Love Scars - 4: Exposed by Lark Lane Read Free Book Online Page A

guy with the gun. There were steps built around the trunk leading up to a good-sized tree house.
    “There’s a crazy woman up there,” the guy said. “I’m just trying to scare her off.”
    “Scare her to death, you idiot.” It occurred to me he was the one with the gun. Calling him an idiot was probably not a good idea. “Look, I know her. I’ll bring her down.”
    “And who the hell are you?” He lowered the rifle. He’d made his point. He kept an eye on me as I went up the tree house steps, but he didn’t say anything more.
    Nora was on the floor crying, her whole body shaking, and her fists in tight balls. I picked her up and pulled her onto my lap and rocked her there on the floor. “It’s going to be all right,” I said. “Everything is going to be all right.”
    I kissed her forehead and brushed her hair out of her eyes and rocked until the shaking stopped and she was able to get down to the ground. I put her in the Range Rover buckled her in. She stared straight ahead. I had no idea if she knew I was there.
    I got her purse out of her car and gave it to her. Nothing else looked worth keeping.
    “I’ll have someone come for the car,” I told the guy, though I wasn’t confident it would still be there.  
    I turned off the music in the Range Rover. Noise was last thing she’d want now.
    - oOo -
     
    I know J.D. would have listened, but I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I was grateful he didn’t push me. When we got home, the house was empty. “Stacey and Lisa are at work,” I said.
    He came inside with me and looked in the refrigerator for something to drink. “Beer?” he said. “Or there’s a bottle of pinot grigio.”
    “The pinot.” I sat at a counter stool while he opened the wine. After half a glass, the words started. “Something happened,” I said. “Back then. Something I never told anyone, not even the therapist. I guess I thought if I didn’t say it, it wouldn’t be true.”
    I drank some more, and he filled my glass again. Hell, I might drink a whole bottle myself.
    “I was a coward, J.D. I didn’t try to save them. I hid, and I watched them die. And then I…I couldn’t hold onto the leash. I didn’t hold tight enough. Trill ran at the gunman, and he shot her. Nick came out of hiding to save his dog, and he was killed for it.”
    A tear slid down my cheek.
    “It was my fault. If I’d only held on, held on tighter….”
    Wracking sobs shook my body. J.D. came to me and held me close to his chest.
    “I could have saved him. I can still feel the leash burning in my hands. If only I’d held tighter, I could have saved Nick. If I’d only…if only…”
    “You have nothing to blame yourself for.”
    He kissed my forehead and pressed me closer to his chest. At the sound of his heartbeat, my tension eased. I hung on to the rhythmic cadence. So sure. So steady.
    “You saved Stacey,” he said. “You saved yourself. That was brave and good.”
    “It wasn’t brave or good,” I said. “It was chance. We should have been there with the others.”
    “Maybe it was was a miracle,” J.D. said. “Maybe you have a guardian angel. Maybe there’s a god after all and he saved you that night. All I know is I’m glad you’re here, Nora Deven, and I wish you’d stop feeling guilty for being alive in the world.”
    I believed him. God in heaven, I believed him.
    Tears streamed down my face, but I felt better than I had in years. Better than I ever had in my life. He kissed me ever so gently, but I didn’t want gentle. I needed more.
    I set the glass aside. “I don’t want more wine. I want you.”
    Before I finished the sentence, he swept me into his arms and was carrying me down the hall. I threw my arms around his neck.  
    I needed him. Not to obliterate my pain or render my senses inoperable. I needed to make love to him. To feel alive in my body while I made his body come alive.
    He put me down on the bed and tore his shirt off over his head, exposing his lean