Beautifully Broken

DAMIAN

It’s been a long day, and it’s only early afternoon. When I stop at a drug store, I’m torn in two. Cara’s asleep in the back seat, and I don’t want to leave her, but I need medical supplies for her.

I’ll just have to be quick.

Getting out of the car, I lock all the doors. I rush into the store and grab the strongest painkillers I can find, along with antiseptic and bandages. I also get something for fever and a large first aid kit.

Rather safe than sorry.

I’m in and out in less than ten minutes, but it feels like a year of my life has passed.

I place the stuff on the passenger seat and then open the back door by Cara’s head. Placing a hand on her forehead, I feel overwhelming relief when she’s cool to my touch. The last thing we need is an infection.

As I brush some hair from her face, emotion for this woman overwhelms me until it’s beating strongly in my heart.

I love her.

Christ, I love her so much.

When we leave the busy town behind, I feel a ton of weight roll off my shoulders. I quickly glance to the backseat to check on Cara, then focus on the road ahead.

Now it’s just us.

I have Cara all too myself.

I’ll help her get through the trauma and give her the life she always dreamt of.

My woman. My love. My life.

My mind goes to the small cabin I have in Southport. I’m so fucking thankful I got a backup I.D made for Cara. With our new identities and the emergency cash, we’ll be okay for a while. We’ll need to get jobs, but that’s a bridge we’ll cross when we get to it. The cabin and peaceful atmosphere in Southport will be perfect for Cara to heal.

Every now and then, I glance over my shoulder to make sure she’s still okay.

I’ve put her through hell today, but my girl’s a fighter.

I didn’t think they’d find the storage unit so fast. Thank fuck I had the other unit under Damian Weston and the one with our emergency stash under Alex Jackson. I rigged the other Weston unit to look like someone had already emptied it out and left, hoping it would throw them off our tails.

Checking the rearview mirror, I make sure we’re not being followed and let out a breath of relief when the road is empty behind us.

Chapter 24

CARA

I wake up feeling like a piece of chewed gum, sticky and stretched too thin.

Pulling my face from the leather seat, I wipe the drool from the corner of my mouth. I’m hot, and my whole body’s aching.

I sit up in the back and glance at our surroundings, noticing everything’s green, and there’s a smell of salt in the air.

“How do you feel?” Damian asks, his eyes jumping between the road and the rearview mirror.

“Yucky,” I sum it all up for him.

He digs in a bag on the passenger seat and then hands me an energy drink. I take it from him, and as I swallow a couple of greedy gulps, he passes a box of painkillers to me.

“God, thank you.” I get excited at the thought of not being in pain. I take two pills, swallowing them down with the rest of the energy drink.

Slumping back against the seat, I stare out the window and the pretty houses lining the street we’re driving down. Here and there, someone’s working in their garden.

It looks peaceful here.

“Where are we?” I ask.

“Southport,” Damian says as he turns down a road. “I have a cabin here.”

Here? We’ll be staying here?

I feel a flutter of excitement as I say, “It’s pretty.”

The houses start to thin out, and after a while, it’s only trees with a cabin every few miles. “Where’s Southport?” I ask.

“It’s in North Carolina. I think you’ll like it here. It’s a small town.”

I still smell salt, but I can’t see the ocean from where we are. “Is there a beach nearby?”

“Yeah, once you’re better, I’ll show you around. Everything’s within walking distance.”

I stare at the trees passing us by, and then Damian pulls up to a weather-beaten cabin. It makes the house we lived in look like a castle.

I push the door open and slowly get out, my midsection feeling tender as hell.

I glance around us, and the peacefulness in the air washes over me.

I hope we’ll get to stay here for a while.

Damian grabs our belongings from the vehicle and takes the keys he retrieved from the storage unit out of the bag.

His eyes settle on me, and before he can reach for me, I move toward the front door. I shake the wooden handrail, testing it before I lean on it so I can climb the creaking stairs.

“It doesn’t look like much, but we can fix it up and make it our own.” Damian unlocks the door as my face flushes from his words. He’s using words like ‘we’ and ‘our.’