I’m hyper-focused, trying to make sense of the timeline to the point that I can’t hear my twin and Easton. Nothing seems more important than crouching low to inspect that last photo.
“Where did all the townspeople go?” The last word has barely left my mouth when the feeling—that feeling—returns.
Violently so.
Whoever it is, he’s behind me. Crowding me with his presence.
Ahe, not ashe. I just know it, the same way I know it isn’t Jett.
Jett smelled like pie, not bleach. Jett didn’t make my stomach flutter, and my body shiver at the same time.
Curiosity and self-preservation rage inside me.
One inner voice tells me to look up, to catch the man’s reflection in the display window. The other insists I close my eyes, like a kid refusing to check the closet in case the monster really is hiding in there.
My ribs feel like they’ll crack because of how hard my heart is slamming against them.
Eventually, fear prevails. I end up squeezing my eyes shut.
It doesn’t stop arousal from building inside me. It’s never happened to me before, but it’s happening now. This sense of familiarity is as if I’ve been to this man’s bed a dozen times before, and my body recognizes him.
Heat pools between my thighs. More than heat…need. My pussy clenches, greedy for fingers that aren’t there.
Hisfingers.
I still can’t bring myself to open my eyes and look at him. Can’t, even though I want to.
Why won’t he do something? End this misery already?
No one’s holding him back. It’s just him and me out here.
I gulp. I fear what he could do to me. I ache for it.
Worst of all, I have a feeling that if I look at him, he’ll snap. He’ll wreck me.
Either that, or I’ll be forced to face my sickness. My attraction to—what? A shadow? A monster lurking in some small town in the middle of nowhere?
This is crazy. Crazy and dangerous. I should play it safe. Get up and run.
I don’t.
My foolish mouth opens. My throat works.
And instead of screaming, I whisper, “Hello?”
4
KNOX
Idon’t wait at my place for Jett to mess with the visitors’ car like he always does. I do it myself as he yaps and yaps.
For once, I’m grateful for his big mouth. The longer he’s out there running his tour, the more time I have to slice through their gas line. To make sure they don’t leave.
He’s never screwed it up, but there’s always a first time. It’s not a chance I’m willing to take. Not when keeping Skylar here is at stake. That was why I turned on the signal jammer myself as soon as they parked, before coming closer to watch Skylar from the shadows.
Grease coats my fingers by the time I’m done. I wipe them on my jeans, adjust my mask, then slide a hand into my pocket, wrapping it around the green charm I brought from home. The one from the key ring. The one I’d taken and kept before I even knew Skylar existed.
Before her eyes—in that perfect shade of green—stared at me through Jett’s screen. She looked at me like she was born to be mine.
