Chapter Three
Charlie studiedthe man who’d succeeded in pinning her to the ground. She didn’t know if she was madder at him or herself for losing the fight, but either way, she wasn’t ready to give up. She’d been fighting since she was captured and brought to this island three years ago, and she would fight until the day she died.
He said he wasn’t the enemy, but the problem with this place was it was difficult to tell who was and wasn’t the enemy. She wasn’t about to take this guy at face value just because he said so.
She calculated ways to get out of this mess as she took in the blood streaking his face and the dark circles rimming his eyes from the nose she broke. She assumed his nose might be nice when it wasn’t swollen to nearly twice its normal size, but it was impossible to tell now.
In the dim light filtering through the hole, she saw the malice and annoyance glimmering in his eyes, but he hadn’t hurt her, and at this point, he could kill her.
Which led her back to the belief he wasn’t an enemy. She would be dead, or he would be hauling her off to become part of the hunt again, and then he would search the tunnel behind her. He may not know it was there yet, but he would discover it soon.
A chill ran down her back as she recalled the tunnel behind her and where it led.Dylan!He was back there, and with the pit open, he was exposed and vulnerable. She could not leave her son unprotected.
Charlie studied her enemy more carefully as she became aware of the heat of his hands around her wrists and the warmth of his body against hers.Not the time!
Still, she couldn’t deny the thrill of attraction she felt toward this man. She glared at him while he studied her. She was willing to bet it wasn’t every day this vamp got his ass kicked, and she’d done a pretty impressive number on him.
But it didn’t matter how much blood she’d drawn, shewason the bottom, and he had won. She’d fought a fair number of vampires since becoming one, and she never lost. If she had lost, she’d be dead or somewhere being tortured to find out how she survived this long on the island.
She’d never reveal her secrets to the bastards who ran this place, but torture wasnoton her bucket list. Nope, she’d rather be killed outright. But if she died, she would be leaving Dylan behind. At the possibility of never seeing him again, her heart constricted and tears pricked her eyes, but no way would she shed one in front of this guy.
Anger over her inability to have seen this guy coming filled her. It was only fair that if she had to bear the burden of seeing bad shit happening to others, she should be able to see when bad shit was about to happen to her. But nope, she’d been cursed with an ability that never gave her an ounce of foretelling before her life made a U-turn.
Some warning about this guy might have been fantastic. Or better, if she had some notice that while walking home from work, she and Dylan would be jumped by a couple of vamps and tossed into this hell where no one was meant to survive.
Staring at the woman, Jack practically saw the wheels spinning in her head as she looked from him to her hands to the hole above him. If he eased his grip on her, she’d be on him like a Tasmanian devil on speed. She may be slender, but she packed a punch, and he felt the strength of her muscles beneath his hands.
He should be trying to figure out how to get out of this without losing his teeth; instead, he found himself admiring the unusual colors of her eyes. Clear and bright, one was a pure Kelly green while the other was an indigo blue, and both stared at him like he was enemy number one.
“I’m not the enemy,” he said again.
Charlie’s mouth pursed as her eyes raked his lithe frame. “Hmm.”
Jack felt his frustration mounting. “Look, if you’re fighting the assholes who attacked my friends and me before throwing us in cages, then we are on thesameside.”
“I’ll be the judge of what side we’re on.”
“Has anyone ever strangled you before?” he asked in exasperation.
“No, but I’m sure many have wanted to.”
“I’m sure of it too.”
Charlie grinned at him. She was becoming increasingly convinced he was another one of the hunted, but she enjoyed annoying him. Because of his broken nose, his voice became squeaky when his annoyance with her mounted.
“How do I know I can trust you?” he countered.
“You can’t,” she replied, and he glowered at her.
Jack didn’t know why he wanted this woman to trust him, but he disliked her wariness of him. “I’m Jack.”
“And?”
Jack’s jaw clenched, but before he could respond, a noise from above pulled his attention away from her. The woman went still beneath him as a branch broke and then voices drifted to him.
“I told you I heard something,” someone said from above, and a shadow fell over the hole.
Charlie bucked her hips to get Jack’s attention. “Let me up.”
