Page 123 of Rastor

Trying to clear the cobwebs, I let my eyelids drift shut as I listened to the soothing sounds of their voices. The way it sounded, they were actually getting along. Now,thatwas a first.

Chloe was asking, "So how about you? Haven'tyouever been in love before?"

I knew the answer tothatquestion. Yeah, he had. And it hadn't ended so good. He almost never talked about it, but it was always there, eating him from the inside out.

Chloe's question hung in the air until Bishop said, "Yeah. Once."

"What happened?" she asked.

When he didn't answer, I opened my eyes and saw him reach into his back pocket. He pulled out his wallet. From somewhere inside, he pulled out something that I'd only seen once. It was a folded square that looked almost like a playing card.

"What's that?" Chloe asked.

Silently, he handed it over. She unfolded the card and studied the image. "Is this a tarot card?"

He nodded.

"The Fool?" she said. "Is this supposed to be you?"

He gave a humorless laugh. "No. Not if I can help it."

He was wrong. Hecouldhelp it, and it was time for me to tell him so. Again.

For too damn long, he'd been a miserable bastard. I'd foundmygirl. It was time for him to do the same. I spoke up, hearing the grogginess in my own voice as I told him, "Damn it. For the last time, just go find her already, will ya?"

Together, Bishop and Chloe turned to look. Chloe gave me a smile that melted my heart. "Oh yeah? You're one to talk."

I wasn't following. "What do you mean?"

Moving closer, she reached out to stroke my hand. And then, she trailed her fingers higher, past my wrist and up my arm, tracing the lines and shapes of my tattoos. Suddenly, her fingers paused, stopping at a spot I knew all too well.

The spot was a circular scar, the site of an old cigarette burn, now covered in ink. I'd gotten that burn, along with a few others, on the night that Chloe and I had first met.

She looked up, meeting my gaze. Her voice was quiet. "That was you." Her fingers moved higher, tracing the outlines of another scar, almost exactly like the first. "The guy on the sidewalk."

I stared up at her, not quite sure what to say.

She knew.

Chapter 62

The guy on the sidewalk – yeah, that was me. I knew exactly which sidewalk she meant. It was the one outside a different hospital five years earlier.

Earlier that night, I'd gotten those burns, along with the worst beating of my life, not from my opponent, but from two guys who were just doing their jobs, "rewarding" me for my epic failure to throw a fight.

One stupid punch.

Now, five years later, I was in a different hospital under different circumstances. I felt a slow smile warm my face. But the girl was the same. And now, she was mine.

It made everything worth it.

Chloe eyes were still trained on mine. Her voice grew softer. "It was. Wasn't it?"

What could I say? I'd been planning to tell her. Just not like this.

It was Bishop who spoke next, sounding surprised as hell. "You've got to be kidding." He looked from me to Chloe. "You'rethe girl who scraped him off the sidewalk?"

She'd done more than that. She'd given me a glimpse of something different. She'd been the voice in the darkness and the reason that for years afterward, no other girl could hold my attention, not for more than a few days, anyway.