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ignore her pain. It would be like driving by an accident and not stopping to help. “Try not to cry. It can trigger another attack.”
    “I know.” Skylar’s hands are trapped between our bodies. She spreads her fingers out over my chest then fists her hands in my shirt. “Just hold me for a second. I’ll be okay.”
    The sane part of my brain screams, What the fuck are you doing? Run! The self-destructive rest of me ignores the warning and walks blindly into the fire. “Do you want to talk about it?”
    “I want to explain why I disappeared.”
    “Okay.” My voice cracks like a thirteen-year-old boy going through puberty.
    She takes a shuddering breath. “Did you hear about the huge scandal at Pulman, Under and Klept a few years ago?”
    “The biotech company?” I fight the urge to rest my chin on top of her head and release her instead. At least a sliver of self-preservation survived. “They went out of business, right?”  
    “The FDA shut them down after one of their miracle drugs was linked to an increase in patient mortality.” Skylar sits on her bed and pats the mattress. “Dennis, my mom’s boyfriend, worked for them.”  
    I pretend I didn’t see her invitation and lean against the wall instead. “Was he involved in the scandal?”
    She nods. “He was part of the group that falsified data to keep the human trials open. He testified against everyone else to stay out of jail.”
    “Wow. When did this happen?”
    “I found out about it the night that you and I… The night we…”
    The night we promised to love each other forever? The night I gave myself to you completely, heart, mind, body and soul? The night I foolishly believed you did the same? That night?   “The night we had sex?”  
    “Yeah.” Skylar takes a trembling breath. “Mom called me right after I’d snuck back inside my bedroom window. She told me to take a taxi to Denver International Airport and come home. But she wouldn’t tell me why.”  
    “What are you saying? That you guys went into some sort of witness protection program or something?”
    “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Every muscle in my body tightens. I can’t believe she didn’t trust me enough to tell me what happened. “I wouldn’t have told anyone.”
    “I know that. But Mom said anyone I told would be in danger. She told me I couldn’t even tell Uncle Will and Aunt Lori. I wanted to call you, Rowdy. More than anything. But I couldn’t risk your life just to say good-bye.”
    The room spins as the world realigns itself with a new reality. Skylar didn’t desert me. She was trying to protect me. All this time I believed she was hiding from me because I was accused of murdering my own mother.
    Fuck. She doesn’t know what happened. She didn’t even know that Mom was dead until Wade blurted it out. “Did they catch all the bad guys?”
    “They’re all in prison. Well, everyone except for Dennis.”
    “But, you’re safe now, right?”
    “I was never in danger.”
    “Why did you come here?” Skylar spent every summer in Eldorado Springs with Boone’s family, but she lived in San Diego.
    “You know why.” Hope flares in her eyes.  
    She looks so young, as if time stopped for her when she disappeared. It sure as hell didn’t stop for me. I feel so fucking old.  
    “You shouldn’t have come back.”
    Her chin trembles as tears leak out the corners of her eyes.  
    “Skylar…” I hate hurting her but I don’t want her to hurt me either. “It’s been four years. People change.”
    “God, that’s exactly what Boone said.” She leans forward, clutching her pillow even tighter. “What happened to you that night after you went home?”
    “I don’t want to talk about it.” My voice trembles. I sound like a child. I feel like one, too. A frightened, needy, abused, vulnerable little kid. And I fucking hate it.

Chapter Nine
Skylar

    Rowdy pushes off the wall and starts to pace. He keeps his