Heartless Hero (Crowne Point 1)

“It’s my turn.”

“I don’t care. Why?”

“It was the only way I could think to protect you.”

Frustration built, water rising and stuck in a fire hydrant. What did that even mean? How did this protect me? Then I thought to the four mysterious guards who appeared overnight. The new alarm. The conversation I thought I’d dreamed up between him and my mother.

I knew my mom was involved somehow. She’d been the one to assign the guards, to have the new alarm installed. Our love lay brutally massacred, and her fingerprints were all over the crime scene.

I just didn’t know how, I didn’t know why, and I didn’t want to believe it, that Theo could have stomped my heart into a hamburger for something so pointless.

“Did you even think about what it woul

d do to me? Did you care? Four guards…” I tried not to laugh, to ease the bitterness blacking out my heart. His touch was light on my neck, and it would be so easy for him to grab my neck, crush me to his lips. “You’re better than any number of guards.”

His fingers tightened. “It wasn’t just guards, Abigail.”

I stared into his eyes, trying to figure out what would have made Theo tell such a horrible lie, all in the name of protection. What could my mom have offered him?

In the end, I couldn’t think of anything.

“I don’t know what trade you made, but it wasn’t worth it. In every scenario, you’re worth the risk.”

His grip tightened on my neck, pulling me until our lips were so close to colliding, but there was no heat in his eyes.

“I’m not worth it, Abigail,” he gritted. “I could never ask you to risk your life for someone like me.”

It was a while before I responded, the wind blowing.

“I know,” I whispered. “You would never ask.”

He searched my eyes, then dropped me.

My skin was colder than before he’d touched me. I could too clearly remember the heat of his touch, his breath warming my lips. He exhaled with so much force his shoulders moved, and I knew he was going to leave. Going to God knows where. I didn’t know when I was going to see him again.

“Truth or promise,” I asked. “Do you still love me?”

His eyes were hard. “I’ll never stop.”

My eyes were watering, his image blurring. No matter how much focus I put on keeping my chin up, my back straight, I couldn’t keep the tears away.

“T-Truth or promise.” My voice was shaky with unshed tears. “Would you do it again?”

Say no. Say you regret everything you did to us.

“Yes.”

His answer knocked the wind from me. I couldn’t stop him from leaving, too busy trying to breathe. So I watched him walk away, his footsteps disappearing in the tide.

I was desperate for anything to make him come back.

“Your mom,” I yelled at his back. “Um… I have her address… I know you don’t want it… but…”

He stopped. This was so not the way I wanted to tell him. I rubbed my forehead, anxiety spiking with each silent minute. The tide kept coming in and going out, washing the sand anew. Then he turned to face me.

He was still silent. About a foot of sand separated us. Wind whipped his wild, silky brown hair around his sharp, beautiful face.

“She’s been looking for you,” I said. “You’re hard to find, since she wasn’t the one to give you your name. Hers is Miranda Lemaire, and she lives in town. You can find her online easily. She’s been here the whole time.”