Safe at Last (Slow Burn 3)

And he’d always loved her. He’d never stopped. Oh God. Had she been wrong? Had she done this to them by not having faith in him?

“Tell me,” she managed to say. “I have to know. I need to know.”

And so Zack related every single detail of his trip to Tennessee. His confrontation with Stuart and then with his father. And finally the other two men involved. She was already numb, completely frozen by all he said, but then he took his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the coffee table in front of her before sitting down beside her on the couch.

“If it’s too much, just tell me to stop. If it upsets you or hurts you too much, it stops. But this is proof, Gracie. In their own words. Stuart’s confession. My father’s. I didn’t bother with the others. I was too bent on killing them.”

Anna-Grace swung her gaze to him in alarm. “You didn’t.”

There was a savage fire in Zack’s eyes. “I wanted to. God, I wanted to. But no, I didn’t. I wouldn’t doubt they spent a few days in the hospital though.”

She stared at the phone as though it were a snake prepared to strike. Could she do this? Could she listen to the details of her rape all over again?

And then sudden peace descended and settled over her. Yes. She was ready. Because if what Zack said was true, then that recording absolved him of any participation in the crime. And if that was also true, then she’d made a terrible, terrible mistake that they’d both paid for over a very long time.

“Play it,” she said hoarsely.

Slowly Zack reached over and pressed a button on his phone. She flinched when Stuart’s voice filled the room. She closed her eyes, trying to shut out the instant bombardment of images from that day.

When the recording got to Zack’s conversation with his father, she knotted her fist and it flew to her mouth, pressing deeply as she tried to prevent her sounds of pain from escaping.

Somewhere in the midst of it all, Zack’s arm slid gently around her waist and he pulled her to his chest, gently rocking her back and forth as the vile words his father had spewed rang in her ears.

“Stop! It’s enough!” she cried.

Zack immediately ended the recording and then turned to Anna-Grace with dread and so much pain in his eyes.

He slid to the floor in front of her, getting on his knees, taking both her hands in his.

“I am so sorry, Gracie,” he said, tears glimmering in his eyes. “I left you unprotected. I allowed this to happen to you. I should have taken you with me or just stayed with you and not gone away to college. I don’t know that you’ll ever be able to forgive me. God, I can’t forgive myself. But I’ve never stopped loving you. I’ve never stopped looking for you. I’ve never stopped hoping that one day we’d be together again.”

Tears slipped hotly down Anna-Grace’s cheeks. Oh God. So much time wasted. So many years. If only . . . There were so many if-onlys. And no way to take back the past. No way to undo it all and start all over again.

Or could they?

“How do you not hate me?” she said in a stricken voice. “I didn’t trust in you. I’ve hated you for twelve years. I said horrible, horrible things to you. Oh God.”

She yanked her hands from Zack’s and covered her face as sobs welled from her throat.

Zack was there in an instant, enfolding her in his strong embrace. He simply held her, rocking her and brushing kisses over the top of her head.

Then he gently pried her hands away from her face and slowly lowered his mouth until it hovered just over hers. And he pressed his lips so very gently to hers.

It was a sense of homecoming so powerful, so overwhelming that it very nearly shattered her composure. Nothing had ever been so sweet. Not before. His lips moved with exquisite tenderness until her lips parted and his tongue brushed against hers.

She inhaled deeply, taking in his scent, oh so familiar and haunting. And she kissed him back, allowing all her grief, sorrow, regret and . . . love . . . to bleed into that kiss.

“I could never hate you, Gracie,” Zack said against her lips. “Never. I’ve always loved you. I always will. Can you forgive the past? Will you give me another chance to make things right between us? I swear to you I’ll spend the rest of my life making you happy. Protecting you. Loving you. And our children.”

She leaned forward, pressing her forehead to his as more tears slid down her cheeks. “I have nothing to give you, Zack. They took it. I had nothing. I was nothing. All I had that was precious to me was my virginity. That was all I could give you when you gave so much to me. And they took that. How could you want me after what they did?”

“Oh baby, no,” Zack said in an aching voice.

He pulled her away so he could look her in the eye, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. He tipped her chin upward with his finger until she was forced to look at him.

“Read my mind right now, Gracie. See inside the heart of me. And then you tell me that I don’t love you. That I don’t want you with every breath in my body.”

She hesitated, a little afraid to hope. But his gaze was steady and sure and his eyes so very warm and loving.

She released the tight constraints she’d put in place and allowed herself into his mind and she was immediately flooded by a wave of love so strong that she swayed. There was so much he was thinking. About their future. Their wedding. The children they’d one day have. And how he looked forward to waking up every single day with her next to him.

It was simply too much.

She leaned into him again, grasping him tightly as though she feared he’d simply disappear. Her sobs were raw and horrible sounding. Guttural, coming from the very depths of her soul.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a terrible voice. “I’m so sorry, Zack. Oh God, I’m sorry. You should hate me. I didn’t trust you. I wasted so many years hating you for something you never did. And yet you ask me for forgiveness.”

Zack stroked her hair and then buried his face in the strands and she felt the warmth of his own tears against her head.

“There is nothing to forgive, Gracie. We were set up. Of course you believed that I orchestrated it. That’s what they wanted. They are to blame. Not you. Not me.”

She lifted her head, her vision watery as she stared back at him.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I never stopped loving you. Even when I hated you, a part of me knew I’d always love you and mourn the loss of what we had.”