I never noticed it. Now it feels like blown glass: beautiful, fragile, one wrong move and it shatters.

“I’m so sorry, Isla,” I say, my voice cracking. “I should’ve looked for you. I should’ve pushed. I was so damn angry, I let it be an excuse.”

“I needed you to be angry,” she says quietly. “If you’d come for me, I wouldn’t have had the strength to stay gone. And I had to stay gone. It was the only way I knew to keep you alive.”

“I don’t want you to leave again,” I admit. The truth tastes like blood and salt.

“The threat isn’t gone,” she says. “That car wasn’t random. It was a reminder.”

A chill slides down my spine. “Then this time we don’t pretend it isn’t real,” I say. “This time we face it.”

“We,” she repeats softly.

Her fingers lift, tracing the curve of my cheek, the rough line of stubble. It roots me to the spot, pins every spinning thought in place. Her eyes shine, not with the easy laughter I remember, but with something raw and fragile and honest.

“I’m scared, Luke,” she whispers.

My brow creases. “I know,” I say. “I can’t pretend to understand what it’s been like in your head all this time. But I’m here now. Gabe’s here. My brothers are here. You don’t have to do this alone anymore.”

I hesitate. “Just promise me you’ll do what we ask when it comes to staying safe. No more running off by yourself. No more keeping this shit quiet.”

She nods, teeth worrying her bottom lip until a small indent forms there. The motion has always undone me.

The air thickens around us, heavy with things we’ve said and all the things we haven’t. I never thought I’d find myself here again, staring into blue eyes that know every version of me—good, bad, and broken.

Her gaze holds pain, guilt, and something else. Something that looks a lot like the hope I’ve been trying to smother.

It’s that flicker that undoes me.

I slide my hand into her hair at the nape of her neck, fingers threading into familiar strands. She doesn’t pull away. If anything, she leans in.

I tug gently, guiding her toward me, closing the inches that have been a decade wide.

CHAPTER 14

ISLA

Luke’s fingers slide into my hair and tighten, pulling me closer. I go without hesitation, like my body’s been waiting ten years for that exact touch and is terrified he’ll change his mind.

I missed this more than I ever let myself remember. Even now, it lights something in me that spreads fast and hot, like a fuse catching flame.

He leans in, his gaze locked on my mouth. The cabin, the trees, the sound of water against the shore—all of it drops away under the pounding of my heart.