“So, you’re going to cut off your nose to spite your face?” He pinched the bridge of his nose as if seeking control. When he let go and spoke, his voice was

hard. “Look at me and tell me that working with me and using your ability to stop Ellery doesn’t do it for you on some level. I dare you.”

I kept my mouth shut, refusing to answer.

Disgust laced his voice. “Jesus, Cyn, what happened to the woman I fell for?

The one who’d race into hell with a glass of ice water?”

Fell for? What game was he playing? “She got burned,” I spit out, furious tears blurring my vision before I blinked them away.

“Pull over.” His command was ice cold.

“We don’t have time.”

“Make it. Pull. Over.”

Jerking the wheel, I took a sharp turn into a corner gas station and slammed

the Jeep into park. I unbuckled my seat belt, and twisted around until I was face

to face with him. “What?”

He leaned in, until our faces were inches apart and all I could see was him.

“You are not Ellery’s only victim, so stopping acting like it. I’m sorry, so very,

fucking sorry, he killed Kelsey. But right now, if we want to make sure he doesn’t kill someone else’s Kelsey, or Flash or Liza, or Nate or Mike, you need

to move past what happened in Pakistan. It sucked. No one will argue that. Was

it fair? Not in any way, shape, or form. But was it fair of you to run away and

hide?”

“I didn’t run away,” I ground out between clenched teeth.

“Yes, you did,” he snapped back. “Then you hid. For six months, Cyn. You

wouldn’t answer my calls. Wouldn’t answer Tag’s. You shut us out. Shut me out.

Why?”

The yawning pit of volatile emotions I successfully avoided since

recognizing who was kicking in the door at my cabin, opened between us.

Ingrained insecurities blended with new doubts, while paralyzing guilt wrapped

around suffocating fear. Thanks to the events from the last two days, old emotions piled on new, crumbling the shaky ground beneath my feet. I

floundered for a foothold in the emotional wreckage. My voice emerged as a harsh whisper, “Because…” My throat closed, choking off my voice. Was I really going to tell him?

“Because, why?” His voice was careful, quiet.

I shook my head, unable to give the shameful words form, because if I did, it

would make them inescapably real. I stared into his face, seeing just how much

my actions had hurt him, and the real answer could no longer be tucked away, hidden behind other excuses. The damning words fell between us. “Because why

would you want me? You deserve someone better, not me, not this mess.”

He reared back as if I had slapped him and ran an unsteady hand through his

hair. “You really believe that?”

For a moment I couldn’t breathe, scared of his impending rejection, my heart

aching, but I nodded. Once.

Instead of pushing away, he gathered me close, and wrapped me in a solid heat, holding on tight. “God, Cyn, you’re such a beautiful, mixed-up idiot.”

The gruff exasperation in his voice warmed the numb edges of my heart. It

was also the final straw. All the chaos of the last six months and the pain of the

last two days collided, blowing apart the fragile illusion of control, and left me

exposed.

I wound my arms around his neck, buried my face in his chest, and settled into his embrace, needing this unexpected connection, needing him. His soft murmur flowed over me, offering what comfort he could. As the emotional

storm raged, I clung to him, using him as an anchor, knowing he wouldn’t let me go. Not this time.

CHAPTER 16

W hen the storm finally passed, I sniffled and listened to the steady beat

of Kayden’s heart, relishing our tenuous connection. Even twisted at an

awkward angle with the center console poking in all the wrong places, I didn’t

want to move. For the first time in what seemed like forever, my mind was blessedly numb, leaving me in a quiet oasis.

“Better?” His chest vibrated under my ear.

I nodded, not sure I could get anything out of my sore throat. The brush of