Sure, I’d had nearly three days to prepare for this moment but I hadn’t actually let myself believe that it was real. Maybe in the back of my mind, I was thinking this Hunter guy was really driving me somewhere so he could torture and kill me. It wouldn’t have surprised me at this point.
I studied his profile.
The man didn’t come off as a killer.
He was closed off and kind of rough. Definitely standoffish. Not all warm and fuzzy with the feelings. But he wasn’t a killer.
I would have bet that there was a soft heart under all that harsh silence.
“Stop staring at me, it’s weird. You aren’t going to see anything I don’t want you to see,” he said, his eyes never leaving the road in front of us.
With a shrug, I figured he was right.
I let out a long sigh as I thought of how this whole thing might go down. I should have been scared. Maybe I was. Maybe I just hadn’t thought about it enough to realize that this Silas wasn’t the same one I once knew. This man, this grown-up version of the kindhearted boy I once knew, was a killer. He was deadly.
“Am I going to be safe with him?” I asked only half aware that I’d spoken the words out loud.
I blinked and returned my focus to the man behind the wheel. His gaze was ahead but his brow was raised.
“You’re asking me if you’re going to be safe with a man that let me kidnap you?” he asked and this was the first time I sensed a hint of humor from him. I didn’t know what to do with that.
“Fake kidnapped!” I reminded him with a smile.
“Right,” he said and I could hear the eye-roll in his voice. “We’re here. It’s a little too late to back out now.”
I hadn’t realized the car had stopped.
I looked up, my eyes instantly coming into contact with a cute, mid-sized cabin.
Well, he was right, we were here now and there was no turning back.
The moment I stepped out of the car, I felt something wash over me. I couldn’t explain it, but it drew me up the front steps and into the house behind The Hunter without any question.
This was where I was supposed to be.
So I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t have any more doubts until I got some answers. Maybe it was some kind of closure that I was supposed to get here.
Or maybe it was something else entirely.
-19-
Jessica
“You’re alive,” I breathed out completely stunned the moment I laid eyes on him. I mean the sight of him laying in bed didn’t exactly screamalive. It was more like half dead. But that didn’t seem to matter right now. “You’re here. It was real? You were really there? How… why… Oh my God! Silas!”
Oh, the words came out all kinds of wrong. I wasn’t smooth no matter how you looked at it.
Tears were in my eyes and I instantly felt this, like, sense of relief flow through me.
He didn’t look very good but there was a smile on his face. It looked a little pained but that part didn’t seem to register as I flew at him. I hugged his body as best as I could given that he didn’t sit up.
I pulled back, wetness clouding my eyes.
“You’re safe,” he said and I felt his hand on the side of my face.
Then it was sliding away as his eyes closed and his head went slack.
“Oh my God! Silas!” I yelled willing him to come back to me. “What happened? What’s wrong with him? Is he dead?”
