Safe at Last (Slow Burn #3)

“I have to go,” she babbled, searching desperately for an escape route.

She couldn’t go out the front. What if he was out there waiting for her? What if he followed her? What if he found out where she lived? What if he already knew?

Oh God, he had to know where she was. How hard could it really be to find her despite the lengths she’d gone to over the years to ensure her privacy and make it so no one would ever discover her?

“I have to get out of here, Wade,” she said, hysteria rising in her voice. “Please, you have to help me. I have to go now. But where? I have to think of someplace he can’t find me. I can never come back here. I have to leave. I have to go. Tonight. Before he shows up at my apartment!”

She knew she was making no sense. She didn’t care. She also knew that she was allowing irrational fear to override all else. But her sense of self-preservation had firmly taken over and she was content to let it do its thing. She hadn’t survived this long by ignoring it.

Wade’s hands slid up her arms and gently but firmly grasped her shoulders, holding her, forcing her to look at him. His expression was hard and anger glittered in his dark eyes. He wore that dangerous look that would scare the holy hell out of anyone else, but she’d learned that despite it, despite his appearance and the fact that there were things about him she didn’t know—preferred not to know—that he was no threat to her.

“Anna-Grace, look at me,” he said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Her eyelids fluttered and she lifted her gaze to meet his, desperately trying to keep the mind-numbing terror at bay.

He framed her face in his hands and gently stroked his thumb over her bottom lip.

“You will not allow him to control your life any longer,” he said, soft reprimand in his voice. “You’ve allowed him too much control for too long. That’s over with. He can’t hurt you now. I swear to you, I’ll never let him hurt you. Do you trust me?”

She bit into her lip, because God, that wasn’t an easy question for someone like her. Someone who trusted no one. Who had no reason to trust anyone. And yet she’d already admitted that she did trust Wade. They’d established that point. One he was calling her on again. But before they’d been just words. Now they meant something.

She reluctantly nodded and he relaxed the slightest bit, almost as if he were afraid she’d deny it and run from him just as she’d run from everything else in her life for the last twelve years.

“You are not that frightened young girl any longer,” Wade said gently. “You’re strong. You’ve built a life for yourself. A career. A very promising career. You’re talented. Far more talented than many of the big names in art right now. You’ve created a place for yourself in the world. Are you going to let him destroy all that?”

Anna-Grace frowned, because when put that way, while she hadn’t had a choice over what happened to her all those years ago, now? She did have a choice. She was a different person than she’d been then. Older. Wiser. Not as young and na?ve. Not as gullible. And yes, as Wade said, she was stronger now.

It was nearly laughable to consider any part of herself strong when she’d hidden for so long, scared of her own shadow. But she was strong. Stronger than she gave herself credit for. And Wade was also right in that she’d built a life for herself. Right here. Her showing was in a week. It was what could launch her entire career.

Wade leaned in and pressed his lips to her forehead in a gesture that looked decidedly intimate. To someone peeking in on them, they would appear to be lovers, clear affection between them. Only Anna-Grace and Wade knew better.

“Take a stand, Anna-Grace,” he whispered. “You aren’t alone. You’ll never be alone. Don’t allow your past to rule your present a single day longer. This is your moment to shine. Your moment in the sun. Don’t let anyone ruin it for you.”

She squared her shoulders and then lifted a hand to cup over Wade’s that still rested on her cheek. She leaned into his palm and briefly closed her eyes.

“I’m not that sixteen-year-old innocent, na?ve girl any longer,” she said falteringly. But her voice grew stronger as she continued. “I’ll never be that girl again.”

She looked up at Wade with fire in her eyes.

“He took my life from me once. I won’t let him do it again. I’ll never allow him—anyone—to have that kind of power over me again.”

Wade smiled. “Now that’s the Anna-Grace I know.”

Anna-Grace took a deep breath. “I’m scared, Wade. I won’t lie about that. You heard him. He thought I was dead. What if they were supposed to kill me?”

Wade’s expression became hard. So hard that she shivered at the danger reflected in his dark eyes. His thumb rubbed along the indention of her chin and then moved to the corner of her mouth.

“I will never allow any harm to come to you, Anna-Grace. I swear it on my life.”





SEVEN