Burning Desire

Chapter 7

Sky

The silence was suffocating me. My hands were clenched on the steering wheel while my thoughts ran rampant. I glanced over at Hale when the car came to a stop at the next red light. His back was rigid and his hands were clasped in his lap. It was obvious he was nervous. My stomach churned as I thought back to everything he had revealed about himself. He still believed I would change my mind and drop him at any second.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts, disbelief washing through me. The thought that Hale had hid his secret life from me for so long made me want to scream. I thought I knew everything about him. Maybe I just hadn't paid enough attention. That seemed to be the real issue here. I blamed myself for not demanding answers sooner. If I hadn't accepted every time that he deflected my questions, I could have gotten him out long ago.

It had been two weeks since Hale told me everything. I hadn't seen him much since. I had to close an important business deal during the day and at night, Hale mostly just wanted to sleep. He seemed to be avoiding the topic and my inevitable questions. He wasn't thrilled with leaving my apartment, but I reasoned that we had to get all his stuff to move him in with me. I'd just gotten Hale and I wasn't giving him up for anything.

I tried not to react to where I was driving us. The Eastern part of the town's streets were piled with trash. It was also mostly populated by druglords and murderers, if the papers were to be believed. I flinched. Yeah, druglords.

Hale pointed to a driveway and I came to a stop in front of a corrugated steel fence. We sat in the car, neither of us saying a word. Hale sucked in a deep breath and opened the car door. I watched him push the gate open and walk towards an outbuilding that looked to be falling apart. My heart clenched. God, I wish he'd said something all those years back.

I slipped out of the car after steeling myself and went after him. His body was still beat up and he was in pain if he moved too much. I'd offered to get some of his clothes alone and leave the rest for later, but Hale had insisted on joining me. Looking around, I realised why. He still believed he needed to protect me from the world. It had taken everything to convince him not to come alone. His belief that I'd leave him when I saw all of him had caused many of the fights between us in the last few days, but I'd always assured him that I still wanted him with me, even after all the yelling. I was terrified he'd make a rash decision after a fight and leave to do something stupid. He didn't realise that I'd never cared what he did or how much money he made. I'd just cared about being with him him. I still just cared about being with him. I needed him to be safe. Safe from this place and these awful people.

I passed the big house that had definitely seen better days. I couldn't believe Hale was living in a room on someone's property when he could've just stayed with me all these years. Even before we'd gotten together, we could've figured something out. The windows in the house were dark and all the curtains drawn. A shiver ran down my spine.

I pushed the door to the outbuilding open and paused in the doorway. The room was sparsely furnished and didn't hold any personal effects. The smell of dust and mold invaded my senses and I had to reel in my gag reflex. There were no windows and the single lightbulb in the middle of the room was hanging bare. Hale was standing with his back to me, opening drawers in the dresser next to the bed. I closed and locked the door behind me and went to stand next to him.

His hands were shaking. His head was down and his dark bangs were hiding his expression from me. I couldn't be sure what he was thinking, but I could certainly guess. I gave him a minute, but when he didn't calm down, I placed one of my hands over his to still his movements. My other went to cup his face and force him to meet my gaze. "Talk to me, babe." I was shocked to see the tears running down his face. "Oh, Hale." I took his shaking body into my arms and carefully hugged him to me, mindful of his bruised body.