Gone was the hard-core biker and my tough-as-nails rescuer. In his place was a broken man. When he still didn’t look up, I placed my hands on his chest and shoved him with all my might. “Dammit, at least have the nerve to look me in the face!” I demanded.

When he finally looked up, his eyes were haunted. “I thought it was for the best.”

“No, you only thought of what was best for you. I mean, God forbid you actually admit that you have feelings for me.”

“That’s not true.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please, Rev, like you could actually acknowledge the crazy, broken sex slave as your old lady. What would your brothers say?”

His expression darkened. “I don’t give a damn what they might have to say. That’s not what this is about.”

“Then please enlighten me. Because I find it extremely ironic that after being with you for a month, you just happen to call my parents on the night we kissed.”

“What I did last night was not fair to you with all you’ve been through.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re still recovering. I should’ve never made a move on you.”

I snatched up a pair of my shoes from the floor and spat, “In case you missed it, I was the one who made a move on you.”

Rev exhaled an agonized sigh. “Because you’re confused and mixed up. For Christ’s sake, Annabel, a month ago you were imprisoned and enslaved by a fucking maniac. You don’t get over that shit so quickly. You’ve been through too much to know what you really want.”

Anger and hurt flickered and flashed through me like lightning slicing across a troubled sky. Although I’d been raised to always temper my emotions, I couldn’t hold myself back. With all the strength I had within me, I threw one of the shoes at him.

Rev ducked just in time, and it narrowly missed his head. Closing the gap between us, I demanded, “How dare you tell me what I feel? I’m not crazy when it comes to how I feel about you!”

“I never said you were crazy,” Rev argued softly.

“You’re implying it, which is just as bad.”

“I didn’t want to do anything to hurt you.”

“Too. Fucking. Late,” I spat before I rushed past him and slammed the bedroom door. Hot tears streaked down my cheeks as I went to the closet and grabbed the small suitcase Rev had bought me on the way home from Texas. As I threw my clothes and toiletries inside, I expected him to come into the room and continue our argument.

But he didn’t.

It was like he had raised the white flag of defeat when it came to us. He wasn’t going to fight. He was going to do what he thought was the honorable thing and just let me go.

Once I finished packing, I threw open the bedroom door to find Rev standing in front of me. His mouth opened, but then he quickly closed it. When he reached for my suitcase, I jerked it away from him. “Please, Annabel. You’re still recuperating from surgery. You shouldn’t be carrying that.”

Angrily, I slammed it down at his feet. “Fine, then. Since you seem to still have concern for my physical state, you take it. I want to say good-bye to Poe.”

Without another word to him, I turned and fled to the back porch. At the sound of the back door opening, Poe was already standing up and waiting for me in his pen. I stepped off the porch and walked around to him. It was amazing how much he had grown since he had moved from the crate to an old dog run that had belonged to one of Rev’s MC brothers.

“Hey, sweet boy,” I said as I unlocked the latch on his pen. He came out tentatively like he always did, cautiously surveying his surroundings. Tears filled my eyes as I stroked his head. I could never regret my time here with Rev because it meant saving Poe’s life. He had given me a focus and shown me once again there was nothing else on earth I wanted more than to be a veterinarian.

I kissed the top of his nose. “Be a good boy. You’ll be leaving soon. You’ll be big and strong enough to go back to the woods. I know you’re going to do just fine.”

I think I was saying the words more for me than for Poe. In a way, I had just had my own release back into the wild. More than anything, I needed reassurance that everything was going to be all right.

At the sound of Rev approaching behind me, I asked, “You remember what to do for him when it’s time to release him?”

“Yes, I do,” he murmured.

“Good.”

“Annabel, don’t leave like this,” Rev pleaded, his voice thick with anguish.

“You ask me not to leave like this, yet you haven’t once told me to stay.” I glanced over my shoulder at him. “Considering all of that, how else would you presume I left? You’ve told me I don’t know what I feel, but more than anything, you’ve made me feel that my feelings for you are based on some sort of reverse Stockholm syndrome, like kidnapping victims experience for their captors.” I shook my head. “I just wish you could see what’s truly in my heart.”

With a resigned sigh, I eased Poe back into his pen. As much as I hated to leave him, I knew without a doubt that Rev would take good care of him, even after he was released into the wild. I stood up and breezed past Rev to the porch steps. After making one last sweep inside the house for anything of mine, I went out the front door onto the porch.

As I started down Rev’s front steps, I saw that my parents’ limousine had pulled around to the cul-de-sac. I started walking to the car, but a small voice behind me caused me to stop.

When I turned around, Willow was staring up at me with her big brown eyes. “Belle, are you leaving?”

Fighting back tears, I nodded. “I wish I could stay longer, but I really have to go back home now.”

Willow’s lips turned down in a pout. “But I’m going to miss you so much. Will you come to visit?”

Although I knew the answer to her question was no, it broke my heart to disappoint her. “Maybe one day.” I bent down to her level. “Will you help Uncle Rev with Poe? It won’t be much longer before he’s ready to be released.”

“Yes, I will. I promise.”

I pulled her into my arms. “Be a good girl for your mommy and daddy. I know you’re going to be a wonderful sister to your brother.”

“I will.”

I kissed the top of Willow’s head and then slowly pulled away. Beth stood behind us, a stricken look on her face. I don’t know if it was because of Willow or because of the weight of the emotions, but neither of us spoke. Instead, our eyes conveyed everything we needed to say. Beth wanted me to know that Rev was struggling with his feelings. But the tears in my eyes let her know he had made his intentions clear. He wasn’t fighting for me . . . for us. So there was nothing left but to go.

She put her arms around me and hugged me tight. I clung to her, realizing how close I had grown to her in the last month. She was the mother I wished I had—the kind which, if fairy tales were true, I would have wished for. But this was real life.

In fairy tales, this would be the moment when Rev swooped to my side and told me everything I wanted to hear. He would hoist me into his arms and carry me back into the house, and we would live happily ever after.

But this was real life. And I had already learned how much real life could hurt you.

When I pulled away from Beth, I let the sobs overtake me as I hurried to the waiting limousine. I slid inside without looking back for him. At the sight of my tear-streaked face and my chest heaving with sobs, my mother recoiled in her seat. “Annabel, honestly,” she chided. I knew she was at a loss to understand how I could be so bereft at leaving such people.

She would never understand that within the walls of Rev’s small house and among the salt-of-the-earth people who were his family, I had learned how to truly live for the first time.

SIXTEEN