“AnnieLee,” Ethan said, rising. He tried to reach for her, but she backed away as if she were afraid of him. He dropped his hands. “Please,” he said.
AnnieLee looked at the floor for a long time. And then, ever so slowly, she moved toward him. He waited until she was an inch away, and then he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so sorry,” he breathed.
She sank into his embrace with a sigh. “They came after me,” she said. “Me and my big mouth. I was always saying how someday I was going to make it to Nashville. I guess it wasn’t too hard to find me there.”
“Who’s they?”
“I don’t even know who they were, or if they got sent by Gus or D. Does it matter which man thought he owned me? That what started as some kind of common-law marriage was more like a common-law kidnapping? All I know is that in Vegas, D came for me himself. As far as he was concerned, I’d betrayed him, and he was going to take me back or kill me. But I didn’t want to die anymore. I wanted to fight. I wanted to live.”
Ethan rested his cheek against the top of her head.
“But you see why I didn’t want to tell you anything, Ethan,” she said, her voice muffled against his chest. “I didn’t want to remember it, and I didn’t want you to know. Because you won’t be able to forget—not the way I made myself forget.”
Any of the words of comfort that Ethan could think to say seemed so small and empty. So he just stood there, rocking her gently in his arms. Her tears dampened his shirt and her thin shoulders shook.
He hated those men. When he thought about what they’d done, his teeth clenched so hard that pain shot deep into his skull. He wished he would’ve done worse than break Hobbs’s jaw, and he wondered how hard it would be to find D—
“You’re squeezing me really hard,” AnnieLee whispered.
“I’m sorry,” he gasped. “I was thinking about…” He didn’t finish the sentence; he didn’t have to.
“I know,” she said. “I could tell.”
Ethan let his arms drop and then reached out and took her small, cool hands in his. He bent his knees so that his head was level with hers and he was looking right into her blue eyes as he spoke. “Listen to me, AnnieLee, please, because this is important. I told you that when you walked into the Cat’s Paw that first night it was the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. But I lied.” He paused. His throat ached with emotion. “It was the best thing that had happened to me ever in my whole damn life. I love you, AnnieLee. And I promise, I won’t let anyone hurt you ever, ever again.”
Nine Months Later
Chapter
96
AnnieLee Keyes and Ruthanna Ryder in four,” came the voice through AnnieLee’s earpiece.
Her heart did a somersault and she reached out to squeeze Ruthanna’s hand.
The country star squeezed back. “Take a big ol’ deep breath, firecracker,” she said. “Release all those butterflies.”
“Butterflies, hell,” AnnieLee said. “I feel like I’ve got an entire flock of pigeons in my stomach.” She gave a nervous bounce on her toes and then nearly toppled over, thanks to the crazy-high heels she’d let Ruthanna talk her into wearing.
“It’s the CMAs,” Ruthanna had said, “and you can’t show up in jeans and cowboy boots when Nicole Kidman’s going to be swanning around in head-to-toe Versace, and yours truly’s going to be sporting more sequins than all the contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race combined.”
AnnieLee had laughed and agreed, not even reluctantly, to have a dress made for the occasion: a form-fitting, floor-length sheath so golden and shimmery that she felt like an Oscar statuette come to life. Her hair had been pulled into an elegant chignon at the base of her slender neck, and diamond drop earrings—on loan from Harry Winston—brushed lightly against her shoulders.
Really, the only problem was the damn shoes. She bent down and fidgeted with the thin leather straps.
“You look great,” Ruthanna assured her now, “but more importantly, you’re going to be great.”
Ruthanna was wearing an ombre gown whose scarlet neckline sequins faded into the palest pink by the bottom hem, and her hair floated like a red-gold cloud around her beautiful face. She looked, AnnieLee thought, like a star-spangled angel.
“Are you nervous?” she asked. “You haven’t performed live in years.”
“Haven’t you heard what they say?” Ruthanna asked. “It’s just like riding a bike.” She smiled. “Or maybe a Harley-Davidson.”