Of Eternal Life (5 page)

“Where are we going?”

“Home.”

After grabbing her hand, her kidnapper had dragged her through a neighborhood that had fallen prey to foreclosures — no-trespassing signs dotting every window — before picking this dilapidated home in the middle of a cul-de-sac. Now, they sat in awkward silence against opposite walls of an empty, but filthy, living room as the setting sun leaked light. The man was getting antsier by the second, his gaze growing sharper and more uncomfortable.

Abilene tore her eyes from his to survey the room, noting with distaste the evidence that an animal had made, and then abandoned, a nest in one of the corners. She couldn’t prevent a shudder. It was bad enough that she’d passed out twice in front of him today, but in a very short time — Abilene eyed the sun’s shadows — it was going to be dark in here. He was bound to hear her sobs and notice that she was curled in a fetal position. People rarely missed that.

She had to break the silence. “What’s your na — ”

“How about a bedtime story?” he demanded.

“Um — ” she faltered. “Okay?”

“You tell it.”

She swallowed, apprehension tickling the back of her throat.

“In fact,” he continued, “I have a request.” He tapped his chin in pretend contemplation. “Oh yes,” he looked at her again. “The Garden of Eden.”

She jerked her head back at the unexpected words. “A
Bible
story?” Oh God, was he some kind of religious zealot?

That muscle in his jaw ticked again. “I’ll even get you started,” he paused. “Once upon a time … .”

Her mind knotted. She wasn’t even sure she remembered any stories having to do with the Garden of Eden. And she was pretty sure she had never heard a Bible story begin with
Once upon a time
. He cleared his throat, his glare hostile. Ignoring his bizarre request was not an option right now.

“O-once upon a time,” she paused, rubbing her damp palms against her jeans. She started again, “Once upon a time, Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden.” She shot him a glance. He waved her on impatiently.

Okay, so far, so good. She scanned her mind for what came next. “Um, they had a lot of pets and got all of their food from an apple tree?” The inflection of her voice rose at the end, turning her latest statement into a question. She winced.

He snorted. “How many apple trees you ever seen in a desert?”

Desert
? Any picture books she’d ever seen had always shown the Garden of Eden as a lush, green paradise.

“I don’t know the story!” she retorted. Chills were creeping up her arms, leaving goose bumps in their wake. Her mind was whispering at her to pay attention. That this was important — to them both. She took a shaky breath and looked at him from the corners of her eyes.

His face was a mask of anger. “Try again. There were two trees. What were their names?”

A spark fired in her mind. Okay, yes. She remembered this part. She could appease him and maybe bring down the intensity. “In the garden were two trees. The Tree of Eternal Life … .” The other’s name was just out of reach — “And the Tree of Good and Evil,” she finished in a rush. She looked at him, again, unsure of what his reaction would be, praying it wouldn’t be violence. Why this story was affecting him so much, she didn’t know, but she sensed she should tread cautiously.

He grunted. “Close ‘nough.” He waved her on. She hesitated. He sighed. “These trees came with rules, yeah? What were they?”

She frowned. His intensity had
increased
. He was getting more and more aggravated as the story progressed. She couldn’t help feeling she was one slip-up away from retribution. But, retribution for
what
?

He clapped his hands once to get her attention again. “They could eat from the Tree of Life as long as — ”

“I don’t
know — ” Oh God, please don’t hurt me
.

He growled in frustration, his hand swiping the air to erase her words, “As long as they promised not to — ” A beat of silence. He snapped his fingers at her.

She jumped. “Not to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil.” He leaned forward in a crouch, for all the world looking as though he were prepared to spring.

“And what did the Tree of Life
do,
Abilene?” His voice had gotten quiet. Low. It was so much worse than screaming in her face, and she was afraid of him. She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

“M-made them live f-forever,” she stammered, flinching at the fear in her tone. Her voice was so soft there was no chance he had heard it from his spot across the room, but his body relaxed in response to her words, fight seeming to drain out of him in a rush.

He leaned his head back, and it hit the wall with a thud. She could see his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he struggled to control his emotions. She refused to look away from him, waiting for what he would do next. Would he fly across the room and hit her? Break down and cry? Scream in rage?

He shoved a hand through his hair and exhaled. Looking at her with baleful eyes he spoke without tone. “Go to sleep. It’ll be dark soon.”

She watched as he stretched out on the floor and draped one arm over his eyes. His chest continued to rise and fall with his shuddering breaths.

He’s not well
. Her hand rose to her throat, and she could feel her heartbeat fluttering beneath her fingers. She looked to the window as the sun sank below the horizon.

She had to get away from him. The last few minutes had confirmed that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Even now, she could see him struggling to regain control, and she knew the only reason she wasn’t dead right now was simple luck of the draw.

She had seen murder in his eyes, and she had been the target.

• • •

That had not gone as he’d hoped. As he’d
planned
. Eli lay on the floor with the coolness of his forearm pressed to his eyes. He was so sure he’d been about to trip her up. No ordinary person could have made it through that story without revealing what they knew. That is, if they
knew
anything to start with.

Doubt aimed at himself, crept through him like a plague.

What if you’re wrong about her
, it whispered to him. Oh
God
, how he wanted to be wrong. He needed her to be innocent of the crimes he suspected. Crimes against his own body. His soul.

Even with the need for vengeance roiling through him since learning of Abilene’s connection to the Tormentor, he’d been beating back an insatiable hunger for her as a woman. As a lover. Even, God help him, as a friend.

Eli
liked
her. His time in the car with her had revealed glimpses of the type of personality he’d always gone weak in the knees for when he had been younger — and free. Growing up as he had in the South, he’d been surrounded by strong, sassy women, and this tiny, angelic-looking creature would have been able to hold her own against any of them.

He knew he scared her; he’d seen fear flash across her expressive eyes several times today. But more than once when that had happened, she’d belted him one. A verbal check that only helped along the admiration he was fighting back as though his life depended on it.

And his life may very well depend on it. He’d been lulled into a sense of trust before. The Tormentor had talked to him often in the beginning. Assured him that he was helping his country. That the information they were getting from the experiments could save lives, could mean the difference between winning and losing the stalemate in the Middle East.

That he would do anything in his power to make sure Eli’s pain was minimal. Necessary.

Eli snorted. The death of that trust had been more painful than the physical deaths that had wrought it. That Eli had allowed himself to trust, even knowing trust only led to betrayal, was something Eli would never forgive himself for.

Or repeat.

He heard a noise from Abilene’s side of the room. It sounded like she was fighting against the urge to cry.

Know the feeling
, he thought, as he felt his anger at her soften even more. He resisted as long as he could.

He cleared his throat. “Abilene?”

She gasped, and he could hear her struggle to become even quieter. She didn’t want him to know she was upset. Against his will, that admiration he’d been fighting warmed his chest.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered, immediately cringing.
What’s wrong
? Besides being attacked at gunpoint, being kidnapped, and then being held hostage by a stranger who demanded cryptic bedtime stories?

Guilt joined the admiration.

Oh, great. That’s just…great.
He sighed and began to crawl over to her tiny, shadowed form. He huddled over her, careful not to touch her in any way.

“Hey — ” he began. What was he doing? Was he going to comfort her? That would be counterproductive. And if he were in her shoes — which he had been — he wouldn’t accept comfort from his captor anyway. He was at a loss.

“It’s s-so dark,” she moaned, curling tighter.

His nostrils flared.
She’s afraid of the dark
? He eyed her incredulously.
Well, that’s… disarming.

Damn it, it was fucking endearing was what it was. A force inside him fought to offer her protection, to reward her instead of punish her for revealing this weakness to him.

“Okay,” he wracked his brain for a way to accomplish that without alarming her further. “It’s okay.” Maybe she would feel better if she knew she wasn’t alone? He moved closer to her to sit cross-legged at her back. He edged forward until his knee grazed her spine.

She stiffened, and he cursed, moving away at once.
You’re an idiot
, he told himself. The last thing she would want to be reminded of in the dark was that
he
was there.

But once his knee was no longer in contact, she gasped and clutched at him over her shoulder.

“No!” she cried. “It’s better.” She shuddered and continued in a wavering voice. “It was better for that second.”

He inhaled, completely out of his element. This was powerful stuff. That what he was offering was
working
, that he had made it better, even for a second — he exhaled and edged forward again.

When he made contact with her once more, she breathed out her relief and edged even closer to him until his thigh was pressed flush against her back. His breath caught in his throat.

“Eli,” he whispered.

She stiffened.

“My name is Eli.”

She breathed his name from between parted lips, and Eli felt his heart skip a beat, then quickly make up time.

Holy God, she was …
consuming
. He couldn’t look away from her now-relaxed face and moonlit curls.

“Sleep,” he murmured to her. “I’ll make sure you stay safe.”

She curled her hands beneath her chin in answer. He stared in rapt attention as her breathing slowed.

And he was still guarding her when she slipped deeply into slumber.

Abilene was delectably warm and cozy. She hummed in satisfaction and snuggled deeper into the source of heat at her back. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this rested. This
secure
.

Complete awareness still hovered outside of her mind’s reach, but she felt as though this moment was incongruous with what the situation called for.

She mentally shrugged.
Enjoy it. It’s too good to pass up
. She sighed.

An answering and very male sigh sounded right behind her ear. She froze.

Her mind, sounding much too like her mother, screamed,
Oh my God, Abilene, what have you done?

She was in
bed
with someone? She’d never, in all of her life, been in bed with a man, and that she was now was disconcerting, especially since she couldn’t remember how she got here.

No, not in bed
. The surface beneath her left hip was hard. Unyielding. It felt suspiciously like a floor.

She clenched her eyes tighter, forced herself to calm down, and began to take stock. A man’s arm was curled beneath her cheek as a pillow. A firm thigh was nudged between her own. An arm curved over her side; a hand possessively cupped her breast. Something hard prodded her lower back and warm breaths puffed in her hair, ruffling her curls.

She wasn’t just with a man as she’d first thought. She was
surrounded
by one. He invaded her space completely.

Eli
.

Everything rushed back in, and she began to extricate herself.

At her first movement, Eli’s arm tightened in reflex, urging her closer. He burrowed his face in her hair and rocked his hips, gently thrusting against her. Her eyes flew open, and she pushed herself away from him.

“Whoa!” His morning voice was gravelly and deep. He watched as she scrambled back and jerked to her feet, eyeing him suspiciously. She pressed her back against the wall, trying to get as far from him as possible.

He turned from her slightly and raised a knee, shielding his erection from her view as he rubbed his face and shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs. Her mouth went dry with conflicting emotions, remembering the exciting feel of him against her, the terrible rage in his eyes last night.

“Uhh…I must have fallen asleep.” He brought his eyes up to a point over Abilene’s shoulder. “It must have been scary waking up like that — ” He broke off with an embarrassed grimace, then tried again. “After yesterday … I mean — Aw, hell.” He shoved his hand through his hair and rose to his feet. “I would
never
hurt a woman like that. You don’t have to fear that. Ever. That’s not what this,” he gestured between them while taking several steps toward her, “is about.”

Abilene shrank farther into the wall. “Then what
is
this about?” she asked with as much grit as she could muster.

He stopped before her. “This is about making you pay for what you’ve done.” The words were low and dangerous and teleported Abilene straight back to the previous night when Eli was all coiled strength ready to strike.