Page 34 of Taking Root

Chapter Seventeen

Danny hoisted a plastic bag in each hand as she strode up the walkway to her apartment. A yappy little Yorkie barked from further along the sidewalk leading around the building, the sound almost causing her to drop her groceries. Why she bothered to stock her fridge was a mystery when the second her phone buzzed she’d have to ditch this place. From the sounds of it, she might not even be allowed to tote her meager belongings with her this time.

She’d only been able to eat a few bites of the burger after the conversation she had with her handlers, and she craved oozing grilled cheese and canned tomato soup in a fierce way. Mom used to make it every Saturday for lunch, and when her insides scraped like a knife to metal the way they did now, those familiar tethers offered the faintest relief.

She stalked up the steps, her nerves buzzing like a club’s dance floor. The handlers never failed to slap fear into her, as if she could forget the ever-present crawl of the numbness from her shoulders to fingertips. Besides, her jaunt down memory lane left her shakier than normal.

The plastic handles bit into her palms as she squeezed them tighter while making her way down the corridor. Maybe she could crack open the bottle of Tanqueray she’d picked up the other night and knock back a couple of shots to settle down. Her stomach soured in remembrance of her night of excess not long enough ago.

Danny fished for her key as she stepped up to her apartment. She stopped still.

Her door lay open.

Her insides went Novocaine numb. Danny set down the bags as quietly as she could manage and tugged out her pistol. She turned the safety off as she approached the crack in her door. Now of all times, she wouldn’t take any chances. She knew better to delude herself this might be some junkie looking to steal her not-so-fancy silverware.

If she saw Kyle Peterson, she would shoot him in the face, no hesitation.

Danny crept to her door and peered inside, pistol leading the way. Dim light from a single lamp pooled in the corner of her apartment, and inky shadows smeared through the rest of the room. She listened, waiting for a creak or a breath to give the intruder away. Cold sweat prickled on her forehead, and she tasted iron as she took another step inside.

Shards of clay scattered across her carpet, followed by loose dirt strewn around a beautiful Madagascar rose. Her brows furrowed. Something didn’t add up. She scanned the shadows, her gaze landing on a still form hunched in the opposite corner of the room.

Except it wasn’t her father.

Someone slumped in the fold-up chair she lugged from apartment to apartment. Danny inched forward, daring another couple paces with her gun aimed in front of her. She leaned to the wall of her apartment and flicked on the overhead light. Her breath hitched in her throat as the form grew clearer. She’d recognize the thick, dark hair anywhere, those careful hands, and the broad shoulders she’d leaned against too many times to count.

Adrian.

Cord wrapped around his torso, binding him to the chair, and a white piece of paper had been attached to it. His head hung forward, and he wasn’t moving. Danny forgot how to breathe. Panic rose in her chest like a bee slamming inside a glass jar. She didn’t even question who else had been in her apartment—at this point, she could sense her father’s presence like an oily residue left in the air.

Danny rushed to Adrian, her knees slamming to the ground in front of him. Tears stung her eyes even as her mind screamed in helplessness. She fumbled for his wrist and placed her fingers against the skin. No blood splattered on the floor, so he wasn’t bleeding. At least, not from any cuts she could identify. His pulse thumped against her fingers, and she let out a gasp of relief, like someone reached through her ribs to restart her heart.

“Adrian?” Her fingers slid to his chin, tracing the firm lines. A sob rose in her chest, one she choked down. She needed to secure the area first—deal with her emotions later. Danny strode over to her single closet, keeping her pistol directed in front of her as she flung open the door. Empty. Danny marched over to the door and grabbed her bags from where she dropped them before locking the deadbolt. The heavy click didn’t help. She wouldn’t ever feel safe in this place again.

Danny crouched by Adrian’s side, grabbing her switchblade to cut the thick cords binding him to the chair. The movement caused him to blink, and the overhead light illuminated the brilliant purple bruise growing on his forehead. The letter attached to his chest relayed a simple message her father had intended her to find, whether Adrian had arrived or not.

My final victims will be Samantha and Abigail Peterson.

Those words transported her to somewhere remote and freezing, as if she’d been dropped in Antarctica. Somehow she knew, from the moment she discovered her father’s secret room and outed him, this was the direction their story would go. Her father wouldn’t stop until he killed the very person he brought into the world. God, she wanted to hurl.

“Danny?” Adrian’s voice cut through the quiet of the room, snagging her attention at once. “What’s going on?” He sat up in the seat and shook out his arms, palms already rubbing at the indents the cord made. His brows furrowed in confusion, and when those azurite eyes met hers, all the emotion she’d been strapping back for so long rushed out.

She covered her hand over her mouth as her throat spasmed, hot tears spilling down her cheeks. He was alive. Adrian was alive and in her apartment and he was alive. He hadn’t become another one of her father’s victims.

“Hey.” His voice softened as he tried to rise from the seat. His hand went to touch his head, and he winced as his fingers landed on the nasty bruise. “Last thing I remember is some guy trying to knock me out. I’m guessing he succeeded.”

She sucked in a shallow breath and wiped away the tears to draw together some level of composure. Not like it helped. Her gaze drifted to the uprooted Madagascar rose lying on the floor. “Did you bring that?” she asked.

“I came over to talk,” he admitted, taking a couple of shaky steps toward her. “The way we left things the other night wasn’t right.” The vulnerability in his voice, the sweetness of him remembering the way she’d blathered about the desert rose, and how his stare pierced right through her threatened to overwhelm.

In that moment her heart broke to a thousand pieces and glued itself together again. He reached her in a way no one else ever had, like he plunged past the thousand identities she’d worn over the years to touch the core of her, to the girl even she had abandoned.

Danny closed the space between them, reaching up to cup Adrian’s face. Tears stung her eyes, and her throat squeezed tight. Looking at him was like staring at the sea itself, this wild, vast, and consuming thing. She leaned up to press her lips to his.

The response was immediate. His hands wrapped around her waist, and he pulled her tight to his body. His kiss sent electricity through her body, shocking the numbness away. Adrian stood in front of her, alive, and that thought circulated her brain on repeat, excising the doubts and thoughts of the future. Here and now mattered more than ever. The salt and cedar scent of him, the warmth so intense it caused her to shiver, everything about being in his arms was like coming home.

She gripped his back like he might fade away, her nails digging into the thick muscle of his shoulders as their lips met again and again. The way he brought her flush to his body caused her core to clench, and a scorching need rampaged through her like a wildfire. He was all hard lines and muscle, with the sort of solid frame she could sink into. No words were needed with the way their bodies spoke, a desperate need in how they joined together like the time apart had fractured them both.

Danny leaned in to nip and suck at his neck, eliciting a low, rumbling groan from him. His cock stiffened through the fabric of his pants with the way she rubbed against him. Arousal flushed through her in one dizzying wave as she melted into him. She’d been wanting this from the moment he re-entered her life.

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