Safe at Last (Slow Burn #3)

The door to her room opened and a nurse came in smiling at Gracie. “Are you ready to go home? I have your discharge instructions and your prescriptions. As soon as I take out your IV, you’ll be all set. Just make sure you go straight home and rest. No strenuous activity whatsoever. If you put any strain on those stitches, they’ll come out, and we don’t want that happening.”


The rest was a blur because all Anna-Grace could focus on were Zack’s words. The vow in his voice. The utter sincerity ringing in his words. And how very close she’d come to telling him she loved him too.

And if that wasn’t messed up, she didn’t know what was.





THIRTY-FOUR


THE drive home was silent and strained. Anna-Grace kept looking sideways at Zack but he stared straight ahead, his hands clenched tightly around the steering wheel. His anxiety was palpable and once again she was struck by the vulnerability he displayed.

The crazy thing was that she wanted to reach over, take his hand and tell him it would be all right. That everything would be all right. But she couldn’t tell him what she didn’t know to be absolute truth.

And so she sat, as silent as him, and willed the drive to go faster.

She recognized the safe house as they pulled in. The same place they’d taken her after she’d been abducted. No other cars were there, which meant they would be alone. She swallowed nervously as Zack firmly told her to stay put. Then he got out and walked around to her side and opened the door.

He helped her out, careful not to jar her shoulder, and then he wrapped his arm around her waist and they walked slowly to the front door. Once inside he led her into the living room and settled her at an angle on the couch so she wasn’t leaning back against her stitches.

And then he began to pace. For a long while he was silent as though he were collecting his thoughts and deciding what to say. Sensing just how important this was, she waited quietly, watching for when he would begin.

He dragged a hand through his hair and finally turned to her, his eyes raw and ravaged with grief and sorrow.

“I shouldn’t put you through this right now. God knows it’s the worst possible time. You’ve been through hell and here I am about to put you back through hell all over again. But I can’t wait, Gracie. Because every day that passes that you believe I did something so repulsive and . . . evil . . . a part of me dies. I’m a bastard for doing this and I hope you can forgive me when all is said and done, but I’m a bastard who loves you with every breath in my body. And I can’t, I just can’t let you believe the worst of me a minute longer.”

She sucked in her breath because yes, now she could read his mind, when before she couldn’t. And she could sense undying sincerity. And love. His thoughts were chaotic, a jumbled mass of pain, anger and regret. But at the forefront of everything was love. For her.

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.