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I drag my gaze to his neck, to the pristine skin above the collar of the t-shirt. No snake. No ink anywhere. “You’re not him.” I push against his chest, my heart rate careening out of control.
“Where have you been? It’s been four and a half years! How could you do this to me?”
This is happening, and I can’t stop it. My past and my future. My first love and my second chance. Two hearts from two separate lives colliding helplessly, cruelly together.
His face turns red-hot, eyes wide and agonized, expressing all the nuances of shock as he watches a man step out of my house at six in the morning.
I open my mouth to explain, but Trace speaks first. “You’re late.”
Three and a half years late. I can’t breathe beneath the debilitating shock. Cole’s alive. He’s been alive all this time. And he didn’t come home. Trace laces his fingers through mine, squeezing painfully hard. “You told me to take care of her.” A chill slithers up my spine, and my blood turns to ice. “What did you say?” Cole stands a few feet away, biceps bunching as he scrapes his hands over his head repeatedly. “You weren’t supposed to make contact.” His expression contorts between devastation and rage. “I told you to watch over her, not fuck her.”
GUYS WTF I'M NOT OKAY
They know each other. Trace fucking knows Cole and never thought to mention it?
The deployment in Iraq. The silence at the government building. The fake funeral. The removal of tattoos. “You’re not an auditor, are you?” I ask Cole on a thin breath, shaking from head to toe. “I can’t say, Danni.” Cole doesn’t remove his glare from Trace. “You lied to me.” My skin tingles, and disorientation sweeps through me as I turn to Trace. “You lied, too. You knew Cole and never told me.” More tears fall, and I bury my face in my hands. I need to step back. I need to think.
“You missed me so much you fucked my best friend? And now you’re what? Getting married?” Best friend. How deep does the deceit go?
“Three years.” Trace shifts beside me, his tone calm and steady. “I was in love with her for three years before I made contact.” Three years? The ground spins beneath my feet. “She started dating,” Trace says. “I did exactly what you wanted me to do. I kept the men out of her bed.” His voice hardens. “Which I would’ve done anyway because I love her.”
Before I can blink, he spins around and slams a fist into Trace’s face.
“You thought I was dead,” Cole seethes, flexing his fists at his sides. “But Trace knew.”
yeah, what Trace did is SO FUCKED UP
Trace chased away every man who came near me. He purchased the restaurant I danced at. Set my schedule so I never had a weekend off to date. Refused to date me himself. Pushed, pushed, pushed me away, all while being overly-fixated on my attachment to Cole. Because he was watching me for Cole. And at some point—long before I met him—he fell in love with me.
