Page 51 of Piece You Saved

Ichew the inside of my cheek as I watch Dariel disappear up the stairs. I’m clenching my hands into tight fists, yet somehow they’re still shaking. My stomach is in knots, and I have an overwhelming need to punch myself in the face, because what the hell was I thinking?

You nearly let him kiss you.

If I hadn’t remembered all the reasons I should’ve been pushing him away, I would have.

This is the man—the shifter—who accused me of inviting Rylan and his pack’s wickedness into my life. The shifter who nearly killed Kade. Who nearly killedmeback in the Cerberus.

Twice.

And I was going to let him kiss me.

What the hell is wrong with me?

The knot in my belly tightens and twists until I unfurl a fist and place my palm over it, pressing hard.

How could you want him to kiss you?

Needing a distraction, I swing around and head back to the kitchen and the open laptop.

Maybe I can take advantage of Kade’s absence to do some research on Rylan.

I sit down and eye the monitor for several seconds until the same itchy feeling in my belly travels down to my legs and makes them bounce. All the security cameras point at nothing. Well, notnothing. No one is attempting to break in, sneak in, or creep through the dense tangle that is the garden. In short, now is the perfect time to click off and do some research.

So I do.

After bringing up a search engine, I type Rylan’s name into it. I scroll and keep on scrolling, my eyes running over news headline after news headline, alert for any clue that will tell me where Rylan is in the city.

They all say the same thing.

Arsonists set fire to wealthy businessman’s privately owned land.

Cops discover dead wolves.

Illegal hunting on wealthy property owner’s land?

I hesitate, leave the cursor hovering over one of those headlines, and then click. It’s not what I was looking for, but maybe it might tell me what Dariel and Kade seem so resistant to. Namely, how they got me away from Rylan and here with them.

My memories of that time are still foggy. The nightmares have mostly gone now, but occasionally, a ringing slap as fire eats at my left arm will tear me from sleep. Torture will do that.

Days later, I still don’t have a firm grasp of everything that happened on the day—or was it night? I slashed open Nathan’s throat with a piece of glass, watched him bleed out on Rylan’s bathroom floor, and Rylan exacted payback in the form of a permanent scar on my left arm.

I remember thinking I was on a boat. Maybe in an ocean? I was sure I was drowning. There are no records on the news report of anyone pulling a woman from the water. And I know there isn’t a lake or stream in the Playground, the privately owned land Rylan liked to take his pack for runs, so he couldn’t have been drowning me there.

And then I realize I’m just sitting here, staring at nothing. I tell myself to focus. To keep searching for answers, but my legs are bouncing again. My heart isn’t just racing now, it’s damn near exploding, and my palms are so sweaty I keep rubbing them on my sweatpants because I can’t use the laptop trackpad. When did that happen?

And the cold sweat. How can I be freezing and sweating at the same time?

I have to get up. Walk.Something.

A couple of minutes in the backyard has to be safe if Dariel went out, and there doesn’t seem to be anything on the monitors, right?

Right.

I take another thorough scan of the monitors, just to be sure, and rise before heading for the backyard. I’m in the hallway when Kade appears at the top of the stairs.

“Angel?”

“I need air. I checked the cameras, and there’s no one there. It’s safe, right?” I’m speaking too fast. My heart is pounding in my head now, and my palms are sweating again. I worry I won’t be able to hear Kade if he were to speak. The pounding is that loud.

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