“Oh,” she gasps when she enters the kitchen and realizes it’s occupied. “Sorry. I didn’t know anyone was in here.”
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” She tightens the blanket around her shoulders and returns to the hall. The floorboards creak as she paces back and forth.
None of your business. Get back to work so you can lie down.
The print on my phone blurs before my eyes. I’m tired as hell. I enlarge the font so I can read, but several sentences don’t even register.
Fuck this, I think irritably.
I email it to Heinrich as it is. He’s an editor. He can clean it up before it goes to print.
Moving off the bench, I rise from the table and shove my phone into my pocket.
Declan’s put several small night lights along the main hall. It reminds me of aisle lighting on a plane during overnight flights across the Atlantic.
The door to the guest room I’ll be sleeping in is to my left. It’s the closest one to the kitchen. The next door on the left is the bathroom, and the one after is where Octavia and Arya should be sleeping.
“Go to bed,” I tell myself in a low voice.
My feet ignore me and carry me down the hall. To the front room. Arya sits cross-legged on a small antique couch.
“What are you doing?”
Startled, her body jerks. “Nothing. Just sitting.” Her head turns. “You don’t have a cigarette, do you?”
My brow arches.
Her head turns to stare out the windows. “I smoke a little. On and off.”
She doesn’t smoke. And the thought of her trying to destroy herself with vices concerns me. For days, she was mine to take care of, and I didn’t mind it. More than that. A part of me enjoyed it.
Yes, because she’s the one.
My muscles tighten, and my heart thumps against my ribs. “You should lie down, Arya. Give yourself a chance to sleep.”
Running a hand through her hair, she shrugs. “I’m afraid to.”
I want to offer to read to her. To protect her from the demons that dog her every step. But I’m one of them now.
She turns her head. “You’re the one who must be exhausted. You should lie down, too.”
“I’m fine.”
She’s giving you a cue to go. She wants to be left alone.
I don’t move because it suddenly hits me that this may be the last time I ever see her. Tomorrow she’ll probably go to Eden’s. A few days of practice. Then out of town. And gone for good.
A ghost to haunt my dreams.
I swallow against the flame burning my throat. When I speak my voice is low. “If I could’ve kept you from witnessing it, I would have. But if I hadn’t put you behind me, one of them would’ve caught you while I was fighting the others. If it scared you to be trapped, I get it. But it was the only way I stood a chance against that many. I needed to hold them off long enough for Shane to arrive. I swear on my life it was the only way.” My throat is thick, clogged with more than words.
“Erik,” she says softly. “You saved us. They took my car and chased us. There wasnopossibility of escape. If we’d screamed and fought, the men might have been caught, but not before they hurt us.Youare the only reason we weren’t hurt.”
Nodding, I glance at the windows. It’s hard even to look at her with those dark liquid eyes. The ones that stared into mine while I made love to her.
“I’m having trouble.” Pressing my lips together, I swallow. The burn has moved into my head, behind my eyes. My teeth clench together as I draw deep breaths.
