Meet Me In The Dark: (A Dark Suspense) (33 page)

Which is how I’d have described his personality as well, a few days ago. But now I’m not sure what to make of that mind of his. The killer part of him I can accept. And this tender part, the part that wants to fuck me softly—I’d like to accept that too.

But right now something feels
wrong
.

He crawls up the bed, his hands and knees on either side of me. And for a moment, when I look into those blazing amber eyes, I see him as the predator he is. My whole body trembles.

Then his hand is on my stomach, underneath my shirt that belongs to him. And the coldness I’ve imagined is not there. He is warm. And he smiles at me. I take a deep breath, not sure I want to do this stuff in the light. The darkness hides me. I like it. But the sun is streaming through the large windows that have the same view as the crow’s nest and it makes me self-conscious.

“Want me to stop?” he asks.

“No,” I whisper. I want to keep him forever. But even though he’s been nice and I don’t think he wants to hurt me, he’s flashing a red danger sign right now.

“Relax,” he says, lifting my shirt up so he can kiss my stomach. “And tell me what you want.”

“I want to be sure.”

“Of what?”

“That you’re real, and this isn’t a trick.”

“Why would I trick you?”

“Because you need information.”

“You said you don’t have it.”

“I know, but—”

He stares at me. “But what?”

“But you don’t believe me.” And then I take a deep breath and gather my nerve. “Do you believe me?”

He goes back to kissing me. He makes me feel like I’m being tortured with pleasure as he licks a small circle around my nipple, gently squeezing the other one at the same time, until they are both erect and tingling. He scoots up a little and takes his kisses to my neck. “Do you think I’ll hurt you, Syd?” His hot breath makes the words skim across my skin. I feel like I’m floating.

“Not physically. Not anymore.” I say. My head is spinning again, not the same way it was downstairs. “But—”

His mouth steals my words and even though I have this pressing need to know if he’s genuine, I give up. I just give up and kiss him back.

It’s a long, slow kiss that makes my heart ache. It’s a sad kiss. One that has so much meaning, I can barely breathe. I want him to be real so bad. “You were always in my head, Case. You came to me in a dream and told me how to survive. You taught me to fish and hunt. But it wasn’t about fishing and hunting. It was you, splitting my mind into yet another piece. Not the way Garrett did it, with fear and threats, but with smiles and sunshine. It was you I dreamed about when he made me do things.”

“He brainwashed you, Syd. We’ve been over this. He told you a lot of things.” Case unbuttons my jeans and then sits up and drags them down my legs, tossing them onto the floor with my boots. And then his warm chest covers my cold one and never have I ever wanted to hug a man like I do this man right now. I wrap my arms around him and pull him close. “He gave you triggers, Sydney. Little things that only you know about. Words like bobcat.”

“And hush,” I say.

“No, cowgirl. Not hush. But there are more things I need to know. More words and symbols that hold his secrets. Do you remember any of them?”

“I feel like I’m floating.”

“Shhh, Sydney. Try to answer my question. Do you know of any more words or symbols that he planted in your head to make you do things? He might want you to hurt me, for instance. Did he give you a word that would make you hurt me?”

I’m flying. I’m high up in the clouds. I can barely open my eyes.

Case is on top of me and we are naked. “I want you,” I say. It comes out like an echo in my head. I’m not even sure if I said it out loud. “I want that soft fuck again, so bad.”

He spreads my legs and hikes one knee up to my chest, the tip of his cock pressing against my clit. It feels so fucking good. “You need me to fuck you, Syd? To remember what he said?”

I can’t answer that. “My stomach hurts.”

“He planted a trigger that makes you sick, Sydney. If you talk about it.”

“I feel so weird.”

“Concentrate now, OK? Did he tell you where he was? He came to you, remember? All those years you thought he was missing, he came to you.”

“I don’t think he did.”

“You told me he did, Sydney. You told me a lot of things when I had you under the drugs the last time. So you don’t need to pretend anymore. Just tell me where he is.”

“He’s gone.”

Case lets out a long breath and then slips his dick inside me. It’s painful, he goes too fast. But when I cry out, he stops and lets me settle. After a few seconds, he begins again. Slower this time. Softer than anything I’ve ever felt. I grab his shoulders and try to squeeze, but I have no strength. I open my mouth to ask why I’m so weak, but Case is there with his lips again, his tongue twisting up my thoughts and making me confused.

He flips me around, spooning me from behind, and then his cock fills me up again. He reaches around my waist and his fingers find my clit, strumming me like the song he played last night. The music plays in my head and my excitement builds with each stroke of his fingers and thrust of his hips.

“Where is Garrett, Syd?”

“He’s gone.”

“Where did he go?”

I’m about to answer, but the climax I’ve been driving towards is building. I hold my breath and press back against his body, into his cock, wanting him to take me deeper. The moment I find my release, he pulls out and spills his hot come all over my back.

“Did it feel good, Syd?”

“Mmmmm.”

“Now concentrate,” he says, wrapping his arms around me and pushing his mouth into my neck. “Where did Garrett go? Where can I find him?”

“You don’t need to find him,” I say back, feeling so, so sleepy. “I heard the trigger. He’s on his way here.”

Case throws me aside and is off the bed in an instant. But the time I gather enough sense to open my eyes, he’s already dressed at the end of the bed.

“Where are you going?” I slur out. “I need to go with you.”

“You’re staying here,” he says.

“No!” My heart begins to beat wildly as I try to sit up. I don’t even come close to sitting before I am slumped over, my face in the pillow. “You drugged me. You drugged me again, and you promised you wouldn’t.”

Case leans down and whispers in my ear, pulling my hair so I’m forced to look up at him. “I’ll take care of you when I get back.” And then he releases my hair and my head drops back to the bed.

“But you were nice to me. You said you weren’t going to kill me. You promised not to drug me!” I try to swing my legs out of the bed but he shoves me back.

“I lied, Sydney. But if you stay real still and go back to sleep, you’ll never have to think about it again.”

“Always have an ace in the hole.”

– Case

I
turn away from her and hastily get dressed, wondering where Garrett is. How far he’s gotten, what his endgame is. How he’ll play this out.

“Sasha,” Sydney says from the bed.

I whirl around and look at her. Her eyes are drooping pretty bad from the drugs I put in her water. Her head is slick with sweat and she’s lying sideways across the sheets, like she’s been trying to get up while I was lost in thought.

“What?”

“He’s got Sasha.”

My stomach rolls as her words sink in.

“He’s got her and you do not want to know what he’s gonna do with her.”

I reach for Sydney’s hair, fisting it hard and pulling her face towards me. “Where the fuck is he?”

“He’s waiting for you, Case.” Sydney tries a smirk on for size, but it comes off as a grimace. “At the end of the trail.”

I let go of her hair and get up, pulling a thermal shirt on as I jump down the stairs.

Motherfucker. The call. The call Sasha made earlier. That was Garrett. That was the trigger Sydney was talking about—it has to be. She was in on this from the beginning. My ringtone must be a trigger for her. Which means that asshole has been close enough to me to hear it.

I clench my fists as the anger runs through me. But the anticipation is there too. I will end him today. Nothing else matters. Garrett is a dead man.

“In the end it all comes down to what you’re capable of. Rescue means debt. Save yourself and you owe no one.”

– Sydney

I
don’t wait for Case to leave. The drugs are taking over and if he comes back to find me rifling through his medications and puts a stop to it, well, that’s the chance I have to take. Because I have about two minutes before I pass out for good and either way I’m dead.

I roll across the bed one more time and reach for the drawer in the nightstand. My hand misses it a few times, but finally I hook a fingertip through the pull and it slides open.

Downstairs a door closes with a slam.

My hand waves around inside the drawer for the first-aid kit and I’m just about to get frustrated when it hits me.

He took it downstairs to bandage my hand.

Fuck. Sixty-seven thousand fucks are running through my head right now. Do I not deserve to catch one break? One?

I roll over again and fall to the floor. I don’t know if I can make it downstairs—

“Syd,” beautiful Garrett says.

Is he Garrett or Case? Who is the man in my head?