Hunted (4 page)

Chapter Three

Debbie sat down on the corner of the bed. She couldn’t stop thinking about the life she had lived, the life she allowed herself to live. If she had been stronger, smarter, braver, then maybe she would have left sooner. Maybe she would have runaway after she realized her mother wouldn’t protect her. She was in Vegas, there were plenty of runaways—of course they had all landed on the streets or in far worse situations than she had been in. No, looking back she didn’t know what she could have done differently. But looking at today she was sure of what she would do differently now.

She left out the guest room Keadon had stashed her in—a nice smaller room with a twin bed, a small dresser and a chair in the corner for sitting and reading next to the Tiffany lamp. The mattress was comfortable and felt new which told her he hadn’t had company to sleep in it since he got it. She doubted it came with the house. Of course she didn’t know that for sure. She just knew that the blue and silver setup of the room reminded her of Keadon. He always said he was a red white and blue man both in the patriotic spirit and in his taste in colors; although she noticed he favored more silver than white when it came to colors in his home.

She walked down the hall to the master bedroom and leaned against the open door. “Keadon,” she called to him. His back was to her and he turned sharply to face her.

“Good God woman I thought I told you months ago to stop doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“You walk too quietly. I’m usually good at picking up on what’s coming at me, but you…good God, you just appear.”

Her lips curled upward. “Like magic?” She could use some magic right now because what she was about to do was crazy, but she had to do this. She had to know.

He laughed. “Something like that. Now, did you need something?”

“Yeah.”

“What?”

“You.” She exhaled slowly trying to calm her raging nerves. She had to be crazy. No, maybe she was just scared she wasn’t going to make it out of this and she didn’t want to die not knowing what it felt like to be with a man she loved, to give herself freely instead of having everything be taken from her. She loved Keadon. She wanted him. She wanted this moment with him. She wanted it now because she loved him, but maybe a little more because she didn’t know if she was going to live and she didn’t want to die without experiencing what it would be like to have him love her.

“Debbie…”

“I could die, Keadon. I could die tomorrow and I don’t want to die not knowing.” She slowly untied her robe. “I don’t want to die not knowing what it would be like to have you love me.” She slid the soft thin cotton fabric from her shoulders and let the robe drop to the floor. She stood before him naked, completely exposed. No scar left hidden, nothing to hide behind, to cling to for safety. This was her, raw, vulnerable, honest. “Just for one night, Keadon. Just give me one night; please?”

He looked her over from head to toe and back before walking toward her slowly as if forcing his feet to move toward her. His expression was blank, not giving way to any of his secret thoughts. When he stood in front of her he kneeled down, lifted the burgundy wine fabric into his hands and stood before her. Softly, skillfully, he wrapped her robe around her shoulders, waited for her to put her arms inside and then he pulled it closed, tying the belt to seal it. Well, he had made his choice. He had told her what she hoped wasn’t true. He couldn’t love her, not like this. Suddenly she felt more naked now than she did when she stood before him without any covering.

“No,” he said as he put his finger under her chin and pushed upward to make her eyes meet his. “Not like this. Not because you’re scared you won’t live. Not because you’re scared that I can’t protect you.”

“I don’t doubt you, Keadon. It’s just I know Jason. I know what he’s capable of doing. In my heart I feel as if I know he killed my mom. I know he did it, no matter what the doctors said. He’s a man who does what he wants no matter the cost. I just don’t know if that kind of evil can be stopped.”

“I will stop it,” he said to her. “And I won’t take you, not like this. When we come together it will be out of passion, out of love, not out of fear.”

“I see.” He didn’t want her.

“No, I don’t think you do. I plan to take all of you, Debbie.” He ran his thumb along her lower lip and his other hand clasped hold of her waist. “All of you,” his voice lowered and then he slipped his hand in her hair, pulled her head back and his mouth came down on hers. Hot hunger exploded within her the moment his tongue slipped inside her mouth. She kissed him back, rising on tiptoe and deepening the kiss as one hand fisted her hair and the other squeezed her waist tightly.

She clutched the side of his arms and held on tightly as she pressed her body against his. He owned this kiss; taking what he wanted, giving her what she wanted. She wanted to feel this, feel him, and while she wanted more this moment alone was stoking the flames of the fire inside.

When he pulled back she was breathless, panting as he slid his tongue along her bottom lip taking one last taste of her. He released his hand from her hair and brought the palm of his hand to her cheek. His thumb brushed along her soft skin as she looked up into his eyes.

“You’re welcome to sleep in here with me tonight, Debbie—just sleep. I won’t take you tonight—no matter how much I want to.”

She smiled at him. “Okay,” she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. “But I’m not just using you to scratch something off a bucket list, Keadon. I really do love you. I do.”

“I know,” he mumbled. “I know you love me. But I know you’re scared too. And when I come inside you I don’t want to think you’re letting me there now because you think you won’t ever get another chance.”

“Okay,” she sighed. “But you know if you want to tomorrow I’m good with that.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, because I don’t know how long I can wait knowing you’re stark naked under that robe.” His hands caressed her body through the material. “Do you always sleep naked?”

She stepped back a little. “No. When I was a kid I slept in as many clothes as I could put on because I thought they would keep me safe. When I ran from him I started sleeping in sleep shorts, and sometimes pants. I always had to be ready to run, but sleeping in layers upon layers of clothing just reminded me of those nights with him so I tried to wear less to bed. I still feel the need to be ready to run sometimes; that doesn’t really go away.” Tonight was just different—special. She had come to a decision so after her shower she just didn’t feel the need to put on another layer of clothing.

“Come on,” he took hold of her hand. “We should get some sleep.”

“One more kiss,” she smiled at him.

He groaned. “I don’t think I could stop with just one kiss, Debbie.”

“Sure you could. You are a man of great restraint.”

His eyes narrowed into tight slits before he braced his hands on her arms and yanked her against his body. “Don’t tempt me, kid.”

“I’m not a ki—”

He conquered her mouth once more and she surrendered, kissing him back with the same passion he was giving to her. Maybe she was trying to tempt him. Maybe she was trying to make him realize they didn’t need to wait. Whatever her purpose was, she didn’t succeed because as she had said, Keadon was a man of great restraint. He pulled back, winked at her and then directed her to which side of the bed she would be free to sleep on.

Keadon got into bed beside her but he didn’t pull her into his arms. She noticed he also kept his gun loaded and in the drawer of the stand beside the bed. She understood he was on high alert. She rolled on to her side and drifted off to sleep.

She wasn’t sure how long she slept, but she was well aware of how she felt when her eyes snapped open. Her heart was racing like the Bullet Train going downhill as Keadon held both her wrists in his hands and used his body to hold her down.

“Debbie, it’s okay. It’s okay. You’re safe.”

She heard his words but that didn’t slow her racing heart.

“It’s okay,” he repeated softly.

When she settled enough to focus in on where she was, to really realize the man holding her was not the monster from her dreams, she felt guilty for awakening him. “I’m sorry,” she said breathlessly.

“Don’t be. You couldn’t control that.”

“I awakened you.”

“You were fighting the covers, tossing and turning in your sleep.” He still held on to her wrists but his grip had softened. He slid his index finger up and down her skin.

“I can’t escape him, not in my waking world, not in my dream world. I can’t escape him. I’ll never escape him.”

“You’ll escape him.” He released her wrists, removed his body from hers and rolled on to his back.

“How do you know that? Even if he doesn’t find me here this time he won’t ever give up. How do you know I’ll ever escape him?”

“Because I’m going to kill him.” He spoke those words so easily as if he were talking about cleaning the house or taking out the trash. That moment was when she realized Keadon wasn’t thinking he would hide her and make them think she left. How could he when her car was still at the rental house. They would know she wouldn’t leave without her car. Keadon wasn’t preparing for deception; he was preparing for war.

“Keadon,” she rolled on to her side to look at him.

“I can take care of the monster hunting you in your waking world, but you’re going to have to take care of the one in your dream world. I’ll be here to help you, to hold you, but I can’t permanently remove him from your nightmares. I wish I could, but I can’t.”

“I know,” she sighed as she scooted closer to him and laid her head on his chest. He wrapped one arm around her.

“Do you want to talk about it—your nightmare?”

She exhaled slowly. “I was running through the woods when he got me.”

“Jason?”

“No, Corbin. Corbin is kind of his personal guard I guess you would say. He was the driver, but he also made sure he was Jason’s shadow.”

“So he’ll probably come here then, huh?”

“Uh huh,” she brushed her fingers along his hardened abs. “If Jason comes then he’ll be here.”

“What does he look like?”

She figured he wanted to make sure they didn’t miss anybody who tried to blend in with other sport fishermen coming to town for some of their bragged about good “awesome” fishing adventures, or people who were just passing through because they took a wrong turn off the highway. “Corbin’s a big black guy—shorter than you; maybe about five ten or five eleven I think. He’s bald and has flabby muscles—I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s just that he’s big but not fat, but his muscles aren’t solid like yours or Riggs either. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“I understand what you’re saying just fine.”

“He has a serpent tattoo on his face that starts on his forehead and comes down to mid cheek where it coils.” She shivered just thinking about him. Keadon tightened his arm around her. “There’s Jelly. He’ll most likely come too.”