“Fuck,” he growled, then he grabbed my hair and I was being yanked away.
He was fast losing the whole “gentle” approach, but he didn’t pull me to my feet, and I used that to my advantage, too. I kicked out at his legs, and the movement helped propel me out of his hold again. But then I was on my butt and he was looming over me.
I was out of options.
Our eyes met, and I opened my mouth.
Another scream was coming out of me.
He knew it. I knew it. We were both about to hear it.
But then he lunged, grabbed me, dragged me up, and I was pushed against the wall.
Déjà vu. For thethirdfreaking time.
His hand slammed over my mouth, and he bent low, whispering into my ear, “Shut up!”
Except I wasn’t hearing that. I was hearing,“In two minutes, men will break into your home and take you hostage.”
It was his height.
It was his eyes.
It was his voice, now that it was more rough and he wasn’t trying to disguise it.
There was a sixth sense where you shouldn’t know but you just do. You just know it, and that feeling was inside of me. Iknewthis guy.
My lungs stopped working.
Everything stopped working.
Recognition crashed into me, overloading my everything, and I swear I heard the circuit breakers in my brain frizz and snap as they stopped working, too.
I knew this guy. I so knew him, and I had known I knew him, and I stopped thinking about what I was doing. I slapped his hand away, grabbed his shirt, and hissed, “I know you!”
Articulate genius, I never claimed to be.
His eyes widened, but I was still going. “It was you! You’re Chase.”
“You got the upstairs, right, Chase?”
Arcane team member Chase. Chase who broke into my house, told me he was supposed to rape me and I was about to be kidnapped. That Chase!
“He better have, or was the two pumps not long enough?”
Their sick laughter. I was hearing it all over again.
I was back in my house.
I was arching my back and screaming, “Aahhh!”A breath. “Heeelp me!”
He went still, staring at me. It was like I had captured him and he was being held hostage. Then, “Shit” slipped from him.
Shit?
Shit!
Shit?