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CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Faith
Ignore it, Faith.
The warning bells. That niggling, oh so familiar nudge in my chest that said we’d been here before.
Something was up. The edginess, the subject changes, questionable deliveries, sketchy meetups with guys from the past... placating me with that damn smile of his to avoid direct answers. It all rang like a sick déjà vu.
But I had to stop thinking like that. Adam was different now. He wasn’t the same fool that got in over his head with the devil years ago. He said the texts were nothing... so they were nothing. That tiny little bell clanging its little heart out back there as he got up for water and strolled buck naked to the living room—not the kitchen—just needed to shut it.
Whatever it was, he didn’t want to tell me, and I had to respect that. Trust him.
Gah, that was so damn hard. But we’d come so far in a short time. Saying the big words, falling deeper—or at least I was. Every time that man looked at me, my heart gave it up a little more, and the way he made love to me earlier—Jesus, I was done for. I’d always loved Adam Bishop, that wasn’t a shocker, but the level of it now shook my carefully crafted foundation.
Which brought me full circle.
“Trust him,” I whispered, staring into the darkness. “He’ll tell you what’s bugging him eventually.”
In the meantime, I’d try not to assume the worst, give him the benefit of the doubt, and not hover. Wait there in bed till he came back. It wouldn’t be long.
It came onfast. The darkness that had nothing to do with night. I felt it this time, like I wasn’t totally asleep, wasn’t totally dreaming. Stuck in place, unable to move as the smells and the cold and the textures permeated the air.
I tried to run, but my legs wouldn’t move. I tried to strike as the iron grip under black cotton seized me, but my limbs were frozen. Puffs of sickly-sweet vapor formed around my face with each word low and husky at my right ear and then dissipated in the frigid air.
“Where is it, little chica?” he growled, the crunching gravel so loud afterward, the smell of his breath roiling my stomach.
I screamed, my mouth open, tears flowing, and a blow landed at my temple. Everything swam, and I screamed again but nothing came out. Strong fingers gripped my neck as the mouth pressed harder against my ear.
“I’ll fucking kill you,” he hissed.
“Do it,” another voice farther away said. Laughing.
Laughing.
White-hot pain sliced into my side as more words fouled the air around me.
“...mistake... fuck you... die, chica...”
The burn—it was cutting me in half as I felt weightless. Falling into blackness. Until the concrete caught me.
I jolted forward, gasping for air that wouldn’t come... trapped...
“Faith!”
Another voice at my ear, but something held me tight, clamped down around me.
“No!” I shrieked, gasping at the sound my throat finally made. I gulped at the air, clawing at whatever held me down. “Nooooo! Get off me!”
The clamps released, freeing me. Something tangled around my legs, and I kicked out with all I had, scrambling blindly. Tumbling sideways and falling again. Landing on my back with a cry.
“Faith! Baby!”
Hands grabbed at me, but I couldn’t pull out, I couldn’t—
“No!” I hissed, trying to catch my breath, trying to escape the thing that wanted me dead.
The thing I couldn’t see in the dark. Shoving and kicking it away, I scrambled to all fours and went toward a light, and with every inch my brain woke up. With every inch, fresh pain slammed into my skull, sending renewed nausea rolling through my gut. By the time I reached the dimly lit bathroom, illuminated by an orange nightlight, all I could see was the porcelain seat, and I made it just in time to embrace it before my stomach ejected everything I’d ever eaten in my life.
