Page 13 of Taking

I’d expected her to go into business, perhaps marketing for all the trendy makeup shit she’d been into back in high school.

The Addilyn I’d known prior to jail certainly wasn’t the same young woman lying in the bed feet away from me.

She rolled to her back, letting out an exhale, and I stepped into the shadows, closing the door to a mere crack. A shiver wracked through her body, and she let out a whimper that sounded like fear rather than a sensual one.

Brow furrowing, I studied her twitches. Wondered over the quiet noises she made—

A quiet gasp and her entire body jerked before quickly stilling, her breaths heavy. “Damnit,” she muttered, rubbing her face.

I eased the door shut, gently returned the handle in place so it wouldn’t click, and hurried up the hallway in my socked feet, curiosity over what she’d dreamed of filling my head. Fear? And if so, from what? Did she know I followed her? Did she know Lloyd wanted her gone?

Whatever she’d dreamed about, it had woken her up enough that I had to get the hell out of the house.

Her bedroom door squeaked, and I detoured from the front door to the couch and shifted to a silent crouch behind its threadbare bulk. I dropped to a plank and eased my body down flat, breath held.

My heart raced, and I grinned, riding the high of fucking life. Freedom.

Footsteps shuffled toward the kitchen, and I inched my body forward along the floor to peek around the couch’s edge, fighting to keep my breaths shallow so she wouldn’t hear.

My fucking shoes sat inside the door on their entry rug.

With my body tensed to hop up if needed, I watched Addilyn in a long T-shirt fill a glass with water from the tap. Pale legs—thinner than I remembered. Bony ankles and knees.

Brow furrowing, I lifted my gaze up over the bump of her ass to shoulder blades that had no business protruding from the thin shirt covering her stooped form.

Her head tipped back as she drank her water down. Once finished, she set it in the sink.

A shudder rippled over her, and I pulled back, knowing she would turn, that she could sense the same energy I did whenever I got too close to her.

My insides jittered, and I closed my eyes, wanting to laugh like a goddamn fool from the adrenaline rushing through my blood.

She feels me…same as I do her.

The hairs on my arms rose like an electrical current raced over my skin as I waited. Ears strained beyond the pulse thumping between them. Body tensed—to fight or flee depending on the outcome of my breaking and entering.

Addilyn let out a heavy exhale, and her shuffling footsteps disappeared back down the hallway.

The bedroom door snicked shut.

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d held.

After a quick push up to a plank, I stood to find myself alone as expected.

Unsure if I was happy over that fact, I whispered my feet over the floor, put back on my shoes, and let myself out into the cold.

My fingers itched to take, but the waiting, the prolonged wanting would only make my revenge that much sweeter. If the state of her thin body indicated anything, Addilyn had already suffered.

My guts clenched at the thought that Lloyd might be responsible for her depression and lack of desire to eat, but what else in her cushy life could have caused her to waste away? Certainly not guilt for her part in having me locked up. She’d held her head a little too high that day while striding down the courtroom’s aisle. She hadn’t even spared me a glance after telling the judge and jury about my behavior. She hadn’t reached out to me in those five years either.

The hardness in my stomach overrode the swelling in my jeans, and I clung to the anger. Allowed it to fuel my determination and feed the fire in my head.

For some reason, Addilyn hurt—but she wasn’t yet aware of the true meaning of the word pain.

She would be. Soon.

5

Addilyn

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