Page 20 of Born to Bleed

Twice. Twice tonight, he’d stunned her into silence. “Do all your prisoners get such individualized attention?”

“I’m not in the mood for games right now, Anna. It’s been a long day.”

Okay, maybe she shouldn’t be joking right now. Maybe she didn’t quite know how to stop… or maybe she didn’t know how the fuck to admit to him that she wondered the same thing. “Hayden, I—"

“I’m done playing.”

He spun and marched through the door of the shack before she could say anything more. She slammed her mouth shut, an odd swell of emotion rising up into her throat. Anger was her friend, and she’d felt it often. But this? This was different. This, whatever it was, she did not like at all.

Anna fell back on the bed, staring up at the damaged ceiling and desperately trying to force herself to sleep. All she could think about was Hayden. Vulnerable, emotion-filled Hayden.

Hayden who gave her a gun.

Hayden who let his mask slip for her.

Hayden who… cared about her?

? ♥ ?

The air may have been somewhere near freezing, but the sun was bright in a cloudless sky, warming his skin despite the air’s best efforts. Hayden turned his face to that sun, allowing it to wash over him. Birds in the trees chirped their gentle songs, bare branches nudging against one another whenever a light breeze rolled through.

It was a perfect winter morning.

At least, it was, until Anna stepped outside of the shack, meeting his gaze. Her eyes were a bit puffy, her hair messy from sleep. Or, an attempt at sleep. He was almost going to apologize to her, until he saw the blood stained onto her neck, bringing him right back to what had happened the day before.

He’d almost lost her.

He killed an innocent man to save her.

Worse, he knew that if he hadn’t stopped her from executing her suicide mission of a plan, she could’ve been that man. Blinded by the idea of revenge, desperate for it and making foolish mistakes.

Dead.

Hayden had seen enough innocent life lost. He wouldn’t see Anna’s lost, too. Wouldn’t let her die only knowing misery and suffering.

A knot rose up into his throat, but he shoved it down. He’d let his emotions run wild more in one night than he had in ten years, and it stopped now.

At least, that was the plan.

The sun that had been easing his worries just moments earlier now flashed against the red on her jacket, sparking that same red hot anger that he’d felt yesterday. So much for shoving down the emotions.

He stood, walking toward her.

“Good morning, sunshine,” she smiled, but it was a forced, fake smile, her voice laced in the sarcasm he’d come to know and expect from her. The kind of sarcasm she’d always used when she wasn’t overly angry… except for last night. Last night, he hadn’t heard that spiky edge in her voice.

He grabbed her by the jacket and yanked her in the direction of a small creek he’d found earlier while scouting out the area. The water was icy, but he’d lose the tiny bit of control he had left if he kept looking at the blood on her neck. Sure, he was being a bit aggressive, but this was important. Vital.

“You wanna tell me where we’re going, big guy?”

Always teasing, always playing around. Hayden never should have come on this trip, because his careful control was splintering and it had barely been three days. Then he imagined what might have happened to Anna had he not been there… and he was exceedingly glad he’d forced his way into her revenge scheme. If he could even call it that. The more time he spent with her, the more he realized she didn’t have a plan at all. Only an end goal in mind, with zero well thought-out steps to bring her to that goal.

They may have wanted the same thing, but their approaches could not have been more different. Then again, judging by how crazed he’d become in just the short time they’d spent together, perhaps he’d be as wild and untethered as she was in a week’s time.

The gentle sound of flowing water grew louder as they walked down the small hill they were on. When it finally came into view, he picked up his pace, still pulling Anna along with him. She trudged behind him, putting up zero resistance. Unlike her.

“You could’ve just told me you were thirsty. I would’ve gotten you a drink.”

He took a long, slow inhale. Then urged her toward the water. “Wash.” She met his gaze, staring at him as if he were joking. He was most certainly not joking. “You have dried blood all over you. Wash.”

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