Thistime,thewaves of subconscious came with a riptide of familiarity.
The squalls tumbled my mind in terror and screams for help in a voice of my own.
Plane. Plane. Plane.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Jonathan. James. Help!
Gusts of seawater circled my heart in a ring of stinging fear, the pain and erupting panic so surreal, I burst through the waves with a horrified, obliterating scream.
My eyes ripped open, the hair-raising screams still bleeding out of my mouth. Heat washed my back in heavy strokes that startled my screams to a stop.
Too hot.Too fucking hot.
I jolted, rolling to my side as the heat swept to my arms, holding me firm.
Eyes that belonged to the heat waited for me to catch up to my surroundings, cautious and dotted with concern. Harsh breaths cut through my lungs as I snapped my head in every direction.
Bed. I was on a bed and there was one next to me, gaudy mustard-colored comforters garnishing them both. Walls padded us in on all sides, ugly paintings of potted flowers hanging in frames along the confines.
“We’re in Dallas. Motel off the highway.”
The low voice fixed my focus back to him. The heat. His hand was still holding my arm, attempting to comfort, attempting to pretend he wasn’t the puppeteer who’d pulled the strings that placed me smack dab in the center of harrowing memories and humiliating tears.
Sneering at his hand, I bucked his touch from my arm, scrambling back on the bed. Repulsion bloated my chest as I looked him over crouched next to the bed, a well-dressed act in fitted jeans and fraudulent worry.
He’d drugged me. He’d kidnapped me. He’d single-handedly upended my sanity in seconds.
Agent Reyes schooled his almost compassionate expression to something bothered, mouth drawing grim as he stood to his full, towering height.
“Before you say anything—”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I interrupted in a harsh whisper.
He breathed a sigh, shoulders slumping as he pinched fingers over the bridge of his straight nose. He swept a rough hand back through his unusually ruffled hair, a rogue piece draping free over his forehead. That hand came down to groom over his facial hair, lips rolling a thin line of silence between us.
“You’ve got nothing? Nothing to say for what you did to me?” I pushed to my knees on the bed, hands fisting at my sides until nails pricked my palms to hold back the fire, the seething flames. They were under my skin, licking and teasing my stability to the edge. “I barely know you, and yet you just did one of the cruelest things to me that anyone has ever done.”
Every inch of Reyes was tense as he stood still as fucking stone. His jaw, his broad back, even his graveled voice.
“I know.”
“You know…” The fact of knowing tasted foul on my tongue, curdling my blood to sludge and boiling lava. “If you know, then why did you do it?!”
Golden eyes dug a hole through the floor, one he was probably thinking of escaping through as my anger lost its leash.
“I didn’t know then. I know now.”
“And?”
“And what?”
Upset rounded my eyes, my eyebrows hitting my hairline. “And don’t you think you owe me an apology at the very least for oh, I don’t know, drugging me and trapping me in a panic attack at 30,000 feet up in the sky?”
An inhale blew his chest wide, and I got to watch the cords of his throat pull tight as he forcibly swallowed down his ego. My wildly thumping heart prided at the display. Agent Reyes turned to face me on the bed, heavy eyelids showing me only slits of remorse peeking beneath slats of black lashes. Stare still latched to the ground, he blinked those flaxen eyes up to me and spoke low and true.
“I’m sorry.”