Page 360 of Faking the Goal

I survived those encounters by counting every second until I could get away.

Tonight, I invited him inside.

My gaze jerks toward the front door.

Six forty-seven.

Thirteen minutes.

My chest tightens so abruptly that my next breath stops halfway in. I press one hand flat against my chest, willing my heart to slow down before it bruises itself against my ribs.

My lungs refuse to cooperate. Each breath comes too shallow, barely reaching past my throat before the next one crowds in behind it.

I close my eyes.

Immediately, Charlie's masked face appears behind them.

The metal bat rising over his shoulder.

My eyes fly open.

"No," I whisper to the empty room. "Not now."

I need something else to hold on to.

Someone else.

Kentaro.

The thought of him enters my mind like warmth slipping beneath a locked door.

I picture his face instead. The tiny green flecks hidden inside his hazel eyes. The way his expression softens whenever he looks at me, even when he is trying to stay angry. The quiet pressure of his hand wrapped around mine.

My breathing begins to steady.

Barely.

But enough.

God, I wish he were here.

The longing hits me so fiercely that my eyes sting.

I wish he were standing behind me with his arms around my waist, his chin resting against the top of my head while he tells me that I can do this. I wish I could turn and bury my face in his chest, breathe in the familiar scent of his body wash, and let the solid weight of him convince my nervous system that nothing in this room can reach me.

I have never felt safer than I do with Kentaro.

Not because he treats me as though I am helpless. He does not. He knows I can fight. He knows I can survive. But when he is beside me, surviving no longer feels like something I have to do alone.

Every selfish part of me wants him hidden somewhere close. Behind the storage-room door. At the end of the hall. Near enough that I could call his name and have him appear before the fear finishes leaving my mouth.

But that is exactly why he cannot be here.

Charlie's obsession with me is dangerous.

His hatred for Kentaro is worse.

If tonight goes wrong—if Charlie realizes the truth before the officers move, if he somehow finds a way through the perimeter or comes armed with something no one expects—I need to know Kentaro is nowhere near him.