AllFreeNovel
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“You found your phone I see.” It’s a statement of fact and I don’t have to respond as he moves to the refrigerator. In silence, I watch Zeke take out cold cuts and bread and set them on the counter. He glances at me as he finds a plate then proceeds to make a sandwich.
He walks to the fridge again, opens the door. “Mustard or mayo?”
“Mustard.”
He nods, takes the mustard and smears it onto the bread. He then pushes it in front of me.
“Sit,” he says, filling a large glass with water and setting that, too, in front of me.
I climb up onto one of the chairs at the counter. My stomach growls but there’s an elephant in the room and I’m not sure I can swallow until it’s out in the open. I turn to him and open my mouth to speak but he shifts his gaze to my jaw and, with the knuckles of one hand, tilts my face a little. I guess he’s assessing a bruise. His fingers close over my chin, and he turns me to face him again.
“The flash drive, that’s the last lie you’re telling me. Is that clear?”
My heart thuds against my chest, a sensation of a thousand butterflies fluttering their wings in my stomach.
“I—”
“Is that clear?”
I nod, unable to formulate words.
“Good. Then that’s finished. Eat.”
I drop my gaze to the sandwich, nod, a sense of relief washing over me. It’s finished. That’s it. He wants truth. I can give him that. I owe it to him.
Zeke watches me as I devour the sandwich. I’m starving.
“Should I make you another one?” he asks as I swallow the last bite.
I shake my head. “No. Well, maybe in a minute.” I study his face, take in the bruise along his jaw. We sit in silence, and it feels right. The quiet suits us.
I shift my gaze to his lap, take in the bruised knuckles of his hands. I study them, touch them. I feel him shudder when I do but he doesn’t pull away. These same hands that took such care of me committed the most violent of acts last night.
His right hand is his dominant hand. I pick it up, hold it, turn it over to study it. To trace the lines, feel their strength.
My gaze moves to his and I find him watching me, those wolf-like eyes intent on me. Butterfly wings go wild in my stomach again.
“Why did you come for me?” I ask, feeling a loneliness more acute than anything I have ever felt, a longing for something I cannot name as I ask my question. Because why did he come for me? He could have left me. Walked away. Problem solved. He had the flash drive. If I were dead, and I would be now if it wasn’t for him, I know that, then he could go back to his life and forget the little blip that was the catastrophe of me.
“That’s a stupid question.”
“Not really.” I shrug a shoulder, pull my hands away and push my hair behind my ears.
I recall asking him to make love to me.
Love.
Love.
God. What was I thinking? “I mean, think about it. You found the flash drive. The files that are missing are on that drive. You know it. Why else would I have it? So, you don’t come for me, you let Hoxton have me, do what he wants to me?—”
A low growl resonates from his chest. I’m not sure it’s a conscious sound he’s making. His hands turn to fists. Hands of a killer. My avenger.
I look up at him. “Why did you come, Zeke?”
“What do you want me to say, Blue?”
I study his eyes. They’re beautiful. So beautiful. So much depth in those eyes. So many layers to this man.
