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Turning toward the sound, I ready my hand over the knife attached to my belt, prepared to take out any threat. Then my hand falls to my side as Aurora emerges from the woods with my dog in her arms.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aurora
I slide a dry shirt over my head and wrap a blanket around my shivering shoulders. Kane busies himself by toweling off the bedraggled ball of fur I rescued from the woods. It was stupid of me to look for the dog and come back. Even after I found Pup, I could have taken her and run, I could have escaped, but some invisible thread pulled me back here.
Well, two invisible threads, and their names are Tobin and Jax.
Having been confronted with an out and choosing to return has told me everything I need to know. Despite my inability to form a bond with Kane—and Kane’s inability to form a bond with anything aside from the dog he now lovingly checks over for injuries—I have adhered myself to Tobin and Jax. I care about them, and I care about what happens to them. That’s why I haven’t pressed Kane about his sexual assault. Integration may be the goal for some people with DID, but it isn’t their goal, and I want to respect that.
But how can any of this work?
To be in a relationship with them would mean tying myself to three people, one of whom can’t stand me. I’d love to say the feeling is mutual, but my hatred for him has lessened as I’ve learned more about him from Jax and Tobin. He’s a product of severe trauma, and it feels unfair to judge him so harshly now. There has to be some way to break through his walls.
Kane places Pup on the floor and pulls a worn ball from a cabinet. He tosses the ball across the truck, and Pup’s paws clatter against the floor as she races to get to it. It slips beneath the bed, and she wedges herself into the small space, only emerging once she realizes she can’t reach it. Kane eyes me as I kneel and dig beneath the bed to retrieve the ball as she whines beside me.
“Where did you find Pup?” I ask.
“I was cutting through a small town and saw her on the side of the road. She’d been hit by a car and left for dead.”
“You saved her?”
“I guess.”
I swallow hard. I always wondered why he had a dog at all, let alone a small, fluffy thing like Pup. I’m surprised he didn’t run over her to finish her off instead of saving her. Something about this little dog has wormed into a heart he insists he doesn’t have. If the dog could wiggle in there, I’m sure I can get inside too.
I go back up front and sit in the passenger seat. “Do you know why I dropped out of college, Kane?” I ask. Maybe we can connect if he realizes I’ve been through trauma too. We aren’t so different—aside from the fact that I haven’t taken to killing people for funsies.
“I don’t care why you left college,” he says without meeting my gaze. “We still have a body to bury, though. Once the rain lets up, we’ll have to get it done.”
I push ahead, ignoring his attempt to put me off. “I was assaulted. The pain and humiliation were too much, so I ran.”
He swallows but says nothing.
“I know you don’t give two shits about what happened to me, but it was pretty fucking traumatic. It shaped my life from that point forward. Brought me...Well, it brought me here.”
He considers this, then says, “Why become a prostitute?”
“Why become a serial killer?”
A low laugh rattles his chest. “Fair.”
“Do you remember what happened to you? Any of it?”
He shakes his head and picks at the side of his thumb. “Tobin holds that information for me in that fucked-up little mind of his.”
“If you don’t remember what happened, why do you have so much anger?”
His mouth opens and closes. Opens and closes. “I’ve given you enough about me, dropout. Let it go.”
His soul is a door that opens just enough to give me a glimpse of his human side before slamming in my face again.
“We almost had a moment, Kane, you know that?”
He blows out a heavy breath. “I don’t connect with people.”
“Even after everything that’s happened to me, I can still connect with people. I managed to connect with Tobin and?—”
