Page 25 of Kyle

One hand left the sheet, shot out, and grabbed my wrist. “Will you stay here with me for a few minutes?”

It looked like it pained her to ask.

“Of course.”

I was half-sitting on the mattress and she moved over, giving me more room.

What was I supposed to do now? Sit like this with my ass on the edge of the bed? Lie next to her? That didn’t sound like a good option for a variety of reasons. One being I wanted desperately to be in this bed with her, just not under these circumstances.

Anaya rolled to her side facing me and shook her head against the pillow.

“I’m being ridiculous. You have to be exhausted. You don’t—”

I made a split-second decision, one I hoped wouldn’t bite me in the ass but I couldn’t stop myself from making it. I simply couldn’t pull myself away. The unexplainable tether was shortening with every moment I was with her. I was playing a dangerous game that would likely have disastrous consequences. But the fuck of it was, I was willing to pay the penalty if it meant I got to be near her.

“Scoot over a little more.”

When she moved to the other side of the queen-sized bed, I kicked off my boots, pulled my holster and gun free, set them on the nightstand, and laid down next to her on my side.

Face-to-face but plenty of room between us. Space I needed more than her.

“This okay?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “I swear, I’m normally not this much of a baby.”

“Tonight was hard on all of us. More so on you.”

“And Declan, too.”

I tamped down the jealousy that had crept up at hearing her concern for my friend and agreed, “Yes, and for Dec, too.”

“I haven’t had a nightmare in a long time,” she started. “Not even after what happened in the village after the rebels came and destroyed everything. I could hear people crying and begging. But I hadn’t had any bad dreams.”

Anaya’s eyes left mine and she focused on my hand between us. I opened my fingers and left it palm side up in invitation but made no move to touch her.

Much to my shock she started to trace the lines on my hand with her finger. The touch so simple, yet it still garnered a strong reaction.

“It was because I was thinking about the girls,” she whispered.

My attention went to the book still on the bed, now laying by her hip and something dawned on me.

“In that book, the woman is kept in—”

“I’m not a total freak. I don’t get triggered from reading a book. I know the difference between reality and fiction. Hell, I worked with missing children for almost five years.”

“What does trigger you?”

“Normally nothing. Well, that’s kind of a lie. Obviously, you saw my reaction to being caged in. I don’t like to feel trapped or restrained in any way. That always sends me over the edge. But tonight, it was seeing those men go into the house. And knowing what was happening to the girls.”

I nodded my understanding, even though I could never understand what Anaya was feeling, I had rescued my fair share of trafficked women. Both young and old. Shitbags didn’t have an age preference. Older women were at just as much risk as the young ones.

“Tell me something about you?” she asked quietly.

I thought about something lighthearted I could tell her and found I had to search way back before I could come up with something that didn’t involve death and destruction.

“I grew up in small town in eastern Wyoming called Pine Bluffs. Population twelve-hundred.”

“Twelve hundred?” she gasped.