Page 195 of Hold Me Until Morning

A conflict of what I wanted and what I had to do.

This was exactly what Pruitt wanted, though, wasn’t it?

He wanted me terrified. He wanted me bent to his will. And he didn’t care what it cost to force me into that position.

Cody’s boots scudded on the floor as we trudged across the great room, my thoughts so heavy that I could barely see.

I realized my breaths were heaving from my lungs in short gasps by the time we made it into my room, agony claiming my existence.

I dropped my attention to the floor in an attempt to gather myself.

To hold it back.

To rein in the spiraling.

The door clicked shut behind us, and I turned to Cody who stood facing me.

The bathroom light was on, and it shed enough light on him that I could plainly see he was battered.

His hair black from the smoke and the fire, his jaw red from the burn.

His shirt was tattered and torn and filthy with soot.

A bandage covered his left forearm and ran down to the back of his hand, and there were little bandages covering the spots where he had gotten stitches.

Agony swept through me. Wave after wave.

How could I have let this happen? How could I have been so selfish that I’d invited him into my life? Knowing the danger?

“Shortcake.” He murmured it through the ghosts that played through the room.

I curled my arms over my chest like it could hold together the pieces that were fracturing apart.

“Don’t call me that.”

It was a plea.

A plea for him to turn and leave.

For him to see that he should run.

He had his whole life out ahead of him, and I’d nearly been the one responsible for cutting it short.

“Now why would I go and do that?” he rumbled in that low voice.

Moisture blurred my eyes, an excruciating burn running up my throat. “Because you need to leave. Let go. I can’t ask you to keep putting yourself on the line like this. You could have?—”

It croaked off.

I couldn’t say it aloud.

Cody took a step forward, and the floor shook beneath my feet. “But I didn’t.”

I blinked against the pain. Against the riot that thrashed at my chest.

“Maybe this is payback, Cody. Punishment for the sin I’m committing. You need to get away from me. Before it’s too late.”

A scowl compressed every line on his handsome face. “What are you talking about?”

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