Free Aligned: Volume 4 by Ella Miles Page A

Nick. I want to know if you are keeping something from me that I should know. Do you know who is behind all of these attacks?”  
    “No. I don’t. I’ve told you everything I know. I still wish you would come home. I miss you. And I really don’t want to have to force you to come home.”
    I glare at him and remove my hand from his. “You can’t force me.”  
    He looks at me as if I’m a child. “I already told you I can. I can destroy Landon’s career. I can send him to jail. I have evidence that will put him away for twenty years to life.”  
    My eyes grow wider with fear. He framed Landon. The evidence is on the flash drive. I just don’t know what evidence he claims to have. I add Landon to my mental list of the people I have to save.  
    “You have one week,” he says getting up. “One week to come home or I turn the evidence over to the police.”  
    I glare at him as I watch him leave, keeping my hand on the gun the whole time. I should just shoot the bastard in the back. It would be quick and easy, and then I would never have to worry about him again, but then I couldn’t save any of us. We would all end up in jail.  
    As soon as I watch him walk out the door, I dig my phone out my purse to call Landon. I’m not going to be able to manage driving back by myself. I need him to come get me. And I need to tell him everything. All of my secrets.
    “Baby, I’m so sorry. Please let me explain,” Landon says as soon as he answers the phone. “I was going to tell you tonight, but it just broke first. I’m so, so sorry. Just let me come get you. Then I can explain.”  
    “Slow down. What are you talking about?”  
    “You don’t know.”  
    “Know what?”  
    “Just let me come get you then I’ll explain everything. Where are you?”  
    “Coffee shop on Fifth Street.”  
    “Be there in twenty,” he says hanging up the phone.  
    Twenty minutes is a long time to go without searching for answers, but I wait. I would want him to wait if it were me. So I wait.  
    ***
    “Hey, baby,” Landon says sweetly as I climb in the front seat of his car.  
    I notice a bead of sweat dripping down his head and his hands grip the steering wheel much too hard.  
    I lean over and kiss him softly on the lips, but he doesn’t let me get away with just a peck on the lips. He grabs my neck and sweeps his tongue in my mouth claiming me. Reminding me I’m his. He doesn’t need to remind me, though. I know.  
    I lean back with a smile on my face feeling more relaxed than I have felt all day. When I glance at Landon, though, he looks more worried instead of relaxed after the kiss.  
    “Just tell me. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. We will get through it.”  
    He nods and begins driving us home.  
    “You know I love you,” he starts.  
    “Yes, Landon. Just tell me.”  
    “I didn’t think I could fall in love again. I’d been so hurt in my past, and I was so focused on my career I didn’t think it would ever happen for me.”  
    I sigh. This isn’t going to be good. Whatever it is, if he is this nervous and stalling this much, it isn’t good.  
    “And then I met you. And I fell. I fell for your beauty, your strength, your drive to move on after so much tragedy. I fell for it all.  
    “And you helped heal me. You helped me learn that my past doesn’t have to define me. That I can be a better person than I was in the past.”
    I nod hoping he will hurry and get to his point while also hoping he will never get there so I don’t have to be disappointed in him.  
    “I was so lost before I met you. I didn’t even know what I wanted.”  
    I watch as he turns onto our street that leads up to our home.  
    “But then Ethan came back into your life and you let me go. You wanted to do what was right by your past. You chose your past over your future.”
    I nod. I know all of this. I know I chose wrong. I know with absolute certainty now that I chose wrong.  
    “So when you