“I think it is love,” I tell him and kick the rubble on the broken concrete.
“It’s all right to say it,” he jokes, “I won’t make fun of you.”
“I only just got her. I can’t lose her, Carter,” I confess to him. If it wasn’t for her need to run away from here, I’d stay for him.
“Go ahead, I’ll be all right,” he tells me, and I want to believe him. “Hey, do you have that stuff though? Before you go?”
It takes me a minute to realize he’s talking about the sweets. I have the last vial in my pocket and I know Chlo is never going to want to take it again, so I hand it over to him.
He’s quick to slip the vial into his pocket. “Thanks, man. It’s been rough sleeping.”
Giving him a nod of understanding, I wonder if I should tell him that Chlo thinks some of her paranoia is from the drug, but I think she’s wrong. She was right the entire time. Call it fear and intuition maybe.
“I hope it helps you sleep,” I tell him and then glance back at the car.
“Get out of here, man. Get out while you still can,” Carter tells me and it fucking hurts that I’m leaving him, but I have to. I have to get the hell out of here and take Chloe far away.
I have to reach out and hug him, pulling him hard into my chest. And he’s quick to give me a hard pat on the back, followed by a grip I’ll never forget.
There’s no way I’d have made it out alive without him. I know that much.
Before the tears can show, I pull away from him, the only family I’ve ever had. “She can’t stay here,” I tell him as if I’m begging him to understand, but he already knows.
She’s never belonged here.
“Come with us,” I plead with him one last time even though I already know his answer.
“I have to stay.” His voice is calm this time like he’s resigned to his fate.
Epilogue
Two weeks later
Chloe
* * *
The cool wind flows through my fingers as I rest my hand against the window. We’ve been off the highway for a little while now, still venturing into the unknown.
It’s odd how the unfamiliar can offer so much comfort. How easy it is to leave everything behind and start a new life.
Countless times I’ve felt the fear of what could be waiting for us if we ever went back. And almost as if Bastian can read my mind, he asks me every time we stop somewhere new, “How about this place?”
“I can be a butcher anywhere. Or anything. We can be anything,” he keeps telling me. “Just don't leave me.” He says that a lot. As if I’d ever want to. One day, I think he’ll know in every way that I’ll never do that.
In every beat of my heart, I know I was supposed to run away with him. And he was supposed to run away with me.
We should have left when we were only children. We shouldn’t have stayed in that place as long as we did. When the lights around you flicker and dim, it’s a sign to run. To run far away and toward light and hope. It’s an innate feeling I knew deep in my gut, but I swallowed it down and nearly let the darkness choke out what little life I had left in me.
It’s only taken days of being away with Bastian at my side, holding my hand as we drive farther and farther away to know that’s true.
I can smell the salty ocean air as the sun kisses my skin through the window. We’re close to the ocean.
A line springs to mind and I jot it down in my notebook. It’s half-full already, with ideas for a book so close to what I’ve been through. Some changes here and there because it’s hard to write about the truth. It’s hard to imagine what people would think of me if I told them my story. It’s even harder for me to write it all down and to be okay with everything that happened. Because of what happened in my life, the things that were done to me and the things I did… well, it will never be okay, but maybe it would make a memorable tale.
“Do you want to stop here?” Bastian asks, pointing to the left at a sign for a burger place.
My shoulders lift easily in a contented shrug. With my cheek resting against the headrest, I ask him for the tenth time since we left, “Where do you think we’re going?” I need answers to what we’ll become. I know I love him and I only want to be with him, but the stirring in my stomach that this is too good to be true hasn’t let up.
Bastian’s large hand wraps around mine as he pulls my knuckles to his lips to kiss them one by one. The car idles at the stop sign and he looks me deep in my eyes.
“We’re going where we’re supposed to go. Together.” His words are a balm to my broken soul. It’s the only word that matters. It’s the only word that’s ever mattered. Together.
With tears pricking my eyes, the tears I wish would go away, even if they are from a happiness I never thought I’d feel, I whisper, “I love you.”
He braces his hands on either side of my head, stealing a ravenous kiss from me, taking my pain away like he did so many years ago. But the pain now is minuscule and it’s because of him. He’s taken it all away. And I’ll spend my life making sure I do the same for him.
With a bruising kiss, I can hardly breathe until he pulls away from me, letting the tip of his nose brush against mine. His eyes are still closed, his hands still tangled in my hair as he tells me, “I’ve always loved you. And I’ll never stop loving you. I’ll always choose you.”
Sebastian
Years later
* * *
About two weeks after we got in the car and sped away as fast as we could, I got a call from Carter’s brother, Daniel. I didn’t let her see as I broke down against the bathroom door of the motel we’d stayed in for the night. We’d move from one place to the next, constantly on the go until we found a spot on the West Coast, far away from Crescent Hills. A local bed and breakfast was looking to hire a butcher for their farm and also in need of a bookkeeper for the inn. Fate gave us our opportunity to stay, to find a new home, and we did. We grabbed it with both hands and didn’t let go.
That night in the motel though, it almost didn’t happen. The first few days we were on the road, everything changed with a single phone call. I almost got into the car and drove back to that hellhole when Daniel told me what happened. I would never have brought Chloe, but she wouldn’t have let me leave her behind either.
The Talvery crew almost beat him to death the night we left. Carter nearly died for selling on the wrong turf. Daniel told me not to come back, that my name had been marked now, and I knew what that meant. If I went back, I was dead.
When I talked to Carter, I knew I’d made a mistake letting him stay. He had no one anymore, and everyone to provide for.
If I could go back, I would.
I’d never leave him behind.
It took over a decade before I dared show my face in that city again. Years of the phone calls coming less and less often. Years of building a life with the girl I always loved, while the memories of my past faded to bad dreams.
Life is a compromise. I left behind a friend, destined to stay, and be held captive to a city that had no mercy.
It would force him to become a brutal man I didn’t recognize.
The Carter I abandoned in Crescent Hills, died that night I ran, and I’ll never forgive myself for it.
* * *
The End.
* * *
Carter’s story, Merciless, is available now!
Thank you for reading! 100% of the profits from this anthology will be given to the Live A Thousand Lives charity.
This charity donates audio players - equipped with hundreds of hours of classic stories - to low-to-no mobility patients in nursing facilities and hospitals.
The Live A Thousand Lives Project has been fueled by prolific Romance writers and unabashed book lovers who appreciate that audiobooks boost mental health, improve memory and stimulate the brain in ways that mirror reading printed text.
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Also by W Winters
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This Love Hurts Trilogy
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What I Would do for You (This Love Hurts Trilogy Collection)
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A Kiss to Tell (a standalone novel)
They lived on the same street and went to the same school, although he was a year ahead. Even so close, he was untouchable.
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Possessive (a standalone novel)
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All He’ll Ever Be (Merciless Series Collection of all 4 novels)
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Irresistible Attraction Trilogy
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Even a sizzling love affair won’t stop her from getting what she needs.
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Irresistible Attraction (A Single Glance Trilogy Collection)
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Hard to Love Series
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Eight years ago she ran from him.
Laura should have known he'd come for her. Men like Seth King always get what they want.
Laura knows what Seth wants from her, and she knows it comes with a steep price.
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Not My Heart to Break (Hard to Love Series Collection)
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Tease Me Once
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Spin off of the Merciless World
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Love the Way Duet
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With everything I've been through, and the unfortunate way we met, the last thing I thought I'd be focused on is the fact that I love the way you kiss me.
* * *
Extended epilogues to the Merciless World Novels
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Never to End (more of Seth and Laura)
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Forget Me Not (Standalone novel)
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One look and Jules was tempted; one taste, addicted.
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Tell Me You Want Me
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Small Town Romance
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Tequila Rose Book 1
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The chemistry is still there, even after all these years.
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A Little Bit Dirty
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Promise Me (A Novel)
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A HOT mafia series to sink your teeth into.
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Keep This Promise Page 19