Page 94 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

After what happened last weekend, I promised myself that I’d keep my distance. My heart had been getting way too invested while I’d been out there playing with her son. The sense I had about that SUV had snapped me right back into my reality.

A stark reminder of my duty.

This penance that was never going to be paid.

And here she was, fucking my head all up again.

“…right, Theo?”

I jerked my attention back to Otto who was gripping me by the shoulder and shaking me around.

“Uh…”

Fuck, I hadn’t heard a word.

Smugness pulled to River’s face. “Not like that at all, is it?”

I shook myself out of it. “Sorry, mind was drifting, thinking about something that needs to be taken care of at the motel.”

“Oh, we know exactly what you were thinkingabout taking care of. See you over there imagining all the ways you want to peel that girl apart.” River issued it like fact.

Otto chuckled, and the fucker reached out and pressed two fingers to my neck like he was a paramedic checking my pulse. “Yup, dude’s about to explode. Heart attack levels if he doesn’t blow off some of that steam.”

I swatted his hand away. “You’re full of shit.”

“Nah, man, we know who’s full of shit around here,” Otto goaded.

“Knew it from the get-go. Fucking heart eyes.” Kane curled his fingers into circles and held them up over his eyes like goggles.

I cocked my head at him, though I was fighting a grin. “Those are circles, not hearts, jackass.”

He shrugged. “All I’m saying is you only have eyes for our little Piper Poo.”

“Piper Poo?” Was he fuckin’ serious?

He shrugged again. “Girl’s cool as shit, and she worked her ass off today. Think she’s a keeper. And not thatIdon’t only have eyes for my Em-Girl because all you assholes know I do, but she’s a stunner. Pretty sure our boy here can’t look away.”

Irritation burned a hole in my chest. “Like I said before, just keeping an eye out for her and her family while they’re staying at The Sanctuary, and I was surprised to see her here since no one fuckin’ clued me in that she got a job at Ivy Threads.”

I lifted an accusatory brow.

Was still fucked up over what she confessed.

That her plans had changed, even though she hadn’t given me any details on what they actually were.

Made me insane how badly I wanted to know exactly what had happened. Wanting the inside on something I didn’t have the right to know.

“Figured with the way you’re watching her, you would have already figured it out for yourself.” Another prodding from Kane. “But it doesn’t really matter to you, does it? You know, since you’re only keeping an eye while she stays. Guess she’s going to become nothing to you once she finds her own place.”

Kane said it casually.

All while it felt like a knife was being driven into my stomach.

A hard twist of the blade at the thought of her leaving The Sanctuary.

Guts a tangle of dread.

Didn’t like the idea of not being able to check on her night after night.