Chapter 5

Biting wind slapped my face as the ground beneath my feet hurtled by. There was no sense of feeling to it. I was on the run.

I wanted to slow down but he was right on my heels. I couldn’t see him, but I could feel him closing the distance with every perilous step. A tree branch tore my cheek as the brush became thicker.

So dark, I can’t see .

The forest snapped beneath his stride and when sudden explosions lit up the path, I realized it was from lightning bolts that ripped through the sky moving horizontally on either side of me. Euphoria and danger mixed into a dangerous poison.

“You can’t run from me little girl. I’m going to find you and when I do, I’m going to crack your skull.”

Bile rose in my stomach; I had no sense of where he was anymore. Risking another glance, I slammed against something hard and unmoving.

My head flew up, staring at two pools of green light—his unholy gaze terrified me with every flicker. I cried out when his fingers bruised my arm, shaking me harder with his impossible iron grip.

“Let’s finish this, progeny. Show me where you are!” he demanded.

“No! Let me go!”

Gasping for breath, I opened my eyes, staring into Adam’s panic-stricken face. His arms were the ones gripping mine—he was the one shaking me.

“Wake up! Wake the fuck up, Zoë,” he demanded.

Adrenaline surged in my veins and leaked out of every pore. I had a violent reaction and thrashed about.

“Don’t touch me!” I yelled, and his hands went comically up as if the cops had him under arrest.

The leather sofa, I’m on the sofa. Just a dream, wasn’t it? His voice was so real.

“Christ, I heard you screaming.” Adam wiped his face against his bicep and blew out a breath. “I thought someone was in here; you were shouting.” He lowered his arms and I glanced up at a vein protruding from his neck with an unbelievably hard rhythm.

“I wasn’t shouting,” I said in a soft voice.

Suddenly, Adam leaned down and gave me a cold stare. “Tell me everything that motherfucker did to you.”

My senses returned; I was only caught between dream world and real world for a few fractions of a second.

“I didn’t mean to…”

What—flip out on him? Smack him? Mooch off him or intrude on his life?

“Scare you.”

He smoothed my hair away from my eyes with his hand and my self-doubts drained. I felt safe with Adam. Yet, the dream stuck to me like tree sap and while I could wash it all I liked, there would still be residual stickiness.

“You have no idea how close I was to coming in here and putting holes in someone.”

“Adam, don’t be ridiculous.”

It was then that I glanced to the floor and saw a black gun. That scared me a little because Adam didn’t strike me as the type who carried weapons. This was a far cry from a country redneck’s shotgun collection—that piece looked like something a cop would carry.

It wasn’t until I noticed his wolfish grin that I broke the silence.

“What’s so funny?” I pulled myself to a sitting position; that’ll teach me to take an early-evening nap.

“You called me Adam.”

“Well don’t get all warm and gushy. It was a slipup; it won’t happen again, Raze .” I teasingly shocked him in the bicep with a snap of static, but he didn’t jump.

“You’re no fun.”

“How’s that?”

“Sunny always jumps when I shock her. Maybe you aren’t quick enough on your reflexes.”

“My reflexes are just fine where it counts.”

I posed a questioning glance at the double entendre.

“I didn’t know cavemen came to the rescue of a damsel in distress. I thought they just clonked them over the head with a big stick and—”

That’s when he cut me off and playtime was over. My shoulders hunched up as I looked into those eyes, burning with restrained anger. He leaned in so we were nose to nose and I held my breath.

“Never do that again.”

I hit a raw nerve. Pieces of a puzzle began falling together from earlier conversations.

“How did she die?” Meaning his sister .

Adam sucked in his bottom lip and released it slowly. It caught my attention as it glistened and for a brief moment, for whatever reason, my blood heated for him. I lifted my gaze to his rich brown eyes and noticed that they were fixed on my mouth. I became self-conscious of every movement they made.

And my lips were dry—damn if I didn’t need to lick them, but I made every effort not to go that route.

“She was killed in an alley when we were twenty-one,” he said, leaning back.

“I’m so sorry. Can I ask what happened?”

I didn’t care for that look of guilt.

“We were barhopping, the kind of thing you do when you get legal. I started talking shit to these guys in an alley when they were catcalling the girls, and they jumped us. One girl was taken out right away and I was too busy beating the shit out of one of the guys to even notice that it had been my sister to go next. That fucking animal tossed her over like a pile of garbage.” It seemed to take all the strength he had to draw in another breath. “I was looking for a fight when I should have been protecting her. He took everything from me.”

“Were they arrested?”

“No, they got away. I could have chased them down, but they took off fast and… I couldn’t leave Bell lying next to a dumpster.” This was something that took place years ago, but for him, it was yesterday. Adam didn’t just lose a sibling, he lost the other half of him.

“She was so young, but so were you . You can’t protect someone all the time—it wasn’t your fault. You did what you could but you are not responsible for her death. I hope you realize that.”

He looked like a man who had been punishing himself and running away his entire life.

“Sunny was the closest person to me, and I hope she isn’t blaming herself for leaving me at that train station. Things happen, it wasn’t her fault.” I stopped because that was the most detail I had given Adam on that night and his eyes rose to meet mine. “I know your sister would tell you that if she could.” I placed my warm hand over his. “Adam…”

Hearing his name triggered something in Adam, and his body leaned in slow like a predator. His lips brushed over mine and Adam hesitated, savoring the first touch and perhaps waiting for me to reciprocate. The moment I did—he ignited.

A raw need was behind every hungry stroke of his tongue, and he was a hell of a kisser. No aftershave or cologne, just the natural spice of how a man should smell. The whiskers I could have done without, as they scratched against my chin.

A perfect kiss blindsided me—there was something in his touch and the lean of his body that was overpowering. Did Adam really care for me the way his body told me he did? His hand slipped around the nape of my neck, cradling it, as his kiss slowed to a torturous linger.

When he moaned unexpectedly, deep and pleasured, a spark lit in me. It tingled in the center of my chest, becoming a surge that pushed through to my fingertips; I felt like a sponge dripping with power.

My right leg slid down his side, but he was busy nipping at my bottom lip with his teeth.

“I’m going to touch you,” he whispered.

Adam announcing his intent was so unexpected that I stopped kissing him. His mouth moved across my neck and when his fingers ran over my shirt, I arched my back.

“Zoë, you’re so soft,” he breathed, tracing his skillful fingers down to my stomach, where they slipped beneath the shirt and stroked my bare skin.

His tongue lapped across my neck and my hand reached out to stroke his cheek, circling my fingers around the rough stubble. I heard a low-decibel hum, increasing with frequency—that’s when Adam catapulted off the sofa and yelled out.

I could still feel his lips on mine and my hand was suspended where only seconds ago it had traced along his jaw and hairline. I was horrified by my willingness to yield to him.

Sex always ruins friendship, and I didn’t know that I was ready to give that up. I needed a friend and couldn’t afford to lose him. Although sex would have been nice.

“What was that?” he hissed, pushing the skin of his cheek around with his hand.

“I guess a mistake?” I threw my feet on the floor and glared at his disheveled shirt. Adam ran his hand through his hair and stared down at me like I were a freak of nature.

“Do you know what you just did to me?”

I didn’t like his accusation or his tone. “Don’t turn this around on me; you’re the one who kissed me first. Why are you looking at me that way?”

Adam sat down and lifted my hand by the wrist, like he might have picked up a dirty dishtowel that had been soaking in urine. There was no warmth in his touch as he flipped it over, stroking his finger down my palm.

I shivered and pulled it away.

“Something weird just happened with your hand. You didn’t feel that?”

I didn’t want to admit to the fact that there was something fundamentally wrong with me. I’d felt it since the night of my attack.

But I sure as hell didn’t want to be called out on it.

“You haven’t noticed anything odd about yourself?” he added.

“Odd,” I said defensively. “Weird. Thanks for all the compliments.”

“You’re hiding something from me, and I want to know what it is.”

I was already in his debt and I didn’t like that feeling of entitlement he had over me.

Moving briskly toward the front door I pulled at the handle when Adam muscled it with his strong arm.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“None of your business,” I spat.

When I pulled again he leaned harder, and that pissed me off.

“Let go; you can’t make me stay here. You don’t own me, so quit treating me like property. I have a life I need to figure out and I can’t keep hiding.”

He shouldered the door and wrapped his fingers around my wrist, pulling it away from the knob. I jerked free and scowled.

“Look, you aren’t the boss of me.”

Adam didn’t budge.

“Fine,” I said, backing away from the door. “Whatever.”

I locked eyes with the back door and took off in a dead run. I was halfway out on the porch when he caught my arm.

“Get back in the fucking house! I’m not letting you leave.”

I struggled to pull free, but he reeled me in like a fish until I was inside. I looked at him with defiant eyes and he locked his arm around my hips.

“You’re not a prisoner, that’s not what this is about. I want to help you, but you have to let me, you have to trust me.” When his voice softened, I considered his sincerity.

“Did I hurt you?” I asked.

“Not exactly.”

I swallowed down my relief. “Then what was it you felt?”

“So you know what I’m talking about?”

I nodded. “I’m not really sure how to answer that. I haven’t been right since my attack, and that was…” I shook my head. “I’m protecting myself because I don’t want you to think I’m crazy. I don’t want you to judge me. I don’t want you to leave me.”

And there it was, in a neat little nutshell. Adam using words like weird or strange to describe me felt like I had an affliction. He was all I had in the world and I didn’t want to lose that.

I shivered as the northern wind snuck up from behind and curled around my legs like icy fingers.

Adam leaned on the door with one hand until it closed.

“I won’t judge you, and I won’t leave you.” He remained in that position, with one arm resting over my head and the other around my waist. “When your hand was on my face it was as if you were charging me up, like an electric shock. How is it that you can do that?” His eyes narrowed almost suspiciously. “It was energy. I can still feel it.” He let go of me and flexed his fingers open and closed.

“It’s not just my looks that changed, Razor, there’s something else different inside of me. I don’t know what it is, how to control it, or why it even comes out—but it’s there.”

“I don’t want you to leave,” he sighed. “I want you here, feel me? You need someone to look after you until we figure this out.”

We.

That was Adam—always wanting to look out for someone. Perhaps it was that lost opportunity with his sister. I gave him a chance to walk away, but he planted his feet firmly on the ground and folded his arms, ready to go wherever this little journey led him.

“No more physical contact, it’s too risky and I have a feeling that I could have done more damage than curled your hair. Strictly platonic, okay?”

His mouth crooked up in a grin and he stuck out his hand. “Deal. Shake on it?”

I stuck out my tongue at him and sauntered off.

“Don’t tempt me, woman,” he growled.

While his voice was laced with humor, I looked back and saw his sexy eyes hung on me heavily. Residual from our kiss no doubt, but something lingered in that expression.

“Put on your shoes and pack the ladder, Romeo. We’re going to do Spidey work.”