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“Babe, are you okay?” Noelle asked, then she started forward, as if she was going to my room. I quickly gripped her by her arm, shaking my head vigorously.
Ayana moved closer to me, and I saw her reach inside her purse and pull out her gun. “Sweetheart, you’re scaring the shit out of us. Do you want to tell us what’s going on? What’s up? You don’t want to go to your room?”
I shook my head no. That caused both women to tense.
“Is there someone in there?” Ayana asked, and I wasn’t sure how she knew or knew to ask me, but when I nodded, her eyes bulged out of her face.
She cocked her gun and looked as if she was going to head to my room.
I grabbed her, too, and started moving backwards, back to the elevator. Luckily, when I hit the button to go down, it hadn’t moved. We climbed on, hyper aware that we had essentially trapped ourselves inside a metal death trap. But somehow, I believed we would be okay. If we took the steps… yeah, that would have been a different story.
The moment the doors opened in the lobby, we peeled out of the car and practically ran back to the bar. Noelle had her phone out instantly and I could hear her voice, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. There was a man waiting in the lobby who jumped up the moment he saw us. I gripped Ayana’s arm, eyes wide, but she placed a comforting hand on mine and mumbled a name I didn’t quite catch. She peeled out of my death grip and hurried over to the man and spoke to him. He looked at me, then the elevator, and took off. It was then that I caught a glimpse of metal tin on his hip. He must’ve been one of Lock’s men. Ayana, gun still in her hand, escorted us back into the bar and to our table, her eyes searching the hotel lobby, the bar and the windows. Despite the gun in her hand, her body shook ever so slightly.
Shit, I didn’t blame her. I could feel my teeth chattering, and I wasn’t cold in the least.
Someone was waiting for me in my room. I felt it, sensed it, and don’t ask me how I knew; I just knew. Sadly, I didn’t have this intuition when I was in the army. Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t have been assaulted by Byron in the dead of night. I would’ve sensed his presence and high-tailed to safety. No, this blessed curse developedafterthe army, the result of the bastard stalked me for years.
I wasn’t sure if Byron was the one lying in wait inside my room, or if it was someone else, but therewassomeone waiting. I put that on everything.
“Let’s move back from the window, okay? The guys are on their way.” That was Ayana speaking, and I felt them stand, each of them gripping me underneath my arms, guiding me away from our table into the shadows of the bar.
I threw myself against the wall and closed my eyes, wishing that my body would stop shaking, but it wouldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop shaking. Voices were everywhere, invading my senses, tires screeching in the distance. Darkness started to close in on me. Friendly voices that once comforted me sounded so far away. All I could hear washisvoice.
Oh god, this can’t be happening. Not again, please…
“I’m going to find you and fucking kill you. You think you can run away from me? You think you can hide. Never. You’re mine. Do you fucking hear me, bitch?”
My eyes widened as his voice echoed in my head. That’s what he said to me that night he broke into my house. When he grabbed me, he told me I would never be free of him. God… was that him waiting for me in my room? Was he coming for me?
I can’t breathe… I can’t…
I tried to get my lungs to work, to take in air, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t fucking breathe.
No…
I glanced around the pitch-black room. I could hear him calling my name. Taunting me.
“Don’t let him get me…” I think I said, or hell, maybe I mumbled or screamed. I couldn’t tell you which.
Someone touched me, and it felt as if their hands were on fire. Their touch burned me to my soul. I scrambled away, dropped to my butt, and wrapped my arms around my legs. I started rocking back and forth, trying to think of something other than what was lurking around me in the surrounding shadows.
Please don’t let me die… please…
Someone faintly called my name, but I couldn’t tell who it was. It was probablyhim… I couldn’t trust the voices, couldn’t…
I buried my face in my arms and it was then that a vision of someone’s face filled my mind’s eye.
Lock…
I whispered his name, and the darkness behind my closed eyes lifted ever so slightly. I said it again and again and wouldn’t you know I could hear his voice? It was faint, but it was there.
Was my mind playing tricks on me? Was ithimagain? No… I didn’t think so. I didn’t know how to make sense of what I was feeling. Warmth seemed to cover me like a soft blanket, protecting me from the cold, from the danger lurking in the inky shadows around me.
I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to picture everything I loved about Lock. His intense eyes, his gorgeous face, so chiseled, masculine. The seductive smile of his, his laugh, the heated looks he would give me right before he kissed me. And oh, his lips… those suckers were heaven on earth.
I felt my breathing picking up, but for very different reasons. His touch was everything. It seemed to soothe me, to calm me, to relax me. I was safe with him. Safe in his arms.
Lock…
