Page 23 of Prey for You

“I misjudged the guy, right up to the last second. I thought he was horny. And he was—for some cannibalism shit. I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. I just remember fighting for my life. I hadn’t felt that way since my dad. But with my dad I was quiet and still and trying to keep myself alive through sheer obedience. With this guy it all came out. I fuckingfought.One of the agents heard the ruckus and gathered it wasn’t fun sex-play anymore. They busted in, just in time.”

She was starting to tremble. My breath was getting quick, and not for good reasons. “Bridget—”

“He said he wanted to open me like a zipper and show me my insides,” she breathed. “And he would have done it, too. I got it wrong, Sam. I got itso wrong.”

“Bridget,no onegets it right every time.”

“Yeah, but…” She bit her lip, then rolled over to face me, her eyes wide and earnest. “I was looking for Cain. And I foundthat.”

Cain.

She said Cain.

She didn’t say “You.” She didn’t say “Sam.” She didn’t make a joke about a priest.

I was looking forCain. And I found that.

8. Anti-Santa

~ SAM ~

That roiling started in my chest. I tamped it down. I knew what she meant. At least, I hoped I did. But…

“Cain is me, Bridget,” I said as gently as I could. “You foundme.”

“I know,” she breathed and put her hand on my chest. “But Cain’s thispieceof you—and I got that wrong too.”

I blinked, frowned, stifling the adrenaline that shoved into my system. “What do you mean?”

“I mean… Cain is… Cain is your alter-ego, right? The dark side of you?”

“Yes, but there are no multiple personalities, Bridge. Cain is just the online name I gave a part of me that’s—”

“I know, hear me out. I think… I think this is important. I think if I told this part to Gerald he’d have a psyche-gasm.”

I turned my head to meet her eyes. Our noses were only an inch apart. I could see the flecks in her irises from here. “What is it?”

She swallowed audibly. “I misjudged Cain—I mean, you—too.”

I frowned. “How?”

“I got to know both sides of you, Sam. And I loved both sides of you. But I didn’t see that they went together—didn’t evensuspect it.How is that possible? I kissed both sides of you.Touched both sides. Talked to both sides. But I never put them together.”

I smirked to play it off. “Because I’m good at what I do.”

Her lips thinned—for once, I was the one deflecting. I made myself be serious. And that meant, I had to make myself say the thing that had been terrifying me this whole time.

“You didn’t put them together because you only wanted one of us,” I said, forcing myself to hold her gaze—so I saw it when her eyes widened and she frowned.

“No, that’s wrong.”

I arched one brow, glad that she wasn’t leaning on my chest anymore so she couldn’t feel how my heart was racing. “Bridget… you ghosted Sam and got Cain arrested.”

“It wasn’t like that!”

“Then how was it?”

She opened her mouth, but caught herself before she spoke. I felt the tension stiffen her spine and I put a hand on her hip, suddenly afraid she’d flee.

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