Dear Ricky,
It's been two months without you, already. I'm slowly dying on the inside. I never got to hold your hand and take you out to nice places, I never got the chance to call you mine, or the chance to treat you like a completely spoiled King. All because of my mistake.
I still hear the voices echoing throughout my beaten-up mind. The ones that most likely messed up your head forever? The gun shots, the police yelling throughout the building.. everything that happened that night.
I could still remember your body tightly pressed to mine in the last minutes we were allowed to share together. You were crying, and I was rocking you back and forth in my arms. Back then, you never knew how I felt for you. The kiss we shared? I made you believe you were drugged. I kissed you, because I feel something for you; but I made a huge mistake, and I never got the chance to tell you how much you really meant to me.
I messed up, Ricky. I hope you'll get this. I can't come home now, but I'll be home with you before you know it. I'll be able to hold your small, fragile body in my arms. I don't know if you feel the same about me. You were in such a haze the night I left, I couldn't make out what you were saying, at all. It's all a blur, now, but I remember what you said to me that night. I cherished those words every second that I've been gone, hoping to see you soon.
I swear to you, Richard Porter Dillon. I will be home soon.
With love,
Kian Lawley.
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❝You thought you'd just walk out of that place with a perfect life served to you on a golden platter? Think again, Lawley.❞
"You're someone worth protecting, Sammy," he asserted, the roughness of his voice prominent. My stomach did so many flips that I couldn't tell if I was standing rightside up anymore. I opened my mouth to reply, then closed it. What could I possibly say to that? How could I possibly reply to something like that?
His finger on my chin was shooting sparks through me, lighting my veins on fire with an emotion I wasn't sure I recognized. I felt like I could stand here forever. Nevermind the fact that I was nearly shivering from the cold or that every second I stood here was only delaying an inevitable promise of retribution. Nevermind the fact that I had only just met him. Because right now I felt like something inside me was drawn to him, demanding that I remain beside him.
"You have no idea," he rasped, his voice comforting and unnerving all at once.
He was right, I did have no idea. I didn't know what he meant. All I knew was that I was standing on this porch by Greyson and he was looking at me as if he could see into my soul.
*****
Sammy had wanted to leave behind her small town in Kentucky for a place where nobody would know her or her tragic past. But moving to Montana a few years ago has offered her nothing near the calm life with a clean plate that she had desired.
Instead, a new group of friends whom she loves as if they were family. But also, Tyson Crawford. The boy she fell for sophomore year of college...now the dangerous man she can't get away from. As the dark secrets of her life become harder and harder to hide from her friends, dark secrets of their own begin to emerge.
And now that Greyson Shawnel is coming back to town - a man she's only ever heard of in her friends' stories - Sammy's entire world is catching on fire. Because Greyson can see through the cracks of her lies, and he doesn't intend to let it go on any longer. Even if there's a larger danger looming on the horizon, one that threatens them all...