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Jace nods and swallows hard. He looks over his shoulder toward the door to the bedroom. It’s closed over, but it’s not locked, and I wonder what’s running through his mind. I know he doesn’t like the fact that intruders came to his home. We both thought it would happen, but neither one of us thought it would happen this fast.
And we certainly didn’t think it would happen like this.
For a second, I think he’s going to go barreling into the living room, but he doesn’t. Instead, he pushes open the window, climbs out, and closes it behind him. It all happens so quickly. I stay exactly where I am, but I look over to see him. He shifts right outside the window, changing into his bear form, and I know that no matter what happens next, it’s not going to be pretty.
There’s shouting coming from the living room and my first instinct is to rush out into the room. I turn toward the sounds.
“Check the bedroom!” One of the voices says, and that’s it. There’s nowhere for me to hide, so I don’t bother trying. What am I going to do? Try to fit under the bed? Yeah, there’s no way. Besides, I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that never goes over well. They’ll instantly find me, so I don’t bother moving.
Instead, I take a deep breath, and as the door bursts open, I remind myself that everything is going to be okay.
Andrew comes barreling into the room. He’s not wearing any clothes. Now I know why: it’s that whole “shifter” thing. So, he is a shifter, just like Jace thought. Apparently, that’s how they found us. He probably shifted into his animal form – whatever that is – and hunted us down. They had access to my house, which means they had access to my scent.
Well, mine and Brandon’s.
“It’s you,” he says. His eyes narrow. I’ve met him before, but not anytime recently. Once Alexis left town, I stopped talking with her dad and Andrew both. Not that we were close before: we weren’t. Still, actively cutting contact was quite therapeutic for me.
“And it’s you,” I say.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He says. He strides across the room toward me, and I involuntarily move back. All the while, I hate myself for it. I don’t like that I’m shying away from him – from this. I don’t like that he’s scaring me enough that I’m quite literally backing myself into a corner.
“Excuse me?” I ask, trying to steel myself.
But I can’t.
Because this is the man who took everything from me.
From us.
This is the man who hunted down my friend.
This is the man who ended her life.
This is the man who ensured that Brandon would never get to live a normal life.
This is the man who stole away his mother.
Inside, I feel gooey and weak. I feel scared. I know that I’m shaking, and I realize that my heart is racing. Andrew glances at my chest and I know he’s not looking at me because he thinks I’m pretty, but because he can hear my heartbeat.
Great.
“What. Are. You. Doing. Here?”
He speaks again. This time, his words are short and impatient, and I realize that he doesn’t really know why I took off. He knows that
I ran away with the baby, of course, but he doesn’t know who I was running to.
I at least have that much going for me.
Alexis told me that even when she was living with Jace, she was very careful not to talk about her past very much. She even said she went so far as to avoid talking about him at work. She got a job, yeah, but she didn’t let Jace come see her at the office and she never told anyone she had a boyfriend. She hid her pregnancy as much as possible and when it was obvious that she was pregnant, she brushed it off as a one-night stand gone wrong.
She was private, and careful, and there is no way that Andrew or Greg know about Jace.
“Who is it?” I hear Greg’s voice now, and he appears in the doorway with the baby. Brandon is looking up at the man in terror. He turns to me, and then he bursts into tears.
“Stupid baby,” Andrew says. He looks to Greg. “Can’t you shut it up?”
“Shut up,” Greg hisses, but this only makes Brandon cry more.
