Page 233 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

She arched a sarcastic brow. “I’m pretty sure anything I do is none of your concern.”

Fear and guilt clotted his insides, and he angled in close, trying to keep his voice from shaking. “Pretty sure it’s my concern if you’re carrying my kid.”

She laughed a caustic sound, and anger flashed across her face. “You lost that right the second you kicked me out.”

“You’re supposed to be in Virginia,” he gritted through clenched teeth.

“I never wanted or agreed to go back to Virginia. Just because you say I should doesn’t mean I’m going to listen to a thing you say.”

Dread curled in his guts. This was his fault. His fuckin’ fault.

He took her by the wrist, not even caring that he was begging. “Listen to me, Scarlett. It’s not good here. You gotta see?—”

“The only thing that I see is that you’re a dick.”

He deserved that. He was an idiot. Selfish and stupid and… “Come back to the house. We’ll talk about it.”

They could figure this out. He could find a way to love. To change. To be something better.

He could. He just?—

“Too late, Theo. I gave you the chance, and you lost it.”

He felt the sticky, foul presence from the side, and he looked that way to find Toga smirking at him from a barstool like he was a six-year-old bully who had stolen his favorite toy.

Theo’s attention jerked back to Scarlett. “Tell me you’re not with that prick,” he begged.

She hiked a shoulder. “It’s none of your business who I’m with.”

Panic surged, and he gripped her wrist tighter and lowered his voice in emphasis. “Listen to me, Scarlett. Toga is bad news. In the worst fuckin’ way. You can’t?—”

Theo was bad enough himself. But Toga was scum. An awful fucking person who would destroy any chance she had of a good life.

“Let’s go back to the house and talk,” he implored.

“Don’t appreciate you touchin’ what is mine.” Toga’s claim pelted Theo from the side.

Bile raced Theo’s throat, a clash of rage and disbelief. He attempted to ignore Toga and get through to Scarlett. “Please, let’s get out of here.”

“It’s too late, Theo. I’m finished begging you to love me back.”

Theo was fucking sick. Sick from not sleeping. Sick from worrying.

Scarlett getting caught up in whatever the fuck Toga had planned for her.

He had put a property patch on her.

But what was fucking with Theo’s head the most was she was acting sketchy. Showing up in places she shouldn’t. That motherfucker dragging her to places she should never go.

Her battered face flashed behind his eyes, the way she’d looked the night he first found her, and he sat up on the side of the bed, gripping the back of his head as he rocked in the middle of the night.

He was supposed to take care of her.

He knew there was a reason she had been placed in his path.

He needed to stand up and be the man his mother had told him he could never be.

Sacrifice.