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He was there. Chasing her. Stalking her.
Watching her.
“No,” she whispered. “Leave me alone.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
Evangeline clasped her trembling hands to her heaving chest. “Of course you can,” she pleaded. It was one thing when he was just another shifter. But a shifter who used to be in the Cage? That was like letting a man on death row loose. No one ever got out of the Cage. “I won’t tell. Just let me go.”
He set his jaw. Eyes like molten gold flashed as his attention was riveted on the rise and fall of her breasts. His voice, when he spoke again, came out hoarse. “You misunderstand. I should’ve said I won’t do that.”
She swallowed her frightened moan. “Why? Why me? What did I ever do to you?”
“Angie—”
“Don’t call me that!”
Maddox held his hands up. “I’m sorry. Evangeline.”
Why didn’t that feel right, either?
“Maybe if I explained before, told you what was going on, you wouldn’t have felt like you had no choice but to run. I should’ve expected that. You’ve got spunk, my m— Evangeline. You always have.”
She sneered in a bid to hide how nervous he made her. “Yeah? How would you know?”
The shifter didn't answer her. He lifted his hand, rubbing his scars with his fingers. She flinched when he drew her attention back to the mark.
“I already told you, I know everything about you. And, when you accept that I had good cause to whisk you away, we’ll laugh about this. You’re safe with me. In the woods, not so much. Come back to the cabin.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“I’ll throw you over my shoulder if I have to. I won’t let you stay out here all night.”
“You can’t stop me,” she dared.
Maddox called her bluff when he stepped toward her.
Evangeline trembled, but she kept her voice strong now that she had found it again. “If you touch me, I’ll never forgive you.”
His expression went pained for a heartbeat before he clenched his jaw. Another step closer. “You will,” he growled. He sounded certain of it, too.
“Never.”
“It’s whatever happened to your memories. Something’s not right, I’ve already figured that out. You don’t remember me. It’s why I had to bring you here, remind you of what we are to each other—”
It was like a sudden buzz in the back of her skull drowning out his words. She didn’t want to hear him, didn’t want to acknowledge that there was a method to his madness. He didn’t take her because he could. He had a purpose for it.
And, if she let him, he’d tell her. Only Evangeline didn’t want to know.
It was so much easier to hate him if she didn’t know.
“Listen to me,” she said, raising her voice so that she could hear herself over his stupid, pointless explanation. Nothing he could say would make this okay. Nothing. “There is no ‘us’. There is no ‘we’. We, me and you… we are nothing to each other because, and I will tell you this again and again if I have to, I don’t know you.”
Her words seemed to slam into him like a mack truck. His body jerked, then bowed at her heated denial. His eyes glowed, glittering viciously.
And he snapped.
“Remember me, damn it!”
