Electrified(107)

When she shuddered but didn’t say anything, Carson continued talking, filling in the holes, how he came to put it all together, and when and why he finally brought the Bureau in to help.

Lila looked up at him, her expression so filled with so much pain it broke his heart. “I can’t believe this. My own family…and you…you must think I come from terrible people.”

He entwined his hand with hers and squeezed it gently. “No, baby. Your parents are misguided, but that has nothing to do with you. They told me the girl I was looking for was confused and wanted a new life, probably out west. They crafted this whole story about you wanting a new culture, but it was based on what Elon told them.”

He went on to explain how he wasn’t sure when Elon caught on to him, but he definitely was the source of evil playing on her parents’ emotions and purse strings. He didn’t go into how frightened he had been when she was taken, or how panicked Asher was when he discovered she was gone. She was so fragile at the moment and had enough to digest with the situation with her parents.

Lila continued to look at Carson with a blank face. Not wanting to push her for a reaction, he was only happy she hadn’t moved out of his arms. He hoped she was just processing everything, and not planning on letting him go.

Drawing his one and only love closer, he said, “I had my hunches, but I wasn’t a hundred percent certain until you told me your real name was Lila. Then I knew I had to come to Brooklyn and drop the case, because one thing I knew for certain—you wouldn’t have run away if there wasn’t a valid reason. I was heading east to dump your parents as clients and hurrying back to make a plan to keep you safe when you were taken. That changed everything.”

Lila held his face in her hands, ran her fingers along his two-day stubble, and stared deep into his eyes. “Carson, thank you. You saved me.”

He shook his head. “All that matters is I got you back, and now you don’t have to hide, especially from Asher and the girls back home. They’re on their way here right now to see you with their own eyes. I’ve been keeping a very antsy Asher up-to-date for the last forty-eight hours. You have a lot of people who love you, Lila, including me.” Carson tucked her head under his and placed another kiss on the top of her head. He couldn’t see her eyes, so he wasn’t sure if she heard his admission.

Then Lila looked up with her head cocked to the side, some of the light coming back into her eyes, her expression questioning.

“Yes, you heard me right. I fell in love with you, Sienna, Lila, or whatever you want to call yourself. I don’t care. Inside, you’re the most beautiful woman with a huge heart and I love you. You’re a flower who hasn’t even fully bloomed, and I want to watch you come into your own.”

Carson saw tears welling up in Lila’s eyes once again, yet this time, he believed they were happy tears and not ones of fear.

“What do you mean, a flower?” she asked. “Because of my tattoo?” With a shaky finger, she traced along her own collarbone.

Yeah, he was right; those were happy tears. Carson knew exactly what she was fishing for in asking that question.

“No, nothing at all to do with your tattoo, love. I know what Lilach means in your religion. It means flower, and you’re a bud getting ready to bloom. I knew it way before I knew who you were in relation to my case and what that meant, but I understood it much better when you were taken and I put it all together.”

He shook his head and said, “What must have happened for you to run and hide in Vegas, I can’t even think about it. You hid pretty damn well, I have to admit. You had no clue that asshole ex-husband of yours would be involved in illegal pornography. So, no, I mean you’re a gorgeous bloom in waiting, and I know exactly what that means, Li.”

Lila gasped and covered her mouth with her hand to conceal her intake of breath. “I’m pretty sure I feel the same, but I have too many mixed-up thoughts at the moment to say it back.” She raised her gaze to meet his and blushed, guilt written all over her face. “And there’s a little problem…I’m still married. How can I love you and still be married to that awful man? What am I going to do about that? I have to make sense of all this, and I can’t even take it all in.”

Carson pulled her tight against him. “Of course. I wouldn’t want you to say anything now. Just feel. I want you to know that this is real for me, and I’m all the way in it with you. For you. Whatever you need or want, go ahead and take it from me.”

Lila leaned in and kissed Carson softly on the cheek, letting her lips linger and graze along his stubble. He heard her inhale and breathe in his scent. He liked that a lot, and wanted her to keep doing it for however long she damn well wanted.