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“You are safe here.” He said it so off the cuff and confident.
God, she wished she could believe it. “You have no idea how beautiful that sounds.”
“He hurt you?” he asked, and she didn’t miss the growl in his voice.
She shrugged up one shoulder. “It was another life.”
“What happened to your nose?” he asked.
A flush of heat took her cheeks, and she looked away as anger consumed her. “Too deep,” she muttered.
“Too deep, too fast. You’re leaving soon, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Then what does it matter? I’ll be leaving soon too. Who will I tell? I don’t talk to anyone.”
Hallie wrapped her arms around her legs, rested her cheek on her knees, and watched him. “No one at all?”
He shook his head.
“What about your brother?”
“Captain? Chh. I haven’t talked to him in years. I don’t even think about him. Ever. We split ways a long time ago.”
“That’s sad. What about your parents? They are still alive. They’re in the Ashe Crew. Or what about the Warlanders?”
He inhaled deeply, and she could see the shutdown on his face. “Too deep.”
Oooooh. They were both messes.
“He broke my nose, and then he wouldn’t let me go to the doctor to fix it. He said he wanted me to be reminded every time I looked in the mirror.”
“Reminded of what?” he said in a voice too deep and gritty to be human.
“To never talk back.”
Gunner let off an empty laugh that filled the clearing. “I’m going to kill him someday.” There was a promise in his voice.
Chills rippled up her spine again. He sounded so sure of himself. She believed him, and she didn’t know what terrified her more—the fact that she wasn’t running, or the fact that she wanted him to.
Mess, mess, mess.
“He’ll get tired of chasing me eventually. He will find someone else to manipulate.”
“Why you?”
She shrugged. “I ask myself that a lot. I’m nothing special.” She didn’t say more.
“How soon are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Jesus. Does Corey know?”
“No. I don’t do goodbyes. I’m kind of weak about them.”
He stared at her for a while. “I can hear when you tell the truth.”
