Page 67 of Unmasking Her Shadow

I’m looking down at my phone texting Ki on the way to the side parking lot where my car is. I manage to type out…Can’t wait to see — before there’s a presence behind me. It all happens too fast. I look up from my phone, and then a hand is covering my mouth and nose, and an arm is around my chest, pinning me to their body. The items in my hands crash to the pavement.

I can’t breathe.

Red.

I tug at the hand blocking my air, scratching my skin in any attempt to pry the fingers off. I can’t b-breathe. Darkness creeps into my vision, and I glimpse the glow of a mask in the reflection of my driver’s side window. Kioni wouldn’t hurt me like this.

Red. I scream. The word echoing in my mind, unable to escape.

My hands lose their grip and fall limply to my sides, and my knees give out. The ground shift beneath me, and then I’m lying down, but my mind and body are too weak to move. To fight.

Kioni wouldn’t do this.

But I know she will find me.

She always finds me.

40

Kioni

Everyone eyes me suspiciously as I walk through the station to my locker. When I look at my reflection, I understand why. A goofy smile is plastered across my face. Fuck, I’m happy. Nobody can ruin my mood today. Not even a naked crackhead. Ryker is waiting with his back resting up against the car for me, and furrows his brows when I approach.

“What’s with all that?” he asks, zigzagging his finger in the air around my face.

“She told me she loved me,” I sigh happily.

“Hell yeah, Ki!” He slaps me between my shoulder blades before getting into the passenger side. Apparently, I’m driving today. I text Sam before I get on the road and I’m unable to.

Me: I love you to the moon, little wolf.

Every inconvenience and shit show gets the same treatment from me—I don’t give a fuck because I get to go home to my girl and I’m going to make her scream those three words over and over until the neighbors are calling our coworkers to make us stop. Ryker may need to sleep at her place tonight.

I wish I could talk Sam into quitting one of her jobs. Preferably the studio because I despise getting off work and going home to her not being there. Despite being an inconvenience for me, she loves her job, so I’ll manage. One of these days, though, I’ll have to let it slip how much money we actually have. That could very well be her deciding factor on whether she wants to maintain two jobs. Well…three if you count the once a week yoga classes at the station. I wonder if she would ever partake in me and Ryker’s after-hours activities. Hmm…Sam in a mask. Ah, fuck. Now I’m picturing it. She would probably ask for a balaclava with flowers on it. I wonder if they have those? I’m getting ahead of myself. Sam may be wild in the sheets, but she is a darling in the streets. Crime is more than likely not on her bucket list.

Speaking of crime…I access the cameras at the studio to check in on her when we sit down at our desks to finish up paperwork. I’m not cut out for this kind of work. Near-death experiences are perfectly acceptable. Paperwork…just stab me in the eyeballs and call it a day. She’s in what I now know is the reverse warrior pose. My stomach flutters at the sight of her. I’m one lucky bitch.

Mine, the possessive side of my heart screams.

“You’re not her stalker anymore,” Ryker teases, peering over my shoulder.

“She’s too incredible, too addicting. I’ll never be able to stop.”

To be honest, I don’t believe she would ever want me to, anyway. It’s comforting for her. And it satisfies me enough throughout the day to keep my sanity in check. It’s hard not knowing what she’s doing and where she’s at.

“I think if I were that obsessed with someone, it would be draining.”

“Does breathing tire you?”

“Breathing?”

“Yeah, like right now. Are you drained from…breathing.”

“No,” he drags out.

“She’s my oxygen. Without her, I feel like I’m suffocating. When I think of her, see her, smell her, touch her…it’s all like a breath of fresh air. She’s my lifeline.”

He grabs my shoulders and squeezes them. “Sounds exhausting.”