Page 44 of Run Like the Devil

“What?” I snapped.

“You’re not acting like yourself.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

She narrowed her eyes as she stared at me, and despite the fact I had to look down at her, despite how fucking little she was compared to me, despite that unnamed anger inside me, I knew one thing for fucking sure…

This girl would always have the upper hand with me.

Loch

Why is Hale acting like this? I asked myself the question again and again but came to no real understanding.

I recalled Koller’s words, how she said the place would twist people. Was this an example of that happening?

Hale was often rough, sure, and he was always at least a little angry. He wasn’t usually angry with me, though. He had a strange tension inside him, as if he blamed me for something that I couldn’t understand.

Was it me? Was this actually my problem? Maybe we weren’t as close as I’d thought?

I pushed aside that doubt and took another step closer to him. Sure, he scared me. I recalled what had happened in that memory, and somehow, he reminded me of that time, especially with how aggressively he moved and spoke.

But I refused to let that fear rule me. Those things weren’t the man in front of me. I knew every surly inch and bad trait of Hale.

I’m not afraid of Hale.

As far as pep talks went, that was a pretty shitty one, but I forced myself to set my hand on his chest. I leaned closer, seeking a kiss, needing that connection. I wanted to feel him against me, to know that we were still together, that our connection hadn’t broken. I wanted to bridge the distance that had sprang up between us. I felt oddly alone and adrift, so I wanted a tether that connected me to Hale.

Hale reacted in a rush. He leaned down and kissed me with an aggression that had me crying out in surprise. He grasped my thighs and lifted me against him, clinging to me as if he would drown if he didn’t have every part of me immediately.

He overwhelmed me with his touch, with his domineering kiss. It felt as if he branded me with his touch, as if he left marks behind to claim me. It was possessive and terrifying.

It scared me as much as I wanted more. I wanted to lose myself in his passion, to be the person I was before, but I couldn’t quite release the fear.

I pushed his chest, needing space to gather myself. He was just too much, and it forced that too familiar panic sweep through me. He clung to me tighter, and my back struck something hard, the breath in my lungs escaping in a rush.

A tree? He’d pinned me to the tree, which freed his hands. He ran one up my side, then dipped beneath my shirt. The touch of his fingers against my bare skin broke the leash I’d had on my fear.

I pushed harder at his chest, trying to break his lips from mine.

“Are you just toying with me?” he asked, his voice different than I was used to, colder than I’d heard it before. “Are you just getting closer to me so you can betray me? Just playing games until you can stab me in the back?” His words were angry, but it was the pain soaked in them that really rang through.

I squeezed my eyes closed, the panic so strong that I froze. I couldn’t even consider actually fighting back.

And just like that, he was gone. My legs gave out and I toppled to the ground, confusion swamping me along with that same panic. At first, I struggled only to draw air into my lungs, anything more complicated than that impossible.

“Are you out of your mind?”

The voice made me open my eyes, and the reason Hale wasn’t there anymore became clear. Hale was sprawled out on the ground with Tyrus standing between him and me.

Hale frowned, as though he didn’t know how to answer the question. “I wasn’t going to hurt her.”

“Do your eyes not work? She was terrified. She was fighting against you.”

A deep line appeared in Hale’s forehead before he peered past Tyrus and at me. Whatever he saw in my face must have gotten through, because he paled and dropped his gaze.

I gripped the tree I’d been leaning against to help me to my feet, ignoring how unsteady my legs felt, how unsteady all of me felt.

I went to speak, though what I would say I still didn’t know.

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