Page 16 of Savage

Cooper was much closer than I’d anticipated, sitting by the exact window I was standing outside of, the faint glow of his computer screen illuminating where he’d fallen asleep at his desk.

Jesus Christ.What was it about this Boy Scout that had me making these reckless decisions? King was right—it wasn’t like me to be so careless, to act without a plan. It was sloppy, and when you were sloppy you ended up getting caught—like I almost was now.

I cursed under my breath, annoyed at my lack of discipline and control. Then again, that was nothing new.

I needed to cut this shit out. I needed to get Cooper out of my head and get back to my regularly programed life. But that was easier said than done when my sole focus was on those expressive eyes of his rather than the drug dealers I’d saved his ass from.

But I couldn’t deny it. In a matter of days Cooper had looked at me with fear, awe, desire, and humor—not that he knew the first two—and the idea that this would be the last time I saw him wasn’t sitting right with me.

Oh fucking well.It wasn’t like I could go knock on his door at this hour. Especially not dressed like this. And even if I could, what the hell did I think I would say?

So this was it. I just needed to cut the damn cord.

I shifted my feet and turned a fraction, wanting to get one last look at him before I disappeared. But when I looked insidethe window expecting to find his eyes shut, they were open—and locked on me.

Cooper sucked in a breath and shoved his chair back from the desk, then sprang to his feet as shock rippled across every feature of his gorgeous face. He blinked several times as though trying to decide if I were real or not, then brought a hand to his chest—probably to make sure he wasn’t having a heart attack.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was thinking, seeing me lurking outside his window in my full Libertine garb. After all, the last time we met he’d had a gun pointed at his head. I highly doubted he’d expected to look out his window and see the masked man from what was probably his worst nightmare.

I backed up, away from the window, fully intending to disappear over the rail and into the shadows, when Cooper held up his hand for me to…stop?

My feet froze as I tried to decipher if that was what he truly meant, and when he started toward the fire escape, I knew it was time to decide—stay or go?

If I were to leave now, there was no harm, no foul. I could chalk it up to a final look at the one I’d saved. But as Cooper drew closer to the window, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.

Something about him drew me. It had from the moment I saw him in that alley, to the small coffee shop, and now wasn’t any different.

Leave. Leave right fucking now.

The words repeated on a loop in my head as Cooper reached the window, his chest heaving with every breath he took, and flicked open the locks.

What the hell did he think he was doing? I could’ve been anyone. Hell, as far as he knew Iwasanyone, a stranger from a dark alley who could inflict serious damage. Yet he shoved the window up, allowing me entry, and any thought I had of leaving disappeared along with my conscience.

“It’s you…” Cooper’s voice was whisper quiet on the breeze as his eyes roamed from my boots, up over my coat, to where my mask concealed my face. “How did you find me?”

By stalking your every move.

Too much? Probably. Yet it was the most logical assumption.

The glassy-eyed expression shining from those stunning eyes, however, told me logic was nowhere to be found right now—it was like he was in a daze.

I moved to the open window and slipped inside, and Cooper took a step back.

“Who are you?”

Questions were to be expected, just as my silence was. Not that he would make that correlation in his state, but that was the way it would go, especially after our face-to-face meeting at the coffee shop. I couldn’t risk any kind of connection being made.

I ran my eyes over his white tank, grey hoodie and sweats, and the slippers warming his feet, and thought how cozy he looked. A total contrast to my black boots, leather pants, and tactical Henley, which were all covered by my trench coat.

The apartment was as small as I’d suspected, and with my standing at the center of it, the square footage seemed to shrink with every breath I took. That didn’t seem to worry Cooper, though. Whatever thoughts he’d had of me in that alley, whatever memory he had of that terrifying night, one thing was clear: I was not the source of his paranoia. I wasn’t the reason he’d been looking over his shoulder these past few days.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice more demanding this time as I took another step his way. “I’m not scared of you.”

I whipped my hand out and curled my fingers around the soft fabric of his tank, then lowered my face over his and growled, “Aren’t you?”

Cooper angled his chin up, searching for any clues, but my position, the hood, and mask obstructed all views of my face, and the shadows helped to hide my eyes.

“No.”

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