“With you?” Hope sparked within me. I hated the idea of leaving his house, but if he were with me, maybe I didn’t hate the idea as much.
He continued to move around the room and out of my line of sight. “You don’t need to worry. No one will touch you. Not with my brand on you.”
I hated the brand, the tattoo. It itched horribly.
“What will I do?” I asked again, confused.
“Not a lot, but enough to keep you under the radar.”
I rubbed my fingers together, enjoying the sound the dry skin on my thumb made as it moved against the skin on my forefinger. I did it with both hands and closed my eyes. I was going to work. In a garage. With people and cars. A laugh snaked its way up my throat and bubbled free past my lips. It was ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.
“What the fuck are you laughing at?”
Sitting there on the floor, I laughed louder, the force of it hurting my throat, and then I laughed until my eyes were leaking tears. Eagle crouched in front of me and glared at me, and I laughed even harder, half of me amazed at the foreign sound of laughter, the other half feeling delirious.
His big hands grasped my shoulders and shook me roughly. And I laughed harder still.
He shook me viciously then, cursing as his fingers dug into my skin. His black eyes ignited with fury, but I couldn’t help it, I kept laughing. I laughed and laughed until my stomach ached and my head throbbed.
Then all at once the laughter left me in a gust of misery, and tears filled my eyes. My sobs broke free and I collapsed forward, into Eagle. He jerked back and fell onto his butt, but I was desperate, needing something, needing him. I reached for him, dragging myself up onto his lap even though I was unwanted and uninvited, hiccupping through my tears.
He was as hard as steel, but as cold as his demeanor was, his body was so very warm. Gripping his shirt, I pressed my face into his chest and inhaled deeply, burying myself in his scent of sweat and anger, and cried harder.
I hated this place and everyone in it. But Eagle had kept me safe, had made good on all his promises. More than that, now I understood the difference between being safe and alone versus being safe and protected by another. It was a relief to have another body to provide warmth, another voice to overshadow the many in my head, another person to fill the lonely space around me.
I still missed my cave, the safety it provided me, but clinging to Eagle, feeling his warmth beneath my fists, inhaling the scent of such a strong and formidable man, I didn’t miss it quite as much as before.
Chapter Nineteen
Eagle
From across the musty garage, seated behind a broken desk with my feet propped up across the top of it, I watched as Adam gave Autumn a pat on her shoulder. She flinched away at first, then simply stood there frozen, looking uncomfortable. Several seconds ticked by before she gave him a smile that better resembled a grimace, and hurried to return to her work.
I snorted. Work. She wasn’t working; she was washing vehicles, the only damn thing anyone could come up with for her to do. A girl like Autumn who had no knowledge whatsoever of cars, who was half out of her mind to begin with, was of little use when it came to the mechanical workings of an engine. Or anything, actually. She was pretty fucking useless.
Yet Adam had suggested she wash the SUV he’d just finished repairing, handed her a bucket of dirty water and an even dirtier rag, and put her to work. Every once in a while he’d stop what he was doing and check on her, and this time his visit had ended with a pat on her shoulder.
As for me, I hadn’t done jack-fucking-shit all damn day. Not one goddamn thing. For starters, I was downright exhausted. What little sleep I usually got, always riddled with nightmares, I hadn’t even managed the night before. I’d been too busy ...
You can say it, the voice taunted me.You were too busy comforting her.
Grimacing, I shifted uncomfortably in the rickety chair and rearranged the position of my legs on the desk. I hadn’t comforted her, not at all. I’d only allowed her to use me for comfort, like a child uses a teddy bear.
My frown deepened. Had I just equated myself to a fucking teddy bear?
It wasn’t as if she’d given me much of a choice. She’d wrapped herself around me, holding on for dear life while she’d sobbed herself damn near dry. Every time I made a move to untangle myself from her, she’d only cried harder and dug her nails in deeper.
What was I supposed to do? Shove her away? Laugh at her?
That’s what you would have done, the voice said,if it were anyone else.
That was true. I’d never been an understanding sort of man, even before the world had ended. I’d always been more of a doer than a listener, far more comfortable with coming up with solutions than I was in discussing ... anything at all.
I’d always had very little tolerance for temper tantrums and tears. That was the sort of shit women were better at contending with, not me.
But this girl—
I paused to glance at her again, running my eyes down the slim length of her. Not a girl, but a woman, and dressed in one of Grannie’s ridiculous creations, her curves weren’t just on display, they were showcased.
