Page 196 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Fear sloshing through my veins, my eyes slowly peeled open, and my attention traveled back to the other cabin.
Alicia was limp and being held in River’s arms.
Sobs ripped out of her.
But she wasn’t fighting him.
She wasn’t trying to escape.
It looked like she was weeping in relief.
Confusion bound me.
A clash of dread and want and failing hope.
Hope I’d been a fool to fall into.
“Look at me, Piper.” Theo’s desperation drew me back to him.
My eyes locked on his brutally beautiful face.
“We aren’t who you think we are.”
A maniacal laugh bubbled up my throat. I choked on it as it got stuck on the barb of razors that had formed.
He’d already told me, hadn’t he?
Warned me?
“Told you I wasn’t close to being a good man.”
“Want to make it clear that if you’re afraid of something or someone? I’m the exact kind of trouble you need.”
“You just have to trust that I can handle anything and everything you’ve got. No matter how dark or ugly or horrifying it is, it’s no contest to the lengths I will go for you.”
“And who are you?” I croaked.
Edging me backward, he pushed me into the shadows on the far side of the porch. My back hit the wall.
I was trapped.
His presence overpowering.
I should scream.
Beg for help.
But I was stuck. A prisoner to his will.
He grabbed both my wrists in his right hand, and he forced them up over my head and tacked them to the wall behind me.
Then he lifted his left hand and flexed it between us. The one with the stacked Ss with the dagger running through and an eye in the middle.
The skull on the top now made so much horrible, terrible sense.
And I was still the stupid fool who wanted to find safety in him.
“Warned you I wasn’t a good man, Piper, and I meant it.”
