“You don’t know that,” she cried. “You don’t get to take your mommy-daddy baggage out on me. Your parents sucked. That wasn’t your fault. But what you choose to do now is just that. Your choice. You don’t get to paint me with the same brush you painted them. You could have had me! I could have loved you. I could have been the best thing that ever happened to you!”

“Yes. Until it was over for you. Until you were ready for your next adventure. Your next city.” He wrapped her ponytail around his hand and tugged. “Look at you. When you walked in tonight, my heart fucking stopped. It still hasn’t restarted. You don’t look like you. You don’t look like the girl who sank my goddamn snowmobile or the one who cries every time she watches Father of the Bride. You look like Alessandra Ballard.”

“I am Alessandra Ballard. And Remi Ford. They’re the same damn girl. They’re both me.”

“You want things I can’t give you. I’m never going to be happy living in a city surrounded by strangers. I don’t want to get dressed up every night and go out for the attention.”

He was hard. So fucking hard against her. It made her needy sex throb.

“So I tried to find my own happiness. I picked a nice girl who didn’t scare the hell out of me. Who wouldn’t ask me for too much. Who would make sure that I never had a shot with you again.”

The truth fucking hurt.

“Why?” she asked, as his fingers kneaded her hair, as his hips ground against her.

“Because I love you. I’ve always loved you.” His voice shook. “Because I won’t survive it when you leave.”

She froze.

“But you were always going to leave,” he whispered against her ear. “You’re still going to leave. Even after what we found together. You’re going to get on a plane or a ferry or a goddamn snowmobile and you’re going to leave. Me. You want a big life. You want adventure, novelty. You want to be great. How are you going to do that from here?”

Just like his mother.

It struck like the diamond point of lightning right into her heart.

“I don’t fault you for that,” he said, moving his lips over her neck. His beard abrading her skin. “I want people to look at what you’ve created and be dazzled by it, just like I’m dazzled by you. But this place is my home. The only place I’ve ever belonged. You gave that to me and you’re the only one with the power to take it away. Because I’d follow you if you let me. I’d go with you. But you’re not even going to ask. You’re going to stay here long enough for me to put Vorhees behind bars and then you’re going to leave.”

Tears rolled silently down her cheeks as it all sank in.

Brick Callan loved her. And he was terrified of her.