Page 116 of Hold Me Until Morning

I pulled Maddie’s door closed a fraction.

Still facing me, he kept edging down the hall.

A lure.

Temptation.

Gravity.

My feet shuffled along the bare floor, and our breaths were shallow and too loud, as if they’d become an entity of their own. The air crackling though it was smooth and slow.

I finally spoke when we’d made it out into the living area with the faint illumination of the lights under the cabinets in the kitchen whispering around us. “Thank you.”

It was the only thing I could say, the only truth I was brave enough to admit.

A gentle frown carved Cody’s strong brow. “And what are you thanking me for?”

My huff was half awe and half disbelief. “For…everything. For putting that playhouse together and then going along with my daughter’s imaginings. For making her feel…special.”

“I’ve got news for you, Hailey…” He murmured it in that low, growly voice before he reached out and ran the pad of his thumb across my bottom lip. “Your daughter is special.”

My heart nearly leapt out of my chest. Was nearly crushed. Was nearly freed.

I tried to shake myself out of the stupor, to knock myself out of the trance he held me under.

Hypnotized.

I jumped when my phone buzzed in my pocket, and Cody carefully watched as I shakily pulled it out.

Pruitt

You’re going to learn what happens when you toy with me.

Alarm coiled like a snake, and a frown pulled deep between Cody’s eyes. “What is it?”

When I found I couldn’t make myself form the words, Cody gently pried my phone from my hand, and his eyes dipped to the message before they bore back into me.

“What that motherfucker is going to learn is that he can’t have you, Hailey.”

My throat was tight, and the fear I’d been running from erupted, breaking free of its barricades.

“I don’t think I know what I’m doing,” I admitted.

Cody tossed my phone to the couch before he took my face between two massive hands. He leaned in close, his lips a breadth from mine. “You’re fighting.”

I curled both hands around his wrists. “I want to be strong enough.”

“You are, darlin’. You are. You’ve always been.”

I gulped, and the air was too thick. Dense and heavy. Pulsing with that energy that in that second felt far more powerful than the demons that hunted me.

And his name rolled off my tongue, nothing but a desperate plea.

“Cody.”

TWENTY-SIX

HAILEY

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