Page 35 of Reclaiming Chaos
Chapter 18
Ridge
Carlee had all of this figured out—the party and then stealing the information and destroying Russell with the same blackmail scheme he’d been using to destroy everyone else. There was no end in this game. Not how I saw it.
Destroying the blackmail evidence meant giving the lives back to those Russell had been holding hostage. The lives of families similar to his would be restored. But what if things went wrong? What if she saw the full picture again? Wasn’t that how Russell liked to keep Carlee and her co-workers in the dark, by only giving them a glimpse through the lens?
My churning gut warned me things wouldn’t be that easy. Was that why she wouldn’t tell me the outcome? Had she known I’d want to change the plan?
Dinner that night was quiet. We hadn’t said much since our confrontation in the kitchen. It was my fault. The way I’d snapped at her and brushed any talk of a future relationship to the side. It was official. I was an asshole but an asshole who needed to keep his eyes on taking Russell down and not on Carlee’s lips.
She wasn’t a bad person, just caught up in a bad circumstance. I didn’t have to know the future or have my siblings’ skills to be able to read her. She had a good heart, and even I could see it for what it was worth. In any other circumstances, we might have had a chance to see where things went. But at the end of the day, I had a job to do.
I left and went to the grocery considering we had a week of playing house together. Food and staying off the grid would be difficult if I didn’t fix the frosty air turning colder between us.
I carried the bags in and was putting away the groceries when she walked into the kitchen.
“Can I help?” She had a journal in her hand.
My gaze zeroed in on it. “Are you seeing things again?”
Her cheeks blushed. “Some.”
“Anything I need to know about?” I asked, putting the groceries away.
“Not yet.” She clutched the book to her chest. “Listen about earlier…”
I paused and turned to face her. “I’m sorry I snapped.”
Her brow rose as if she hadn’t been expecting that. “Me too.” She cleared her throat. “I shouldn’t have sprung that relationship stuff on you.”
“No, you shouldn’t have.”
“I just…” She sighed. “I just need you to understand your importance to me.” Her look was sincere.
“You see things no one else can see. You know things that no one else knows. How am I supposed to know that what you’re telling me is true and not just the stuff you think I want to hear?”
“Ridge,” she said, stepping in my direction. Her eyes searched mine. "You’re right. Only trust goes two ways. I’ve given you every reason to trust me. I’ve told you things no one else knows. I’ve shown you my world, and I stopped your death. I was sure you might start to lower that stone wall you have in place. I guess I was wrong.”
She had a point. She’d done all of those things and more, and I didn’t trust her. “Trusting the wrong person in my line of work can get me killed.”
She rested her palm over my heart like it was magnetic and pulled her touch. “It will all be over soon. I just hope, at the end of the day, our broken pieces can be glued back together.”
Carlee lifted on her toes and kissed my cheek before she turned to leave.
I stopped her with a hand on her arm and turned her to look at me. “I want to trust you. I want everything you claim about us to be true.” Just how much I wanted that to be true, frightened me. “I just can’t promise anything to anyone, not with how this needs to play out.”
Her gaze softened and dropped from my eyes to my lips. “I’m not asking for a promise. I’m not asking for anything, Ridge. Nothing but for you to help me stop Russell from hurting other people.”
I released my hold, and she walked away. She was a fugitive. Even if the warrant was bogus, no other law enforcement types would see it that way.
I’d stop Russell. There was no question, not now that my family and I were on his radar.
I ordered pizza and used an assumed name and paid with cash, and then I knocked on her bedroom door. “Carlee. It’s time to eat.”
There was no response.
Barely squashing the sudden concern constricting my breath, I called again “Carlee?”
