Page 95 of Even if You Fall

“We’ll take care of it,” Asher assured me.

“What’s going on?” Lainey asked quietly, sounding wholly confused and slightly concerned.

“He’s gonna hate himself,” I told them, speaking in hushed tones like Adam might hear me. “When he wakes up and realizes what happened, his fear of this is gonna be that much worse. He’s gonna try to pull away from me again. Ineedto show him this isn’t something he needs to be afraid of.”

“You don’t know what he might do,” Asher said gently and not unkindly, and I knew right then that he hurtforAdam.

“And I won’t if you don’t let me go back there,” I told him firmly. “Hewon’t know what he’ll do around me, and he’ll let that fear grow. Just let me come with you.”

Cameron’s hand twitched on my arm when another dull thud sounded from the back, but Asher just stared at me for long seconds before finally relenting. “Stay behind me.”

“Briggs,” Hudson began hesitantly, only to press his lips in a tight line when Asher cut a look his way.

“If Thatch wants any kind of life with Chloe, she’s right,” Asher said decisively.

Something inside me thrilled at his words, but I quickly pushed it down before the implication could take root in my heart and my head.

Between that and the implication behind Adam vowing he’d take me back to his parents’ house in the next few months, that romance-loving part of me was going to start thinking this thing between Adam and me was so much more than it was.

It was one thing to fall hard and fast; that was my own fault for not better guarding my heart against absurdly gorgeous, flawed men. It was another to believe there was a relationship and a future when there wasn’t.

I couldn’t survive the second again.

With an acknowledging nod, I stepped away from Cameron and up to where Asher was watching me.

“If I tell you to get out, you get out,” he said softly, his tone hinting just how dangerous this might become.

But there wasn’t an ounce of fear in my body, only the need to get to where Adam was. Maybe that made me foolish. Maybe it made me even more naïve than I’d been with Owen. I didn’t care.

If they’d been Special Forces, I had an idea of how lethal the Shadow team was. And while I had no doubt the trauma tormenting Adam made him see things that seemed so real, I knew a part of him was afraid of what he was doing, and I had a feeling that part of him could be reached.

“Can I talk to him?” I asked Asher as we carefully moved down the hall.

“No.” Asher stopped moving when we heard murmurs coming from around the corner and held out an arm for me to do the same.

“I think I should,” I said under my breath. When Asher slanted a glare at me from over his shoulder, I explained, “You were there. Whatever he’s seeing—wherever he thinks he is—you were there. I wasn’t. You might make it worse.”

Asher shoved me behind him at the exact moment Adam silently rounded the corner. The brief glimpse I caught of him had my chest aching because I knew he was still fully trapped in another place. Another time.

Hands positioned in front of his bare shoulder like he was holding a phantom rifle. Moving even more stealthily than he usually did as he hurried toward Asher, relaying information I couldn’t begin to decode, even if he had been talking above hushed whispers.

“Thatch,” Asher began softly, but Adam just said something that sounded like, “Moving now.”

“You were there,” I whispered to Asher when Adam started back the way he’d come. Before Asher could stop me, I stepped around him and softly called out, “Adam?”

Asher latched onto my arm, much the same way as Cameron had, to hold me in place. But I’d already frozen when Adamstopped mid-step, tensed muscles twitching with each of his ragged breaths.

When he didn’t turn around or continue moving, I panicked for all of a second as I tried figuring out what to do next.

You weren’t supposed to wake a sleepwalker—I knew that. I was fairly certain you were supposed to try to get them to go back to bed, but I couldn’t be positive about that. But did the same rules apply when the person sleepwalking was experiencing a PTSD flashback?

Swallowing around my sudden nerves because my whole plan had beentalk to himbut notabout what, I decided to go for the only thing I could think of. “Adam, you need to go to bed,” I continued softly and calmly, afraid if I spoke too loudly, I’d cause a reaction like the one he worried about.

I started toward him, my steps slow and uncertain at first, and felt my lungs empty with relief when Asher moved his hand to my shoulder as he kept in step with me. His grip no longer hindering, but enough to let me know he could pull me away if something happened.

Trying not to ogle the sporadic tattoos I could see decorating Adam’s shoulders and sides and the incredible physique of that man—oh my gosh—because this so wasn’t the time, I forced myself to study his movements as I neared him.

“Why don’t you go back to bed?” I suggested and watched as his head shifted slightly to the side before turning fully, but his faraway stare never quite reached us.

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