By evening, pink had begun to blossom on my skin. Even applying SPF 50 every few hours wasn’t enough to protect my pale skin from the intense Miami sun.
It didn’t hurt. I’d been burned so many times in my life that mild burns didn’t even phase me. I let out a small laugh, remembering the time my olive skinned friend got her first burn. It was mild, and she was a big baby about it.
I spun back around and was about to say something when a giant cockroach flew in front of my face. I let out a scream, swatting at the air and moving back.
“I hate this place!”
Even Six’s lips turned down in disgust as he hunted the motherfucker down. It was the worst of all of the motels. Old and dilapidated, outdated—sure, I could handle that. Disgusting, dirty, probably hadn’t been cleaned in months, and infested with bugs was too much. Why wasn’t the place shut down?
“At least they shut down the restaurant. I can’t imagine how bad that place would be,” I said as I shivered in disgust. “Today’s special is our Joe’s Apartment burger, topped off with locally cultivated roaches. So local, they come from our own walls.”
Six picked up his gun and stuffed it under his shirt in his waistband. “Let’s go get some food.”
I stared at him. “Do you have a sense of humor?”
“Maybe.”
I rolled my eyes and followed him out the door. “How can you even think about food after that?”
“It’s a bug.”
I stuck my tongue out with a gagging noise. “A nasty-ass bug.”
“I’ve eaten worse.”
I stopped in my tracks. “Eew. I’ve kissed that mouth.”
He started down the stairs and turned back to me. “Sometimes you do whatever you have to in order to survive.”
Damn if I didn’t know that. “Story of my fucking life.”
He didn’t respond. In fact, I was lucky to have gotten that far.
After a yummy lunch at a diner a few blocks down, Six didn’t head back to the hotel.
“Where are we going?” I asked, confused to be going in the opposite direction of the disgusting place we slept.
Then again, it might have been good we weren’t going back right away—I liked what I had for lunch and wanted to keep it down.
“To meet someone.”
“About something? Then we’ll go somewhere?” I asked in a chipper voice, earning a glare for my fun.
After a few blocks, he turned down an alley and we popped out on the beach. I sighed as I stared out at the waves. The day before had been so much fun, and I wanted nothing more than to run back into the surf.
We stepped onto the beach walk that ran in front of a bunch of hotels. It seemed a weird route and an even stranger way to go to meet someone, but what did I really know about the way he operated? Hell, I didn’t even know sociopathic killers operated a certain way.
Keeping up with Six’s long strides was difficult, and I’d fallen a few feet behind him when a familiar laugh hit my ears. Looking back out onto the beach, there was a toned body I knew all too well, with a smile that used to make my day better.
Chiseled features and blue eyes. Tall, blond, and built—my Norwegian pile driver.
Digby.
I stared out at the man who I’d wished for a month now that I’d gone with so I wouldn’t be in the hell I was in, as he laughed on the beach, talking with another woman. They looked like strangers, but flirting strangers.
A tear slipped down my cheek as I stared. He wasn’t thirty feet from me.
Why? Of all the places and all of the times, was he exactly where I was? He had to be on vacation, but what were the odds I’d run into him?
I wanted to run to him, but the looming terror a few yards ahead of me kept me locked in place. There was no tearing my gaze away, no matter how much I told myself to. Because I knew what would happen if he looked up and recognized me, despite my blonde hair. But I couldn’t look away, because my past was staring at me in disbelief.
It was a gut punch. Crushing my entire being with the weight of his recognition.
And I had to run.
Six was ahead of me on the beach walk. If Digby caught up to me, if Six saw…
“Paisley?”
I froze at the name I hadn’t heard in a month. The pain twisted in my chest, propelling the frantic need to get as far from him as possible. I promptly dashed through some palm trees and up some stairs that led to a pool deck. There were a ton of people, and I hoped to lose him in the swarm.
I’d deal with the repercussion of leaving Six’s side later.
He called after me again as I worked my way through the crowd. If Six knew… If Six saw…
Digby.
I couldn’t stand it. Couldn’t forgive him.
Couldn’t forgive myself.
What cruel twist of fate would put him in Six’s path?
My eyes were wet, blurring my vision. With a set of exterior doors in sight, just through the hotel’s lobby, I breathed a sigh as I spotted the road to our hotel.
It was short lived though, because a strong arm grabbed on to me, stopping my getaway.
“Paisley?”
No.
No.
No, no, no!
I couldn’t turn, couldn’t look at him. Just froze. My mind spun, trying to figure out what to do.