The reminder of how he’d found her sobered her quick, and she nodded. “Got it.”
“Good. Call me when you’re done.” Order issued, he backtracked to the bathroom door confident she would do as he told her. Bossy. Demanding. Unyielding. This man was used to issuing commands and having them followed, no questions asked.
“Uh, Adam?”
Hand on the knob, he looked at her over his shoulder. “Yeah?”
“Aren’t you going to ask me my name?”
He turned to face her fully, his hands falling still at his sides, and she could see how easy it would be to feel intimidated under the weight of his scrutiny. “Are you going to tell me the truth?”
She didn’t want to lie to him, but he was right, she didn’t know him. And even though her gut said she could trust him, she wasn’t sure she had faith in her own judgment anymore. She’d trusted the judge. Trusted Bryan. Look where that had landed her.
As she considered her options under the intensity of his dark gaze, her mouth went dry. In nervous response, she licked the tip of her tongue along her lip. The chapped skin she encountered served as a reminder of her time spent as Bryan’s prisoner, and she shuddered.
The Matthews had to be looking for her by now, along with whoever helped them get away with murder. As grateful as she was to Adam for saving her life, she needed to stay focused on what mattered.
Twelve women dead.
Lucky number thirteen alive.
It was her responsibility to find those women. Bring them home. Give their grieving families some peace. As tempting as it was—she couldn’t stay here. Not forever. She had monsters to slay.
One more night.
She’d give herself one more night under Adam’s care and protection, and then in the morning she’d ask him to take her back to Carlos’s truck.
A take-charge kind of man, no way she could tell him the truth. She might not know him well, but one thing she knew for certain, he’d never let an injured woman fight her own battles.
And this battle was hers.
And hers alone.
Decision made, she refocused her attention on the man by the door, and from one blink to the next his entire countenance changed. The storm gathered in the gray of his eyes and tension tightened his jaw. If she hadn’t been scared of him before, she should be now.
He shook his head. “Don’t do it, princess.”
“Do what?”
“Lie to me.”
“How will you know?” she asked, her voice much closer to a whisper than she would have liked.
“I’ll know, Eve. Because aside from which of the Matthews held you prisoner and why, I already know everything about you.” He turned to go but paused once more to remind her to call him when she finished.
Stunned stupid, she could do little more than gape at him with her mouth open.
Then with a sharp nod, he left, the door shutting softly behind him.
Her murmuring woke him.Her cry had him springing from the recliner like he’d been catapulted from a cannon.
Eve.
Three seconds passed—maybe four—as Adam rushed to reach her.
Felt like an eternity.
She slept with a lamp on. Something he’d discovered the first time he put her to bed. She’d become agitated when he shut off the light the previous night, so he’d turned it back on. The dim yellow glow soothing her as she slept.
