Carson's pov
I stare at my phone. Any minute now, Cable would text back with the consequences of my actions but until then I kept my focus on her. My wife. Two words I never thought I would ever fucking say.
Just curled up on the dirty couch, her head snuggled on my chest, her eyes closed. Breathing evenly. She felt really small.
Not the kind of small you think about. It was like all the fight had just… leaked out of her and she was just all tremors and hitched breaths against my wet shirt.
I shouldn't be here. I should be halfway accross New York. Staying here was dangerous but somehow I found myself tracking her down.
I saw the look in her eyes when she drove away from that mansion. It was the same look I saw on Lilliana a few days before she turned up dead. A look I ignored.
The look of someone who'd lost everything and had nowhere else to go.
I tracked her down to be certain she wouldn't end up like Liliana, on top of a bridge.
I thought she would at least check into a decent hotel, that way I could simply turn around and return to the life I had before I met her but I found her here...in a dirty rundown motel, trying her damnedest not to break.
The motel room was worse than I thought. It smelled like a day-old piss and something rotten. We weren't staying here. No way in hell.
"We're not staying here," I said, my voice low.
She just nodded into my chest, too tired to argue. She didn't say a word.
She burrowed deeper into my chest. It was like the warrior princess had taken a back seat, her armor down, what was left was a woman who wanted to be held...by me.
This is trouble. She's trouble. My head warned me. I should be keeping her at arm's length but I found myself saying...
"You don't mind if I pick you up, do you, sweetheart?"
I start to stand up but she protested in her sleep, not willing to give up the couch or me.
"Don't... Go" she whispered
"Shh" I removed the lint on her hair. "I'm not going anywhere"
A promise you most definitely can't make, Carson! My head was on a roll.
I picked her up. You shouldn't be doing that.
My truck was the best option but something told me she was quite attached to her car and things.
I could come back for them later, after she has been carefully placed on my bed and fed...CARSON!!!
I know, I'm fucked!
I didn't want leave her grandmother's potted fern on the porch of the motel, so I had to pick up the fern too.
Stupid, maybe. But it was the one thing I could carry for her.
My truck was parked around the corner. I helped her into the passenger seat. She curled up against the window, tears still tracking through the makeup on her cheeks. She looked so young...so terrified.
I was losing my mind already over it and I have only known her for a day.
I drove to my rented place. It wasn't no much. More like a shoe box above a garage I rent. Flying under the radar meant doing exactly the opposite of what I was used to.
But it was clean. It was quiet. And most importantly, no one knows to look for her or me here.
I carried her up the outside stairs. She snored softly...I did my best not to jolt her awake but trying to open the locked door while keeping her comfortable was a little tricky but I managed.
Inside, I flipped on the light. "It's not the Ritz but it will do," I conversed with her but she was too asleep to respond audibly.
She murmured something I couldn't make out and then she was out like a light.
"Let's get you comfortable, okay?"
I took her to my bed, struggled whether I should wake her to take off her wet dress or take it off myself.
It was an easy decision.
I shook her softly, she stirred, only opening her eyes briefly.
"i am going to take off your dress, now, okay?"
"It's me" she groaned and closed her eyes. "He couldn't love me" she turned her face to the other side of the bed. "It's me"
She was restless.
She turned her face back towards me and opened her eyes slowly again. "I'm hideous"
Fuck! She's going to be my undoing!
"No. No, sweetheart. No" my hand went to her face on instinct, pushing hairs away from her forehead, trying to undo a decade long abuse with a single touch. "You are perfect."
It happened fast. One second, I was talking...the next, she leaned in to kiss me. It was on pure instinct when I pulled away.
She closed her eyes and went right back to sleep.
Fuck!