Page 119 of Juniper Unraveling

“I’m sorry, I—”

“And then you come back? Why? Why are you here?”

“I’m only here because I was brought to you.”

“Brought to me. Like I deserve that. Like I ain’t on God’s shit-list for everything I’ve done.” He paces in front of me, rubbing his nape, then stops and shakes his head. “You weren’t supposed to come back to me. To this.” He throws the bottle at the brick wall beside him, shattering the glass on impact, and I flinch. “Not to me!” The anger in his voice thunders along my spine, and a watery shield covers my eyes.

“Well, I’m here. And finding out about you wasn’t exactly easy to swallow at first, either. The girls, I get it now. You save them from Legion. But I was sold. Rigs bought me. He didn’t save me.”

“If you knew the sick fucks some of those girls’ve been sold to.” His eyes sweep over me and back toward the mountains. “Rigs spared you, too. We’re no saints, Wren. Nobody saves anyone out here. And nothing’s free. Can’t all shack up with us. And they won’t survive alone out there.” He jerks his chin toward the open desert. “So we trade when we have to.”

“Then maybe it’s better if I go. Because the boy I used to know wouldn’t have traded me for anything. I know that for a fact. He’d never let anything hurt me.”

His chest rises and falls, his lips press to a hard line, and what seems like an eternity passes in the silence between us.

His eyes find me again. “I didn’t plan to let you go. And I’d never let anything hurt you. Not anything, or anyone.” Brows drawn tight, he shakes his head. “Not even me.”

“The tattoo. Can I see it? The one they put there?”

With neither a word, nor hesitation, he turns around, pushing the bunched skull mask down, as he runs his thumb over the short crop of his hairline. There above the glisten of sweat across his neck, hardly discernible beneath the cover of his hair, is the number I memorized. The one I whispered every night for years, praying to God he didn’t die in pain.

He twists back around to face me, a vulnerable tormented expression claiming his face, and my heart feels as if it’s going to explode in my chest.

When I lurch toward him, I move on instinct, colliding into his hard body. My arms wrap around his neck as I crash my lips to his. He’s stiff at first, muscles rigid, hardly moving, but vibrating with raw power, like a mountain lion poised to strike.

I kiss him harder, running my fingers across his nape, until he relents just enough, his body relaxing just a little.

He kisses me back, and his arms wrap around me. Tighter. Tighter.

The taste of him is heaven against my tongue, and his fervent kisses send me into a dizzy haze. He lifts me from the ground, as we stumble backward until his back hits the wall. He spins around, and the warm bricks of the building press into my spine.

His kiss is familiar, both a comfort and a thrill that winds my stomach as he pins me to the wall. Our breaths mingle, teeth clash, tongues dueling in a desperate bid for more. More.

He growls as he devours my lips, and I flinch at the sting of pain when he bites them.

My head tips back at the tug of my hair, as he licks my hammering pulse and carves his name into my flesh with his teeth.

“Take me somewhere, Six. Take me away before I wake up.”

When he pulls his face from my neck, his pupils are dilated, eyes riveted on my mouth, and he shakes his head.

“I’ve waited too long for you. Too long, little bird.”

Chapter 33

Arms wrapped tight around Rhys, I rest my head against his back, as we ride along the dirt road. The wind blows my hair, and I close my eyes, caught up in a moment of bliss, as if I’ve been trapped in the darkness for so long.

We pull off to the side of the road, and I lift my head from his back, staring out over a sea of yellows and oranges, dotted with the occasional spiked leaves of the yucca plants and purple blooms. In the distance, the soft slope of mountains and sand hills give the impression of a meadow in the middle of the barren land.

“It’s beautiful.”

Without a word, he climbs off the bike and lifts me from the seat, taking the lead toward a field of late spring poppies.

We take shade beneath a cluster of Joshua trees that, together, create enough of a canopy to get out of the scorching sun. I steal a moment to breathe in my surroundings, the part of the world I still love, and when I twist around, Rhys stands behind me, his hands extending and flexing into tight fists at his sides.

Something’s changed now that we’re here. I can see the shadows creeping over his eyes like old friends coming out to play. The demons settling into his thoughts.

“Why did you bring me here?” I know the answer. It’s the same reason I used to take him away to our secret place in the meadow. Away from everyone else.