“I… where?”
“I’m in a house across the street from your job. The blue one, with the lockbox by the door. The code for the key is four four three eight.” I’d picked that house so I could be close, because I’d wanted to play with him… but his confession, his words… the feel of his lips on mine and the knowledge that he wanted me too had turned my little game on its head.
London pulled out of my arms as I stood, taking a quick step back from me. One, and then another. “The police already called me about the guy at the club. Now they’re going to be here for this. I…” He shook his head back and forth, a rapid motion of terror and panic, but his eyes lingered on me as he stepped back. “Get out of here, Otto, so they don’t think you did something wrong. I’ll…” I could tell he was struggling with his thoughts. “I’m sure I’ll see you at work.”
He stared at me for a few more seconds, his eyes still shouting words that seemed incapable of leaving his lips, and then he turned and took off at a run. I watched him round the corner and disappear into the crowd.
He was probably safer that way. I needed to figure out if our would-be hit and run had been after me, or if they were simply some disgruntled asshole who thought it would be a good idea to try to kill someone today. There was every chance it was thelatter, but I had to make sure. I would have liked to think I’d keep my distance until I knew being around me was safe for him…
But I knew the truth. He was right. I’d see him at work, because I couldn’t stay away.
Chapter 17
London
Myheartwasaviolent, thundering beat in my chest even after I rounded the corner. If it had just been the car nearly hitting us, I probably could have breathed through it, probably could have found some kind of center and grounded myself…
But it wasn’t just that.
It was Otto.
It was the way he’d looked at me and it felt like he wasn’t trying to see my past for the first time.
It was the way hekissedme and everything in my world seemed to completely slide away.
It was thestoryhe told, the way he’d been hurt… and the fact that I couldunderstandwhy he hated me.
It was Otto… and it seemed like it had always been Otto, and I just didn’t know it until now, even though every second we’d been together had made it painfully obvious. I just wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do with that information.
He told me where he was staying, and I knew what house he was talking about, but there was no way I was going there. I wasgoing to go check my apartment and make sure Hudson was at work, and I was going to get some clothes and grab a hotel like I’d planned on doing all along. I needed a few days to breathe, a few days to think. I’d call Til and let him know I was taking some time off. After someone had been killed in front of me, I was more than certain he’d be fine with it.
I just…
My entire world felt like it had been flipped upside down. It was terrible, because something in my chest wanted me to turn around, to go right back to where I’d been.
To put my hand back in the hand of the man who’d kidnapped me. Who’d tortured me. And… the man who seemed to actually realize for the first time today that he’d done it without reason.
I should have caught the first bus I saw and left town…
But I couldn’t. I told him as much—heknewas much.
I couldn’t leave him, and I couldn’t get the expression on his face when he was telling me what happened to him out of my head. It was like a lifetime of pain locked behind a wall of ice. It was there, just beneath the surface, and I wanted to reach out and touch it.
I wanted to take it.
I wanted to erase it.
So maybe past lives really were a thing, and maybe I’d always known him. Maybe Otto finding me was something I’d been destined for all along, and there was no use in fighting it anymore.
Whatever the answer was, I needed a few days to figure it out… and until I did, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.
As much as I wanted to go to my apartment and grab all of my things so I could get the worst part over with, I knew better. I needed to give Hudson time to leave, and I needed a place to dump everything once I did grab it. I turned at the lastminute and started walking in the opposite direction from my apartment and my job.
I didn’t want to be near Hudson, and I wasn’t about to get a place right next to Otto. I needed to breathe… and maybe process the fact that someone had just tried to run me over.
It would be just my luck that I’d finally get him to admit that I wasn’t some demon from his past and then we’d get hit by a car and have to start all over in our next life.
“Fuck.” I drew in a sharp breath at the thought.
