Page 154 of His Reckoning

“It’s not gossip.”

“It’s always gossip.”

I lean back in the booth, trying to sound casual. “You’ve known Sawyer for a long time, right?”

Melissa shrugs. “Through Colton, yeah. A few years.”

“What do you know about his past?”

Her eyebrows lift slightly. “That’s … random.”

I try to look interested in my sandwich instead of her reaction. “Just curious.”

Melissa studies me for a moment before she shakes her head. “Honestly? Not much.”

“Nothing?”

“No tragic childhood stories or secret Mafia ties, if that’s what you’re hoping for.”

I laugh. “No. I just—” The explanation dies in my throat.

I’m not about to explain that, last night, my hand brushed over what felt like old burn marks and long, thin scars across his back.

Melissa leans forward slightly. “What did he do?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s not believable.”

I sigh. “He just … seems like someone who has more going on under the surface.”

Melissa considers that.

“Yeah,” she finally says, “I’ve always gotten that vibe too.”

“Like what?”

“Like he keeps a lot locked down.”

That feels like an understatement.

She pops another fry into her mouth. “But if there’s some big story there,” she adds, “he’s never told anyone in the group.”

I nod slowly. That somehow makes the scars suddenly feel even more significant.

Eventually, the conversation drifts somewhere lighter—work stories, Colton being annoyingly perfect, Dean flirting with every woman in a five-mile radius—but my brain keeps drifting back to Sawyer.

To the way his body went rigid for half a second when I touched those marks or the way he tried to hide it.

What unsettles me most is instead of scaring me off … it just makes me want to understand him more.

By the time lunch ends, there’s only one thought playing on a loop in my mind.

I can’t wait to get home and see him. The realization hits me halfway to the subway.

I might actually be falling in love with Sawyer.

I stop walking. The thought feels completely unreal.