Page 52 of Safe (King’s Heart #1)

Grant

I might’ve blacked out.

I was in that room—the one I try with everything in my life to block out of my mind—the shot ringing in my ears, and now I’m on the front lawn.

That stupid, fucking angel stands in front of me, and even though her eyes are straight ahead, pointed to the gate far behind me at the end of his property, I feel like she’s staring right into my soul.

Dissecting and analyzing all of my choices I’ve made in life.

She puts me in a trance, unable to take my attention away from her.

It’s kind of funny, actually. If you happen to be the type of person who finds humor in the extremely dark irony that life often hands you.

When I was younger, and I pulled up to this house for the first time, having just lost my parents, getting a new start with my dad’s brother who I had only met a few times, I thought maybe she’d be my guardian.

That’s what angels do, right? Watch over you. Protect you from all the evil things in the mortal world.

She never did.

What a bitch.

“Grant! Grant!”

Light patting of a hand on my cheek pulls me out of the trance. I shake my head and try to focus on Landon. Has he been here the whole time?

He holds my face in his hands as a radiant smile spreads onto his lips when our eyes meet. “I need you to stay out here, baby.”

When I feel his fingers slipping off of me, I react, reflexively reaching for his wrist, holding onto it with a white-knuckling grip. “Wh-where are you going?” My voice sounds so small. So scared.

“I just have to…” His voice trails off as he thinks of what to say. “We can’t leave everything like that. I have to… fix some stuff.”

“Is he…”

Dead .

That’s what I want to know, but my voice doesn’t want to say it. It can’t possibly be real. That the source of one of my nightmares and traumas is gone.

Landon nods, already knowing what I want to ask, and places a gentle kiss on my forehead. “I’ll be right back, and then you never have to be away from me again. But, I need you to tell me something.”

I nod and wait.

“Where did you get the gun?”

I stare off, thinking about how tonight unfolded. How I showed up at his house, entered on my own, not really sure of what exactly would happen. I just knew that I didn’t want to lie for him anymore. I wouldn’t do it again.

And then, I was assaulted with a memory—so distant and fuzzy. I could barely decipher it.

My uncle showing me his gun that he kept in his study.

The drawer he pulled it out of. How he made sure it was unloaded before asking if I wanted to hold it.

I did. It was so cool—that I had only lived with this man a few days and it already seemed great.

Then him saying I could keep holding it while he showed me this rocking horse he had.

“It was his gun,” I say evenly. “He kept it in his study.”

“Okay, baby. Thank you. I’ll be right back.”

He starts to pull away again, and again I stop him, tightening my hold on him.

He sighs but looks at me with patient eyes, much more patience than I deserve from him. “Grant. I really need to?—”

“No. I—” My voice cuts out on a crack, tears filling my eyes and spilling over. “I’m so—I’m so sorry, Landon. I didn’t sleep with him. With Trevor. I could never do that to you. I’m sorry.”

I don’t know how he can even understand anything I’m saying. It’s all choked between visceral sobs, the sounds scraping and bruising my insides.

He wraps his arms around me, dragging my trembling body to his own, embracing me. Like he always has. Reaching through all the shitty, sharp parts of me. “I know, baby.”

“I shouldn’t have done that. Any of it. I was… so terrible to you. You didn’t deserve it,” I whisper into the crook of his neck.

His hand comes up to my back, soothingly drawing circles with his finger. “I know that, too.”

“Why?” I ask incredulously, burying my face harder into his skin. “Why did you come? Why are you helping after what I did?”

He grabs my shoulders and coaxes me out of his embrace, holding me at arm’s length, staring directly into my eyes.

“What happened to you before is what pushed me away, not you. I’m in love with you.

All the other shit can try to get rid of me a thousand times, but I’ll always come crawling back, ready to help you push it back. ”

I’m overcome with gratitude. It floods my chest and pushes out any other bad feeling.

He smiles. “Now, I really have to go.”

This time, when he pulls away, I let him go, and look back at the angel.

I scan the lawn and walk over to a fist-sized rock among the other landscaping. I pick it up and return to her. Swinging my arm as hard as I can, I hit her in the face with it. A chunk of her mouth and nose flies off, maiming her much like I am on the inside.

“Okay. Now we’re even.”

After a few more minutes, Landon comes bursting out of the front door and grabs onto my arm, pulling me with him as he runs. “Come on. We gotta go.”

I tug my arm from his grasp and sprint alongside him, trying my best to match his speed, but he’s so fast that I only end up being right at his heels.

“What did you do?” I ask through shaky breaths.

He shakes his head as he reaches back to haul me closer to him. “No time. Let’s go.”

I shut my mouth and focus all of my energy on running down the lawn, listening to the swish of our feet hitting the grass and Landon whispering, “Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.”

We finally make it to the gate, both of us slipping through and immediately doubling over, trying to catch our breath. We don’t speak to each other, taking big gulps of air into our lungs.

When I feel like I won’t die, I flick my eyes up at the house. It looks normal, the same harbinger of violation and despair that I remember. Until I look a little closer. My eyes adjust to the darkness, and I notice smoke trying to escape one of the kitchen windows.

I stand abruptly. “Did you?—”

Boom.

I turn away and throw my hands over my ears, even though it’s too late.

That same ringing after the shot comes back, and for a moment, I can’t hear anything.

That was fucking loud. If my uncle lived any closer to civilization, surely someone would’ve heard that. Maybe someone did—even from a distance.

I can feel Landon gripping onto my clothes as my eyes swing back to the house. I think he’s trying to talk to me, but I can only focus on the blaze in front of us.

Chunks of debris litter the lawn from the explosion, and the house is engulfed in flames now, crackling and spreading throughout what’s left of the dwelling.

I look over at Landon to find his eyes already on me, an unsettling anger I’m not sure I’ve seen in him before. “That place shouldn’t get to stand anymore,” he tells me as an explanation.

“Thank you.” It’s all I can seem to manage. And even so, it’s weak and embarrassing in the shadow of this gesture he’s given me.

“What else did you do?” I ask hollowly as the flames dance prettily for me.

“Can’t tell you. Plausible deniability. But I took care of it. No one is going to come for you or me because of this.”

I nod my head and watch for a few more moments until I feel a tug on my hand.

I look over at him. He jerks his head toward the dirt road. “We should go now. We can go in the trees along the road until we get to the town. Wait, how did you get here?”

“Drove—parked a little ways up.”

He smiles softly at me. “Then let’s leave and never come back.”

I nod and we both start running. I reach my hand over and lace our fingers together, not letting go the whole way.