“Why do you want to see it so badly?”
I set the hammer down and took the can from her, placing it on the floor too. Then I put both my hands on her shoulders and came down to her level, meeting her eyes.
“You went through some of the worst experiences in your life in that place. I need to see and feel it for myself. Your pain is my pain. I need to live it and breathe it with you. Only then can I help take away the hurt and suffering lingering inside you.”
Tears welled in her eyes.
“West…”
“You’re mine and I’m yours. We’re half alive when we’re apart. We don’t exist without each other. Let me carry your pain.”
Her hand came up and settled on my jaw.
“You want to share my burdens?”
“Yes. That’s what soulmates do, little Scar. You don’t need me to stand on your own two feet, but it doesn’t stop us from belonging by each other’s sides, breathing the same air and our hearts beating in tandem. It doesn’t stop us from needing each other to feel alive.”
Those threatening tears burst through, spilling down her cheeks. I gathered her up against my chest, stroking her back and pressing my face to the top of her head. Little sobs erupted from her mouth, showing me how much she struggled with her memories and the past. Scarlett had come so far with us, but there were still miles to go, so many things she had to heal from. I would help her in whatever way I could.
When she settled down, her sobbing abating, she pulled away and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
“Let’s go see the cell,” she told me in a small voice as if she was unsure of herself and the decision to take me to it.
“You can stay outside, I promise.”
She nodded and picked up the can. I placed the hammer back on my shoulder and guided her into the building. Scarlett turned the light on when we entered. There were shelves and shelves of canned goods and other food supplies. We walked by them until we reached the end. There stood a metal door. She didn’t need to tell me this was the place.
“Will it be unlocked?”
She nodded, placing the can down next to us as she stared at the door. I moved closer to it. Reaching out, I grasped the handle and pulled it open. It swung back without any resistance. Then I stepped inside. The ghost of her pain hit me like a ton of bricks. My eyes darted around the bare concrete walls, floor, and ceiling. There were no windows. Not even a fucking lightbulb hung on the ceiling.
“You were in the dark here.”
“Yes,” she replied from behind me.
I walked around the concrete cell. The only light was coming from the open doorway. On the floor, there were several old bloodstains. Seeing them made me want to destroy this place. Made me want to smash it into tiny pieces. That was her blood. My girl had been made to stay in here whilst she was bleeding from wounds inflicted on her by that cunt we’d killed and his fucking security guards.
I took the sledgehammer off my shoulder and gripped it between both of my palms. Whilst I wouldn’t be able to obliterate it, I could do some fucking damage. There was a primal need inside me, begging to get out, begging me to fucking well erase her hurt from these walls.
I let out a roar before swinging the hammer into the wall, causing the concrete to smash. That first hit brought more. I kept swinging and swinging, smashing the room each time the end of the sledgehammer hit the concrete.
“Fuck!”
The more I destroyed the room, the more I wanted to end this shit for good. I needed to see this fucking place burn, razed to the damn ground. To know their fucking bodies would be completely unrecognisable. Everything needed to be gone. I wanted only ashes and dust to remain.
My fight left me when I saw the mess I’d made of the walls and floor. I stood there in the middle of the cell, panting, with concrete dust settling all over me. There was a certain sort of catharsis that came from such destruction. At least now, the place was unrecognisable.
My head turned to find Scarlett standing in the doorway. Her eyes darted around the ruined room before they came to a standstill when they met mine. Her hands fisted in her clothes at her sides, her lips parting, but no sound came out. We stared at each other across the small expanse for a long minute. I thought she might turn away at that point, but she didn’t.
Scarlett licked her bottom lip, released her clothes and put her hand on her heart.
“I love you.”
Her statement slammed into me, almost knocking me off my fucking feet. And without thinking about it, my mouth formed the words I’d struggled with for so long.
“I love you too.”
I let go of the handle of the hammer and stalked across the room. The next thing Scarlett knew, she was whisked off her feet, and I was kissing her like my life depended on it. I held my woman against my chest, devouring her mouth with each stroke of my tongue against hers, proving to her once and for all she was mine and I was hers. That our love had never disappeared. It had been waiting for us to grab hold of it all along.
She wrapped her legs around my waist as I moved out of the cell. I pressed her up against the wall outside, continuing to kiss the life out of her. Her hands were in my hair, disturbing the dust and debris. One of mine circled her throat, laying across her skin where it belonged. The only necklace she should ever wear was mine.
“I love you, West,” she choked out as I kissed her jaw. “I’ve loved you my whole life. I never stopped. My heart has always and will always belong to you. I don’t know why it took me so long to tell you, but I love you.”
I captured her mouth again, tasting her words from her tongue and the desperation in her voice. The feeling was entirely mutual. Telling her I loved her felt like a fucking impossibility until she said it. Until she set me free with her declaration.
Words had never felt quite adequate to describe the way I loved Scarlett, but I had to try to explain it to her. Pulling back, I stared into her hazel-green eyes. The ones that had captured me from the day I set my own eyes to hers.
“From the moment I saw you, I knew you were the one, little Scar. I knew you were the only person in this world I belonged next to. You are the other half of me. You’re my strength, my ambition, my joy and my light. You are my heart.”
Her hand slid from my hair to my neck.
“I will never love another. I can’t when you’re buried so deep inside me, tearing you out would kill me. I refuse to let you go, no matter what happens. No matter how much life continues to throw at us because you are mine. My love. My only love. Fuck, little Scar, I’m so in love with you, it hurts my fucking heart. It hurts so bad and yet I will endure the pain to be by your side. I will endure anything for you because I love you with every inch of me.”