“Found a pair!” Reid said triumphantly as he rounded the house and walked over to me.
“Perfect,” I said.
I took it from him and positioned it to snap the lock in two. I grunted as I squeezed with all my strength. Finally, the lock broke. I grinned as I handed the bolt cutters back to him and opened the box.
I’d killed the power in a house before. It was simple enough to do as long as I was careful. I felt Reid’s breath on the back of my neck as I carefully unscrewed the meter.
“You know what you’re doing?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said as I handed him the meter socket. “Hold this.”
He took it from me. “Of course you do. Anything illegal, and you’re a pro.”
I didn’t miss the sarcasm in his tone, but I ignored it as I reached in and pulled the boot off.
“What’s that?” Reid asked.
I tossed it aside. “That,” I said as I took the meter socket back from him, “was what was keeping the power off.”
“You can’t be serious,” he said.
“Yep. We should be good to go now.”
I screwed the meter back into the box and closed the door around it. We walked back to the front of the house and stepped up onto the porch. When we walked inside, I flipped the light switch. I grinned when a single overhead light came on.
Reid shook his head, but he grinned at me as he closed the door behind us. I looked around the cabin, taking in the tiny room. The cabin had a living room and a small kitchen crammed together. An older plaid couch was shoved against the wall, but there was no TV or anything else electrical in sight. The kitchen was big enough to hold a small refrigerator, a stove, a microwave, and a coffee pot. Apparently, the couch served as the dining room table.
There were two doors at the back of the cabin. I walked over to the first one and opened it. A toilet, sink, and shower stall greeted me. I almost clapped my hands with joy. I’d worried that there would be no way to bathe here. I moved on to the next door. Behind it was a dresser and a full-sized bed. I walked in and opened the top drawer to see if any clothes or personal items had been left behind. I was pleasantly surprised to find a set of sheets and a pillow in the top drawer. I found a blanket in the second drawer down. The two others were empty.
I turned to walk back out to the main room, but I stopped when I saw Reid standing in the doorway, watching me.
“Found sheets, a blanket, and a pillow. They’re a little musty, but they’re better than nothing.”
“Cool. You can take the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch.”
I wrinkled my nose at the thought of him sleeping on the couch. It didn’t look like it was clean—at all.
“We’ll both share the bed.”
Reid opened his mouth to argue, but I held up my hand.
“Don’t make a big deal out of it. I’ll stay on my side, and you can stay on yours.”
“It’s a full-sized bed,” he pointed out.
“And your point?”
“It’s not big enough for sides.”
“I’m not arguing over this. We’re sleeping together whether you like it or not. I’ll tie you to the bed if I have to, and yes, I can do it.”
He smirked. “So, that was your plan all along—get me to this secluded cabin, tie me up, and force yourself on me. I should have known.”
“Like I’d have to force you,” I shot back before I could stop myself.
“Two days ago, I would have agreed with you. Now, not so much,” he said, the smirk leaving his face.
I shook my head. “I’m going to make the bed. Go bring our things in.”
He mock saluted me before turning and walking out of the room.
“Take your gun!” I called after him as I pulled the sheets out of the drawer.
If he’d heard me, he didn’t respond. I rolled my eyes as I started making the bed. It only took me a few minutes to completely make it. The only problem I saw was the fact that there was only one pillow. Reid would have to roll up his underwear into a makeshift pillow or something like that. I wasn’t going to give up the pillow.
One thing was for certain. The next few days were going to be interesting.
One thing became abundantly clear over the next two days. Reid and I couldn’t escape each other. During the day, we were trapped together with absolutely no way to escape the other for long. Just to avoid each other, one of us would spend an hour or two out on the porch. Even then, I would constantly check on him to make sure that he was okay.
I was wound tight. I constantly paced back and forth between the kitchen and the couch. I hated waiting, and I hated feeling trapped. Unfortunately, I was experiencing both at once. The only distraction I had was my e-reader, which I’d found at the bottom of my bag when I was searching for socks on the first night. I’d try to pass the time reading, but Reid seemed to be handling the cabin about as well as I was. It would be nearly impossible to read while Reid took over my pacing anytime I sat down.
Our sleeping arrangements weren’t much better. I was so uptight over making sure that I didn’t touch or piss off Reid in any way that I couldn’t sleep much. The one time I had fallen asleep the first night and slept for a few hours, I’d awoken to find myself snuggled into Reid’s side. I’d carefully moved away without waking him. It had been an accident, but I didn’t want to give him another excuse to hate me.
On the third day, Reid was more irritable than normal. I ignored his grumbling that evening as I tried to concentrate on my book.
“This is ridiculous. We’ve been here for three days already. They haven’t come for you yet. They probably gave up.”
I snorted as I looked up from my e-reader. “Yes, they traveled all the way from London, tracked me to Texas, kidnapped me in the middle of the night, and knocked you out, only to give up and go home. Right.”
He glared at me but kept his mouth shut.
“I know it’s hard staying in here, but we can’t leave until I hear from Wes. He’ll figure out a way to throw my father off of us. Maybe if Wes distracts my father for long enough, he really will give up.”
I didn’t believe that, but it was the only thing I could say that might comfort Reid. Short of my father dying, I doubted if he’d ever truly give up looking for me.
“I never thought I’d hate this goddamn cabin so much. I just want out. I want to go back to work and my apartment. I want to see my friends, drink a beer, and just fucking chill out.”
“You really miss stripping that much?” I joked.
He continued to glare at me. “I don’t mind it. It pays rent and leaves me with extra cash to do whatever I want.”
“But what happens in a few years when…” I hesitated. “Well, when you’re no longer a hot guy in his twenties. Don’t take this the wrong way, but do you really think you can still strip when you’re forty or fifty?”
He shrugged. “I have other plans for my future. I just need money to make them happen.”
At least he was no longer glaring at me. I had been sure that he’d throw something at me after I basically told him he’d get ugly when he was older.
“Like what?” I asked, genuinely curious as to what Reid truly wanted to do with his life.
He bit his lip as if debating on whether or not he wanted to tell me. Finally, he spoke, “I want to be a psychologist.”
That was the last thing I had expected to hear from him. “Really?”
He frowned. “Yeah, really. Is it that shocking?”
“No, it’s just that I can’t picture you in a chair, asking patients to lie down on a couch and spill their darkest secrets to you. When I mentioned you talking to someone about your dreams, I thought you were going to strangle me.”
He gave me a look that made me wonder if my IQ had just dropped by speaking those words.
“Mental illnesses are real. People who have them are often looked down on or are accused of lying about their issues. I want to help them. They deserve treatment as much as someone with can
cer or heart disease. As for my…personal issues, those are mine to deal with alone. I don’t need help with them.”
“You’re really going to do it then?” I asked, deciding not to argue with him over his opinion of his own problems.
He nodded. “Yeah—that is, if we get out of this alive. I’ve been saving money since I moved out on my own. I’ll have to take out a ton of student loans while I’m in school, but at least I’ll have money saved, and I’ll continue to work. I don’t want to be a starving college student.”
“Wow. I don’t know what to say.” I paused, realizing just how little I knew about Reid. “I’ve always wanted to travel the world. Job alternatives weren’t something I thought about, but I really liked teaching those kids how to defend themselves.”
He slowly walked across the room and sat down next to me. “I didn’t know that. I guess there’s a lot we don’t know about each other.”
“You’re right,” I said as I leaned back further and relaxed into the couch. “But I will say this. You make an awesome stripper, so keep that shit up.”
He chuckled, surprising both of us. “Of course you liked watching me work.”
Unsure of what to say next, I said nothing. Instead, I stretched. It had been dark for hours, and I was exhausted. It was amazing how tired I could get from sitting on my ass all day.
I stood and gave Reid a weak smile. “I’m going to bed. I’m beat.”
“I’m going to stay up for a while longer. Good night, Bree.”
“Good night,” I whispered as I walked into the bedroom, my mind still on what Reid had said. It made me sad to realize that I knew very little about him. It made me even sadder to realize that I would probably never know more.
I woke up to the feel of someone pressed against me. A warm arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me tight against a body. Warm breath tickled the back of my neck with each exhale.
Reid. I would know the feel of him anywhere. Unfortunately, I knew he would flip out if he woke up and realized how close we were and that he was holding me.
Reid had made it very clear that he wanted nothing to do with me anymore.
Carefully, I laced my fingers through his. I let myself savor the feel of him holding me for a moment before lifting his arm away from me. I rested it against his hip and let go. He moaned in his sleep and instantly wrapped his arm around me again.
I cursed under my breath as I squirmed to get free. I didn’t want him to wake up like this and freak out. His arm tightened around me, destroying any hopes of escaping without waking him. I could easily break his hold, but I decided against it. Giving in, I settled back down with him and closed my eyes. I knew he’d wake up pissed, but I’d tried to do the right thing. If he started to yell at me, I’d tell him to piss off.
With that thought in mind, I fell back asleep.
I sighed contentedly as fingers slowly slid into my sleep shorts and then my underwear. I opened my legs as fingers shoved between them. I let out a small moan as they found my clit. Terrified that if I moved, I might wake up, I lay deathly still as those fingers started softly stroking me. As they picked up speed, I couldn’t stop the moan that erupted from my lips. The fingers stilled for a moment before moving again. My legs tangled with Reid’s as my body came alive.
I heard a mumbled curse from Reid. I froze, and my eyes flew open. His fingers never stopped moving.
“Reid?” I whispered, breathless.
“Shh…” he whispered back as his fingers found my entrance and thrust inside, his thumb still rubbing against my clit.
Unable to concentrate on what I needed to say, I gave up and focused on what his hand was doing to me. I squirmed against him, feeling the hard outline of his dick against my ass. That set me off faster than I’d thought possible. I clamped my legs together and dug my nails into his arm as I came.
Before I could recover, Reid jerked away from me. He cursed again as he stood from the bed and moved closer to the door.
“Reid?” I called softly, completely confused by what had just happened.
He shook his head. “I shouldn’t want you still, but I do. Every second locked up in this cabin with you makes it ten times worse. You’re a goddamn killer, and the only thing I can seem to think about when you’re around is how fucking tight your pussy is. I’m losing my mind!”
With that, he turned and stormed out of the bedroom, leaving me frozen in place. He had no idea just how much I still wanted him, too.
The next morning, I found Reid lying on the couch. I gave him a tentative smile as I walked over to him. His eyes stayed glued to me, a slight frown on his face.
“Hey,” I mumbled. When he didn’t respond, I sat down on the couch next to his feet. “Can we talk?”
He shrugged. I fought not to roll my eyes. This conversation was going really well.
“About last night—well, mind telling me what that was about?” I asked.
He finally sat up and looked at me. “A mistake.”
“I realize that. What brought it on though?” I asked.
“You have no idea how beautiful you are, Bree. None at all. Every man you pass stops and turns to look at you. I’ve seen it, but you never even noticed.”
“Maybe I didn’t notice because I was only looking at you.”
He swallowed roughly as if hearing those words from me was painful. “I think I’ll always want you, no matter how hard I try to fight it. I slipped last night and lost control.” He sighed. “I can’t do that again. I believe that you truly are the kind person you’ve let me see since the beginning, but underneath all of that, there’s so much blood and darkness. You’re a murderer, Bree. I don’t think I can ever get past that.”
“I know,” I said quietly. “I never expected you to. I knew the moment I told you the truth that everything I’d hoped for with you would end.”
“Then, why did you tell me everything? You could’ve lied.”
“I was tired of lying. I wanted you to see me, all of me, and decide where you wanted to go from there.”
He shook his head. “Everything is so fucked up now, you know? Almost every part of me screams to just let it go and be with you, but there’s another part, a tiny one, that keeps reminding me of what you’ve done, what you’re capable of.”
“It’s okay to hate me, Reid. I deserve it,” I told him truthfully.
“I’ll never hate you, Bree, but I don’t think I’ll ever trust you either. I guess we’re stuck in the middle.”
“Then, maybe we can at least be friends?” I asked.
He hesitated for a moment before nodding. “We can try.”
There was so much longing in his eyes in that moment. I had no doubt that the same look was in my eyes as well.
That evening, I silently closed the door behind me before sitting down on the step. I sighed as I looked up at the stars. The sky was clear, leaving me with a perfect view of the heavens above. My eyes drifted over to where the moon was. It was bright tonight, bathing the scenery around me in a pale glowing light.
Despite everything that had happened recently, in this moment, I felt peaceful. It was a feeling I wasn’t accustomed to in life. I knew that part of it was because of the silence of the night around me, but I would be fooling myself if I tried to say that Reid wasn’t the other reason.
I wasn’t sure if things would ever go back to the way they had been for us before. I knew they wouldn’t. There was no way Reid could just accept my past and continue treating me the same. I wasn’t the innocent girl he’d met. The woman I’d portrayed in Dallas, the one he’d wanted—she wasn’t me. I wasn’t her. I’d tried so hard to fit into a life that was never meant for me. I still wanted that life. I wanted the normalcy, the safeness. I wanted to be an average girl who could spend her evenings with her boyfriend.
My past wasn’t something I was proud of, but it had made me the person I truly was. I couldn’t pretend to be normal because I wasn’t. I could accept that, but the thought of returning to my old life was
sickening. I wasn’t sure that I’d ever be able to truly escape it though.
There were so many different scenarios running through my mind—leaving this cabin with Reid and returning to Dallas to pretend none of this had ever happened, dying right here at the hands of my father, returning to London to resume the life I’d run from. None of them felt right, especially the thought of dying here. I wasn’t ready for death, not yet.
My perfect life would be leaving here without the threat of my father hanging over my head and starting a new life with Reid. It was too bad that I had little choice in how my life would go from here.
“Beautiful night, isn’t it?”
I jumped to my feet, my heart racing. Before I could pull my gun, I felt the cold metal of a barrel pressed against my temple.
No, I thought as my father stepped out of the shadows to my left.
I’d been buried so deep in my own mind and the stars above me that I hadn’t been paying any attention to my surroundings. That mistake was obviously going to cost me dearly.
“It’s a bit chilly out here. Why don’t we go inside and join our friend Reid?” my father said as he stopped in front of me.
I shuddered when I saw the cruel twist of his lips. He was smiling down at me, but it looked wrong.
“Wesley, will you please remove my daughter’s gun? I wouldn’t want her to try to escape again.”
Without a word, Wesley lifted the back of my shirt and grabbed my gun. He gripped my arm and turned me toward the door. I fought the urge to scream in aggravation as I moved closer to the door. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. Wesley was supposed to find me and figure out a way to protect me, not lead my father right to my doorstep.
I opened the door and stepped inside. Reid was sitting on the couch. He glanced up and smiled, but his smile died quickly when Wesley followed me in, his gun still pressed to my temple. I saw fear flash in Reid’s eyes, and my stomach turned over. I’d promised to protect him, and I’d failed. There was a good chance that one or both of us would die tonight.
The Consequences of Sin Page 17