“Your performance is very convincing.”
“It should be. I’m naturally gifted.” I lift my chin, pretending his hands on my waist aren’t affecting me at all.
A laugh rumbles out of him, low and rich, as he tightens his hold like he knows exactly how much it irritates me. “You’re definitely something.”
“I’m seconds away from drowning you.” I jab a finger against his chest.
“You’d miss me too much.” His grin turns lazy, infuriating.
I roll my eyes and shove at him again. He barely shifts.
Ridiculous man.
“Do you flirt with every woman by kidnapping her into pools?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.
“Only the difficult ones.” He says it easily, but the way he looks at me feels anything but casual.
“And how lucky for you that I’m impossible.”
“I noticed,” he adds, his smile tilting into a cocky grin that makes me want to slap him.
For one stupid second, I forget everything else. The forest. The helmets. The bruises hidden under my clothes. The ache I still don’t know how to name.
Then a violent crash explodes somewhere above us.
The sound tears through the house so hard I flinch against him. My fingers clutch his shoulders on instinct.
“What the hell was that?” I breathe.
Another bang follows, heavier this time, like something large being thrown across the floor. Cain goes completely still. Every trace of teasing disappears from his face as he looks toward the ceiling.
Suddenly every light in the house dies. Darkness crashes down around us. The pool room is swallowed whole, broken only by thin strips of moonlight through the glass.
My pulse turns savage.
No.
No, no, no.
Don’t tell me they came back.
Fear spreads through me, colder than the water.
Cain’s hand finds my waist again, firmer now, steadying me as much as shielding me.
“Sierra,” he says quietly, his voice hard and sharp now. “Stay behind me.”
Chapter 15
Sierra
Cain is out of the pool before I can process what’s happening, water running off him as he grabs my hand and pulls me after him. The teasing ease he wore seconds ago is gone, replaced by something sharp and unreadable that makes fear creep higher inside me.
“Cain, what do we do?” I ask, stumbling beside him as we move into the hallway.
“Stay here.” He doesn’t even look at me before heading for the stairs.
He takes them quickly and disappears into the darkness before I can say anything. For one second, there is only silence. Then a violent crash erupts above me, followed by the scrape of something heavy dragging across the floor. I flinch so hard my shoulder hits the wall.
