Page 28 of Taste of Forever
I pulled into my apartment complex, feeling victorious about seeing our covered spot open until I remembered that Justin would be gone all night playing poker.
Part of me felt relieved. The other part was filled with longing. I missed us, how close and loving we used to be. While I enjoyed having our place to myself, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d rather see his friends than spend time with me.
We might need to have a talk. Again.
I should have been more vigilant as I got out of the car. Even though I could see the front door from the parking spot, I should have been watching the shadows.
Then I might have been able to see him coming.
“You don’t know when to quit, do you?”
By the time my head snapped around in the direction of the voice, he’d already clamped a hand on my upper arm and roughly spun me to face him.
I stared in confusion and rising fear, recognizing the man who’d bumped into me last week. He still had that clean-cut, all-American look, but his eyes held annoyance, even contempt. His lips pressed together into an aggravated line.
“Excuse me?” I tried to pull my arm away, but his grip was unrelenting. “Let go of me.”
I was alone in the middle of the night, but surely someone in the apartment complex would hear me if I screamed.
“You need to stop visiting that place. It’s not safe for civilians.” He leaned in, crowding my personal space. “This is your only and last warning.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
“Don’t play dumb, Heather. You know I’m talking about the hidden place you’ve been to multiple times. You’re messing with something way too dangerous to comprehend.”
He knows about Sanguine?He wasn’t a vampire or a brusang, but one thing was clear.He knows and hereallydoesn’t like that I know.
“Why’s it dangerous?” I demanded. “And how do you know about it?”
He opened one side of his jacket to flash a badge attached to the inner pocket. “The federal government pays me to gather intelligence on that place and other phenomena like it. This is a matter of national security.”
“National security?” I repeated. A few puzzle pieces clicked together in my brain. “Did you corrupt those files on my phone when you bumped into me?”
“And took down your blogs and Youtube channels, yes,” he said. “Just leave this alone, Heather. Stop the internet searches. Stop going back there. Leave it up to the professionals.”
“Hold on.” I raised my free hand. “Are you spying on me?”
The man grabbed both of my arms then, and shoved me backwards until I was pressed against the wall of the building. His fingers dug so deeply into my flesh that I whimpered from the pain. Part of me was in disbelief, feeling a strange disconnect from my body. I was too shocked to struggle, not that it would have done any good. He held me pinned to the wall like a butterfly in a shadow box.
“Please, stop. You’re hurting me.” I wanted to scream, but my voice came out small and terrified.
“Spying is the last thing you need to worry about, Heather,” the man hissed. His eyes were so cold, they almost looked dead. “You know how easy it was to make your digital footprint disappear? I can just as easily makeyoudisappear if you don’t stop fucking around.”
Panic made all my systems freeze. I still couldn’t find my voice except to mumble, “Okay. Okay.”
“I need your verbal confirmation that you won’t go back there again.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
“Won’t what?”
“I won’t go back to…to that place again.” I couldn’t bring myself to meet his cold, dead eyes, so I stared at his throat column instead, silently begging for this to be over.
Finally, he released his iron grip on my arms. “We’ll be watching you.” He turned and headed swiftly down the sidewalk.
I hugged myself as soon as he was gone, shocked and unable to move for several long moments. My arms were sore from where he grabbed me, and I was almost certainly bruised.
“What the fuck?” I whispered through my uneven, panicked breaths.
