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That’s why I watch prices; I don’t overspend. I wanted to make my own way, and I did.The only time she had used the money Travis had sent was to buy her rather old pickup truck, a necessity when one lived so far from town.
Wandering aimlessly, she walked into her bedroom, her eyes darting to her dresser immediately.
It’s still here.
Without really thinking about her actions, she went to the dresser, picked up her wedding ring and slipped it on her finger. Wearing it brought in equal parts happiness and sorrow.
I should have never seen him again. I should have waited to talk to Travis and left.
“Now he’ll really hate me,” she whispered to herself, her voice filled with anguish. But she’d needed to do it, needed him to hate her and never try to seek her out.
God, she’d missed him so much. There hadn’t been a day since she’d left him the first time that she hadn’t ached to see him, hadn’t felt like part of her was missing. While she’d had the hole in her memory, she couldn’t remember what it had felt like to be away from him. Now, she remembered, and it had hurt like hell. Her only solace had been that her family was safe.
She tried to take the ring off again, but she couldn’t do it. The weight of the platinum band and beautiful diamonds gave her a small measure of comfort. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
Walking back to the kitchen, she dialed Travis’ office number, but he didn’t answer. He’d apparently changed cell phone numbers during the last few years, and she didn’t know his current number. Trying Kade’s number, she got his voicemail, hanging up without leaving a message. Kade rarely carried his cell phone, a habit he had acquired from being in the public limelight for so long, his phone ringing constantly and leaving him with no peace unless he turned it off and left it at home.
Her hand hovered over the numbers on the phone, so damn tempted to call Max just to tell him how sorry she was, how much she loved him.
“No!” she told herself harshly, putting the phone back in its cradle. “You can’t talk to him ever again. You need to separate yourself from him completely. You’re dangerous to him.”
There was so much Max didn’t know, so much she’d never told him. What would he think of her if he really knew how stupid she’d been, how very damaged she’d become from her past?
Two women in one body.
Now she knew exactly why she’d felt that way. She’d only remembered the woman she had been before she’d gone to counseling, before she’d found out how to deal with her past, and had actually begun to like the woman she had found underneath all of her dysfunctional self.
Max had fallen in love with an illusion, a woman who she’d tied in knots to please him, creating a persona that wasn’t real. Max didn’t truly know her at all. He never had.
I never really knew Max completely either, yet I loved him. I still do.
Mia slammed her thoughts closed, not wanting to think about the agony of still loving Max the way she did. He hadn’t revealed all about his emotions, but he wasn’t hiding the kind of secrets that she had never told him about, the horrible parts of her past. What would he think of a woman who had been stupid enough to be involved with a man who had no conscience, no qualms about killing anyone she cared about? Her father had been insane. Danny was a murderous sociopath.
Mia could hear the car coming up the drive before it arrived at the house, tires crunching over dirt and gravel as a vehicle made its way down her long, winding driveway. Her heart started to hammer and she ran to the kitchen to snatch the cordless phone, her hand trembling as she grabbed for it. Even though she was willing to sacrifice anything to keep Max and her brothers safe—and she intended to do just that—she didn’t look forward to the actual consequences of her actions. She could be dead long before the police arrived.
Peering through the window right next to the front door and switching on the porch light, she watched a sleek black sports car pull up next to her rented vehicle. A shadowy figure emerged—a very large, very tall figure. Unable to make out his face, she squinted to bring his features into focus as he entered the circle of light cast by the porch lamp.
He stumbled, taking an uneven step as he cursed and moved forward again, his entire body finally revealed. Mia’s legs practically gave out with relief, and then horror.
Max. Oh my God. No!
He finally made his way ungracefully to the door and disappeared from view. Mia could still hear him mumbling as he pounded on the wood, calling out, “Open the door, Mia. I know you’re there.”
Scrambling to the door, she unlocked it and swung it open.
For the first time in his life, Max looked truly bedraggled.
For the first time in his life, Max looked completely drunk and disorderly.
And, for the first time in his life, Max didnotlook happy to see her.
It was a sad, sad situation when a man needed a healthy amount of Dutch courage just to face his own wife!
Max was drunk, and he knew it. Okay…he sort of knew it, but was trying like hell to convince himself that he wasn’t. Maybe sitting at the end of Mia’s driveway and taking some shots from the bottle of rotgut whiskey he’d bought in Billings hadn’t been such a good idea. At the moment, he was alternating between being “king of the world” and “emperor of the dumbasses.”
“Max…have you been drinking?” Mia asked, astonished.
Bingo. Give the woman a prize.