I started to move nearer, to give her my coat, when something in the way the firelight danced across her skin caught my eye. It was the tattoos, but it wasn’t. Something under them, maybe? As though the skin almost had a silvery hue in places. It looked raised. My brain put the pieces together in fits and starts, both quickly and too slowly. “Scars.” The word seemed to be pulled from my throat, raw and jagged. “She has scars.”

I looked at Crosby and the guys for answers, as if they would know why, how.

“You didn’t know?” Ethan asked.

“Know what?” I growled.

Ethan’s jaw ticked as he looked at Bell and then back at me. “She has a bunch of scars from the accident. Got those tattoos to cover them.”

“I—I have to go.” The world seemed to close in around me as I rounded the fire, only one thought pounding through my mind on repeat. I hurt her. Not only had I stolen Bell’s sister, I’d marked her for the rest of her life.

Blood roared in my ears as I reached Bell. I couldn’t see anyone but her, couldn’t see anything but those tattoos. Ethan was wrong, they didn’t cover the scars, they seemed to wind around them as though the marred skin and ink combined to form a single image. I reached out and grabbed her shoulder. “Bell—” Her name was strangled by the emotion trying to escape my throat.

Bell’s eyes flared. “What’s wrong?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“Okay—”

She couldn’t get out another word before I was dragging her back towards the patio. The parking lot lights cast enough of a glow that I could see my way, and when I came to a stop, I saw the concern written all over Bell’s face, too. She was too good. Too pure. After everything I’d put her through, she was still worried about me. “Bell…”

She gripped my hands, her skin so smooth and delicate against my own, flesh that I had torn and broken. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m so sorry—”

Her eyebrows pulled together, clearly not following. “For what?”

“God, Bell. For so damn much. For driving too fast in the rain. For joking around with you and Vi instead of watching the road carefully enough. For not reacting quicker.” My voice hitched. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know you got hurt.” I reached up, unable to stop myself, laying my palm over her heart, right where her tattoos and scars peeked out from her dress. “Your scars. They’re my fault. Of course you can’t forgive me. You have to live with the reminder that I left you with every damn day.”

Bell ripped herself away from me, eyes blinking rapidly before the green seemed to spark with fire. “You think I’m angry with you because of my scars?”