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“Good,” she replied, and she leaned over to plant a kiss against the corner of my mouth.
I wanted her here, but the only way that was going to happen was if I gave her freedom within that, no matter how hard it was to trust that she wasn’t going to go anywhere—that she wasn’t going to turn her back on me the way everyone else had done.
When the time came, would she stay?
Or would she finally take her chance and run?
Chapter Thirteen – Chelsea
There was heat in the air that day, as though the universe was trying to warn me of something.
As I laid in bed beside him, I could feel it, though I had no idea what exactly it was, what to take from it. I just knew it was real: a prickling at the back of my neck, a heat rising up my spine, and not just the usual kind I felt from being this close to him.
He slept next to me, almost peaceful—as peaceful as he got, anyway. He still jerked around in his sleep occasionally, and I could see a furrow appear in his brow even as he rested. I wished I could reach inside his head and find out what kind of dreams he was having, but maybe it was better I kept my distance, better that I didn’t know just how far he had gone over the course of his life.
Once, as I pulled a cup from the cupboard, the glass clinked against another. And I felt him tense, even though he was standing a few feet away. I glanced around at once.
“Are you okay?”
His eyes were fixed on the cup I was holding, the glass chink clearly hanging in his head. But then, he brushed it off, shaking his head.
“I’m fine.”
I kept walking up to this point where I felt like he was going to open up, but then, he’d just shut down again. There was more to him, I knew there was. Ten days, ten days since we had arrived here—nearly three weeks after he had first taken me—and I was inching forward painfully slowly.
Or perhaps I just needed to believe that there was more to him for my own sense of sanity. I couldn’t stand the thought of having allowed myself to get so close to this man, only to find that he was nothing more than the hardened criminal he kept trying to convince me he was. I could see the pain in him, the shattering weight of what he had been through as a kid that still clung to him, but he wouldn’t make that connection and see how it had impacted him in the present day.
But that would require me to actually stick around him, and I knew that couldn’t happen. After the Dogs had found me before, I knew that they would be able to track us down again. It was only a matter of time before they located us, and when they did, I was sure Chuck would send the full force of their power down on this apartment. He took it seriously when something happened to one of his people, and while I might not be a fully fledged member of the Dogs the way my father was, I was part of that family. He wouldn’t let me face this alone.
Even if some part of me wanted to.
I swung my legs out of bed quietly, not wanting to wake Zane, but as soon as they hit the ground, my ears pricked up. I could hear something. No, someone—a voice outside, a noise that seemed familiar. I hurried to the window, pulling back the curtains, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw what was waiting for me out there.
The Dogs. At least half a dozen of them, including my father, rolling up on bikes opposite the apartment. One of them glanced up, as though sensing that they were being watched, and caught my eye, stabbing his finger up toward the window. Everyone else turned to look up at me, and I knew there was no way they hadn’t seen me.
I dropped the curtains, sickness twisting in my stomach. Zane had propped himself up on his elbows in bed, staring at me, a furrow in his brow.
“What is it?” he asked.
“You need to get out of here,” I hissed at him. I didn’t know what I was doing. Protecting him, after everything he had done to me? I must have been crazy. But I knew I couldn’t let him face all of them alone. I knew what they would do to him.
“What?” he demanded, sitting upright, eyes widening.
“They’re here. The Dogs. They’ve come to—”
“I can take them,” he growled, rolling out of bed and grabbing for his shirt. He stepped into his shoes where he had left them the night before. He’d carried me to bed when I had fallen asleep on the couch, and I was still dressed, but seeing his tattoos vanish beneath the fabric of his shirt made me start to panic. It felt like the last time I would get to see them.
“You can’t take them, there’s too many of them. Just... just go. There's a fire escape down the back of the building, right? Take that. Just get out of here.”
He ran his hand over his head. It had been long enough now that some of his dark hair had started to grow back, making him look softer than he had when he had first taken me.
“I’m not letting them take you—”
“You don’t have a choice!” I exclaimed. I heard a crash at the entrance to the building. They were already making their approach, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before they got here.
He stared at me for a moment and then muttered a curse beneath his breath. I could tell he didn’t want to leave me. And, hell, despite it all, I didn’t want him to go, either. The thought of watching him leave, knowing that I couldn’t find him again when it felt like I was just starting to get somewhere with him... it killed me. But what choice did I have? The Dogs wouldn’t care what I had to say about it, and maybe they should pay any attention to me anyway. I was crazy. Sick. Sick for wanting him and wanting this and...
A crash slammed into the front door, and I jumped.
