Page 17 of Watched

“I’m so sorry, baby. I didn’t think he would actually go after you.”

I snarl at the road. “You knew he might come for me, and you didn’t give me any warning? Stay the fuck away from me!” I scream and snatch my phone, ending the call.

My trembling hands tighten around the steering wheel. Now that I’m away from Blade, panic is setting in, and I can’t bloody breathe.

I take a short, ragged breath, my vision blurring in and out.

Focus, Rome.

Weight settles on my chest, and I frantically pull off the road, shifting my car into park. Tears cascade from my wide eyes as I press my palm to my chest, trying to push oxygen into it. My lungs are locked. My throat is too tight.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t breathe.

The light of the lamppost further down becomes drowned in darkness, my desperate gasps for air disappearing with it. I can feel my phone vibrating and the chime ringing in my ear, but the sensation is fading in and out. The chime cuts, and I’m convinced I’ve either passed out or died—but then heavy breaths fill my ear.

“Baby,” Rain pleads. “Breathe for me. Okay, you need to breathe.”

Did he just call me and answer it himself?

“I—” I choke, pressing my palm harder into my chest.

“Listen to me. Do what I do,” he commands, and a large draw of breath follows. My head swims as a tingling sensation flows through my arm, then abruptly stops. “No, baby,” he says softly. “Don’t you pass out on me.”

“H-how,” I draw a shallow breath, my lungs burning, “can you s-see me?”

“Your phone camera.”

“What?” I snap, my breaths deepening.

“That’s it. Get mad at me.”

“You’re a b-bloody wanker, Rain.”

“Yes, I am.”

My lungs release their tension and the darkness retreats from the lamppost. “Fuck you,” I pant. “Stop invading my life. My house. My phone. Just…just fuck off!”

I end the call and slump into my seat.

What the fuck?

Chapter ten

RAIN

Rage tears through my chest as Blade steps into the dark room, throwing the stairwell door shut. The cocking of my gun penetrates the ensuing silence.

He chuckles. “Do it. I fucking dare you.”

“You went after him!” I don’t recognise my own voice. It’s deadly; it…sounds exactly like his. “I know how many people your jealousy has driven you to kill, because of me…her.”

“Don’t you fucking dare bring her into this.”

The gun shakes in my hand as his shadowed figure turns to face me, his mask hanging loosely from his fingertips. I know he’s hurting. He feels the one person he has left—me—is falling through his fingers, but I’m his comfort person, his safety net, his only constant. She’s who he truly craves.

I’d fucked around with a few people the last year, but no one interested me enough to gain my full attention. All those people disappeared after they’d been with me. Yes, it pissed me off that he’d hurt innocent people simply because they’d had contact with me, but I still found myself covering up his crimes and erasing any incriminating footage.