No! He was going to kill him. He was going to kill all of them.
“Noah!”
Noah blinked. The music, the smell of beer and sweat—all of it pulled him back to the present. He wasn’t in Iraq. He wasn’t being held against his will.
He was in Amber Ridge. In a bar.
He turned to see Indie and Cass helping Addie to her feet. How’d she get to the floor?
Then he remembered. The first hand on his arm…it had been soft. Small.
It had been Addie’s.
He stumbled back.
Shit. He’d done it again.
“Addie…I’m so sorry.” Each word tore from his chest, choking him. Forcing the air to stall in his lungs.
“It’s okay,” she said, her words barely crossing the distance between them.
But it wasn’t. This was the second time he’d put his hands on her. Thesecond fucking time.
The fighting had stopped, but Noah couldn’t concentrate on anything but her.
A part of him wanted to go to her. Make sure she was okay. But the other part? The other part wanted to run. To get as farfrom her and this place as possible. Because he couldn’t trust himself around her. She wasn’t fucking safe with him.
He was moving before he could stop himself. Voices called out from behind, but he ignored them. He was outside and almost at his truck when a hand grabbed his arm.
Noah swung around to see Colt.
He lifted his hands. “Hey. I’m just checking that you’re okay.”
“I shoved her.”
“You didn’t mean to. I saw you. You were somewhere else.”
“I still did it.Me. No one else.”
“Noah—”
“I have to go.”
He wasn’t sure where; justaway. Somewhere to silence the fucking noise in his head. To learn how to live in a body that didn’t feel safe to him anymore.
CHAPTER 7
Addie wasn’t sure what to focus on, the text she’d received from the unknown number last night, telling her she’d overstayed her welcome, or Noah and the look on his face when he realized he’d shoved her. She hadn’t even been hurt. It had beenherfault for touching him.
It had been a mistake. A huge, colossal mistake. But at the time, it had been a reflex. The second she saw the change in him, she’d been so scared about what he’d do. All she’d wanted to do was help him.
Yeah, well, she sure hadn’t done that.
She glanced at the door leading to the park. It was a rare quiet moment. Which wasn’t exactly optimal, because it gave her far too much time to get stuck in her head.
Her gaze shifted back to her computer screen. She was supposed to be updating the FAQ section of the website, but she couldn’t concentrate.
She tapped the screen of her phone like she expected to see another text. There was none.
