Page 39 of Deadly Oath

“So, has everyone caught up to the chapters we’re supposed to be on?” she asks, and the murmur of assent around the room drags everyone’s attention away from me and the gossip about what happened with Kian.

On the way home, Marie pries a little more, but I assure her that Kian didn’t hurt me, and it was good. “He didn’t stay the night, though,” I say slowly, wondering if she can give me any insight into that. It was the last thing I wanted to admit at the book club meeting, considering how the conversation had gone, but I feel like I can tell Marie. Which, once again, makes me feel that maybe I do have a friend here, after all.

Marie’s mouth twists, as she turns into my driveway. “Maybe he’s just scared,” she says finally. “Men aren’t good with emotions. Goodness knows my husband isn’t. You said it was intense, right? So maybeit was just that intensity. He’ll come around. If that’s what you want?” She peers at me as she parks the minivan in front of my house. “It doesn’thaveto be serious, you know. This is your first time doing all of this. It can just be a good time.”

I nod. “I know. I think that’s really all it is.” I don’t let myself think too hard about how jealous I feel when I imagine him touching another woman the way he touches me, or that feeling I had of wanting to be special to him. Different. “It’ll be fun while it lasts,” I add, and I know I’m trying to convince myself as much as her.

“Text me if you need anything,” Marie says, patting my hand as I reach for my purse. “And don’t let him talk you into anything you don’t actually want to do.”

That does make me smile—and makes me feel a little better. “I will,” I promise, before getting out of the car and heading inside.

The house is quiet and still, enough to make the hair on my arms prickle, and I wonder once again if I should consider getting some kind of pet. A cat, maybe. But after how much my life has been upended, I’m loath to bring anything else into it that I could get attached to.

Except for Kian.I seem to have brought him into my life at an alarming pace, with a recklessness that’s unlike anything I’ve ever done in my life before. But he’s been relentless, making me feel alive for the first time in—maybeever. I hadn’t realized just how bland and repetitive my life was until he appeared in it.

I ate enough snacks at the book club meeting that I’m not hungry, so I take the book that we’re currently reading instead and crawl into bed early. My phone has been silent all day except for texts from Marie, with nothing from Kian, and I try not to think about why that might be. I can’t pretend that it doesn’t hurt, but I tell myself that I’m asking too much. That he’s just making sure we keep things casual.

After a little while, I start to feel tired and drift off, only to be woken by what sounds like a shuffling outside my window. I think I’m dreaming at first, but I hear it again, and jolt awake, sitting very still as I wait to see if it’s just a dream.

There’s another sound, very much like footsteps, and I bolt out of bed, my heart hammering.

If someone is really outside of my house, sneaking around, I need more than just a picture of a boot print. I need to see if I can get a glimpse of who it actually is.

And more than that, I’m starting to get tired of being afraid. I was promised I’d be safe here, or as close to safe as it was possible for me to be. I don’t want to sit around and wait for Kian to tell me what’s happening.

I never knew what was happening in my old life, and look where it got me.

Quietly, leaving all the lights in the house off, I pad to the front door. I open the door slowly, wincing at the small creak that it makes, and slip out onto the front steps.

My heart is beating hard in my chest as I step out into the yard. The air is chilly, raising the hairs on my arms as I wrap them around myself and move quietly through the grass, towards the back of the house. I don’t know what I’m really trying to accomplish here, other than getting a glimpse of whoever is creeping around my house. The smarter thing would have been to stay inside—but I don’t want to just huddle in my bed, flinching at every noise and jumping at my own shadow.

Staying out of trouble, staying away from danger, being the ‘good girl’---none of that saved me the last time someone wanted me hurt. I don’t think it will save me now. And I don’t want to depend on Kian to my detriment.

A man has been the only reason I survived once before. I don’t want to sit around and wait to see if that happens a second time.

As I get closer to the edge of the house, I don’t see anything in the darkness.Maybe I was overreacting this time,I think, shifting closer to the window, when I hear something behind me. A crack, like someone stepped on a branch.

I jump, clapping a hand to my mouth to stifle a gasp as I skitter backward—and directly into a hard chest and pair of arms that go around me instantly.

There’s no stopping the scream that escapes my lips. No stopping the terror that runs through me in the instant that I’m caught—until I suck in a breath after the scream and smell Kian’s familiar scent of woodsy aftershave and campfire smoke cologne.

“Easy there, princess,” he says with a chuckle, and I twist in his arms, relief blurring into anger as I try to jerk away from him.

It’s useless. He holds me close, turning me so that I’m facing him, and I can see him looking down at me in the near-darkness. His muscles are wound tight, and his blue eyes look black in this lighting.

“What the hell are you doing skulking around my house?” I shout, forgetting about my neighbors nearby who might be woken up by all the noise. “What the hell, Kian! You can’t text me or tell me what’s going on, but you can sneak around?—”

“I’ve been busy today,” he says curtly, his arm still wrapped tightly around my waist to keep me from running—or from getting a swing in on him. “Trying to figure out what’s going on with this exact problem. As for right now, I was just checking the perimeter, making sure no one else was peeking in your windows. I figured you’d be asleep and didn’t want to wake you.” His expression tightens. “I didn’t expect that you’d be foolish enough to come investigating in the night alone. What if ithadn’tbeen me, Sabrina?”

The way he uses my actual name tells me that he’s upset with me. But I’m also upset withhim, so right now, I can’t bring myself to really care.

“Then I’d be having a very different conversation with a very different person,” I tell him tartly. “But let’s go back to the part where you saidno one else. What’s going on, Kian? Did you find someone?”

He hesitates, and I glare at him, jerking back from his grasp once more. This time, he lets me go. “Kian.”

“Fine.” He throws up his hands. “I was trying to handle the situation, Sabrina, so that you wouldn’t have a reason to be afraid. I didn’t want you to know that Iactuallyfound someone lurking outside the house after I left the other night.”

Cold fear clenches in my belly, but after hearing him say that, I don’t want to let it show. “And that’s worse than me just sitting inside,hearing noises, and thinking of all the possible things that they could be?” I cross my arms under my chest, trying to ignore the way Kian’s gaze instantly falls to my breasts. “I’d rather know what’s happening, Kian.”

---