So, I didn’t allow myself to think, I just walked. Then faster and faster until I turned the corner and disappeared into the crowd beyond. Only when I was several streets away did I slow, my breath coming unevenly. I also glanced over my shoulder more than once. Hell, it could have been a hundred times, given the state of panic I was in.
But there was nothing.
For now.
But the question lingered, cold and relentless.
How long would I be able to outrun the inevitable, this time?
How long before…
I was Oblivion’s prey once more?
23
CHALLENGING CONTROL
The cab ride back to my apartment was more like a countdown.
Every red light was a mercy that also felt like a threat. Every turn through familiar streets tightened something in my chest until I forced myself to breathe. I stared out of the window, watching the city blur past, trying to convince myself that I had done the right thing. Bo had told me to play along. To be clever. To gather information and to stay close.
But playing along required steadiness, and I was beginning to realize that I did not possess nearly as much of it as I had thought. Certainly not enough to play this good girl game by walking freely into my own prison.
Oblivion unsettled me in ways that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the way my pulse betrayed me around him. That was the real danger. Not the power. Not the threats.
The pull.
I wanted to lie and blame it all on some kind of spell he must be casting, but deep down, I knew the truth. That, for some insane reason that went far beyond attraction, I was startingto feel something for him. Something dangerous and forbidden. Something foolish and utterly reckless. Which was the true reason I had run from him, and which was why I would keep running.
Which meant that by the time the cab stopped outside my building, I had almost convinced myself that running was not cowardice but strategy. It was self-preservation. If I disappeared for long enough, if I could stay hidden just until Bo found me, then he could take me to this other Enforcer. To this secure sanctuary he spoke of, where, perhaps, this would all tilt back in my favor.
All I needed was time.
Inside my apartment, the silence pressed in around me. I moved quickly, too quickly, pulling a suitcase from beneath my bed and throwing it open on the mattress. Clothes were dragged from hangers without thought, shoved inside in uneven folds. Toiletries swept from the bathroom shelf into a wash bag. My laptop. Charger. Passport.
I didn’t have a plan beyond that of leaving, nor did I know where I would go. I just knew I couldn’t stay. But then halfway through stuffing a sweater into the case, a knock sounded at the door.
My heart stopped.
For one hopeful, desperate second, I thought it might be Bo. I crossed the apartment quickly, convinced it would be him, and opened the door without checking.
Unfortunately, I was wrong… very, very wrong.
It wasn’t Bo.
It was him.
Oblivion stood on the threshold as though he had always belonged there, one hand resting casually in the pocket of his coat, the other at his side. His expression was calm and composed, but his eyes held something darker, almost weary.
“You’re starting to make this a habit,” he said evenly, and the air left my lungs in a rush. I moved instinctively to close the door, but his hand shot out, palm bracing firmly against it. The wood hit resistance with a dull thud, and for a split second, we stood there, tension stretched between us.
“Don’t,”he said quietly.
It wasn’t loud, but then again,it didn’t need to be.
He stepped forward, not aggressively, but with the unshakable certainty of someone who had already decided how this would go. I stumbled back as he entered, and he closed the door behind him slowly, the click of the lock echoing far too loudly in my small space.
He folded his arms across his chest and regarded me with the slight raise of his brow.
