Free Protect Me by Selma Wolfe

fingers were hot around her
arm, like he was searing a brand into it. She didn’t shift or look down,
though. It was too much and yet she didn’t want his touch gone.
    Rick
stared at her for a moment and then blinked; pulled his hand away. Hope tried
not to regret the loss.
    He
stumbled backward and shoved his hand in his hair, raking it up so it looked as
windswept as it had out on the water.
    “Is
that it?” he demanded. “You have nothing else to say?”
    Hope
cocked her head to the side, still distracted by his closeness. “What do you
want to hear?” she asked, honestly curious.
    Rick
barked out a laugh and stopped moving. His hands dropped to his sides and he
just looked at her.
    “I feel
like I have to fight for every word out of your mouth,” he said, frustration
layering thickly over his voice. The furrow in his forehead didn’t look angry,
though. It was honest without being threatening. “All I want is to know what
you’re thinking, and I can’t - you don’t give anything away. It’s maddening.”
    For
some inexplicable reason Hope’s breath caught. He cares because he’s used to
getting what he wants without question, she reminded herself. “Sorry?” she
offered.
    Rick
shook his head. “Don’t be sorry, tell me something. Anything.”
    By
unspoken agreement they started to walk out of the lab and back into that dark
tunnel. Rick shrugged off his lab coat and hung it on the back of a chair. Hope
measured her footsteps automatically and tried to think if she actually had
anything to say.
    They
were at the mouth of the tunnel when she pulled up short and turned to Rick. He
stared at her eagerly, expectantly.
    “It’s
just… this. You can risk your own life," she told him, her voice deadly
quiet and serious in a way you could only use once or twice. "And I can risk
mine. That's every person's right. Sometimes life is – well, sometimes things
just happen. And sometimes you give up your life as a gift. Sometimtes that’s
just how it goes."
    She
drew in a deep breath, aware of Rick's eyes on her.
    "But
you do not ever try to trick someone else into gambling with your life."
It came out so steely cold that Rick flinched. "I get that you have more
money than God and think you can pay somebody else to take responsibility for
your life, but you can't. And..." her voice dropped into something softer
so that it hurt her chest trying to get the words past her throat. "And
Jesus, I have to believe that you never thought this through. Because if you
would willingly force another person to take that responsibility, then..."
    Horror
clawed at her lungs and stole the breath for the rest of the sentence right
away from her. All she could do was stare at Rick, miserable, and pray that she
was right.
    He
looked stricken. But so did so many people who meant every crime they'd
committed. 
    "I'm
sorry," Rick said, stepping closer and raising his hands, but backing away
when she shook her head at him. "It wasn’t – I guess it just wasn’t real
for me. Not the way it is for you. I’d never want to make you responsible for
someone else’s life."
    Not
just someone else's , Hope wanted to say. Yours. But she
didn't. 
    "It
would be easier if I didn't want to believe you," Hope whispered, so low
she wasn't sure Rick heard her, and plunged into the darkness of the tunnel
alone.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
    A loud
knock on the door woke Hope up the next morning.
    She
salt bolt upright in bed and grabbed the sheets to her chest in an instinctive
gesture - it had been a very long time since she’d slept in anything she couldn’t
run outside in.
    Caught
between sleep and waking, Hope wondered dazedly if yesterday was just a dream.
Or if it was real, if it was something that could be set aside. If Rick was
calling her to breakfast and she’d throw open the door to find him waiting
outside with a grin and sparks heating his gaze.
    Hope
wasn’t sure she wanted to forget