Not that Karla’s bitchy attitude mattered. I’d been found. The panic I’d fled Deadwater in still tingled in my limbs and broke as cold chills through me. I slept for shit, and only makeup had this girl appearing human.
I couldn’t stay here, in the random town I’d picked as I’d had nowhere else to go. I’d missed the girls, the lights, all my cute outfits. But I couldn’t let a man touch me.
I had to move on again.
No biggie. If I’d have hit the stage, I’d probably have bailed anyway.
I forced a smile for Karla. “Do me a favour? Tell Bette I’m gone, and that I’m sorry.”
“You’ve got it. What do I tell the guy if he comes back?”
That was my fear. I hid my trembling hands at the small of my back. “Lie good, bestie.”
“You don’t want him to find you?”
“Never.” Attacker, rapist,Marchant, whoever he was, I couldn’t let him track me down.
Karla winked elaborately.
I shouldered my bag and took one final glance at the club I’d known would only ever be a bright and glittery detour, then left it behind in a flurry of heel clicks on pavement I’d never walk again.
Chapter 20
Lovelyn
The night swallowed our car. Kane drove like the devil was chasing us, out of the city and on a mission fuelled by something he didn’t explain. Then again, I didn’t attempt to speak, the tension between us stretching so taut I felt like I could crack apart.
He flipped the heat up high, I switched it off.
The music he turned on, ‘Popular Monster’ by Falling In Reverse, I laughed at then stopped.
He took a possessive grasp of my thigh; I shoved him away, even if I craved his fingertips dragging over my skin.
I couldn’t stop the hurt. It wasn’t his fault, though using me to put off Karla had been a dick move, but still my emotions kept on coming. They built in rolling energy I couldn’t contain.
We passed signs telling us we’d entered the Peak District National Park. He was taking me into a wild open space.
I broke the silence that was holding me tight in its grip. “What was your main reason?”
Kane’s dark eyebrow rose in question.
“You said there were two reasons you had me talk to Karla. You told me the second but not the first. What was it?”
He fixed his gaze to the road and worked his jaw. It felt like forever until he replied. “Because kissing you left me temporarily unable to speak.”
Every sturdy defence against him tumbled and fell.
Kane pulled off the road. The headlights ghosted over an empty car park then shut off, plunging us into dark when he killed the engine. Silence settled around.
Abruptly, he jumped from the car and rounded to my side, opening my door. Kane leaned over me to unclip my seat belt, then stepped back to give me space to exit.
Outside in the night air, my eyes adjusted to the moonlight, giving me enough of his features to see the sharp want in them. My heart skipped a beat.
“Yes or no,” he asked.
My feelings-addled brain caught up. He’d brought me somewhere he could act out his favourite fantasy. My thoughts spilled ahead to being hunted, to being caught, to him getting what he needed. Sprinting into the dark was strangely appealing. I’d always struggled to handle my emotions, and what Kane had described could give me the release I needed in more ways than one.
Except it was a two-way street.
