by I. T. Lucas
Blushing, she looked away. “I’m not afraid of you, Sam. The reason I didn’t want to talk in your room is that I prefer to talk and walk. It helps me think.”
“I’m the same.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and then removed it quickly.
The less he touched her, the better.
“You are?” She pretended not to notice, but there was confusion in her eyes when she looked up at him. “What do you usually think about on your walks?”
He hadn’t been prepared for the question.
Leon couldn’t tell Anastasia the truth, but he didn’t want to lie to her either, so he decided to go with the story he’d written on his application. It was close enough to the truth to not be a lie.
“I’ve seen some ugly shit during my time in special ops that I’m not allowed to talk about with anyone. I think about that.”
“That’s probably not relaxing.”
“No, it’s not. But I can’t forget it, and I don’t know any other way to process what I’ve witnessed.”
Her eyes turned sad. “I don’t want to even imagine that. The only advice I can give you is what I learned in Safe Haven. When you think of ways to help others, it might help you focus on what’s good about humanity instead of the bad.”
“I am already helping others.”
She chuckled. “Rescuing damsels in distress that don’t need rescuing?”
“Among other things.” He stopped in front of his room and unlocked the door. “Do you want to come in?”
“Yeah.” She walked in behind him and took a look around. “I didn’t clean your room, but whoever did has done a good job.” She sat down on the bed. “Given how neat everything is, I would have known that you were in the military even if you didn’t tell me about it.”
“Perhaps the guy who cleaned my room has done an exceptional job.”
She smoothed her hands over the comforter. “We don’t make the beds like that. You can bounce a quarter off of it.”
He pulled his coat out of the closet. “Is that bad?”
“No, that’s good. I like that you’re not messy. Most guys are.”
Anastasia had a half-brother, but he was much younger than her. Had she lived with someone?
Leon shrugged the coat on. “How would you know?”
“I lived in the dorms for a while. The guys' rooms were disgusting.”
“That’s it? What about boyfriends?”
She grimaced. “I’ve only had one, and we didn’t live together. But his place was messy as hell.”
“Is that why you dumped him?” He offered her a hand up.
“Why would you think that I dumped him and not the other way around?” She took his hand, and just as before, the contact sent a bolt of lightning straight to his shaft.
Thankfully, she was looking at his eyes and not his crotch.
“Because no guy in his right mind would dump a woman like you. You are gorgeous, smart, and kind.”
A pretty blush colored her cheeks. “You should wear a scarf and gloves if you have them. I wasn’t kidding about how cold it is out there.”
She had ignored his compliment. Was it because she hadn’t believed him?
“I’m a pretty resilient guy.” He didn’t let go of her hand as he led her out the room.
“I bet you are. So, tell me, when you are not rescuing damsels in distress, how else are you helping people?”
“Actually, that’s precisely what I do. I work for an organization that rescues trafficking victims.”
“Oh, wow. That’s something.” She shook her head. “And here I was all preachy about how important it is to help people, when what I do is nothing compared to what you do. You are saving girls and women from a horrific fate. All I can hope to achieve is to help people deal with their issues.”
“The victims are predominantly female, but we’ve rescued some boys as well.”
“I can’t imagine the hell they go through.” She stopped before the door leading to the outside and pulled her white puffer coat from under her arm.
“Let me.” He helped her put it on.
“Thanks.” She pulled a scarf out of the coat pocket and wrapped it around her head, then pulled out a pair of gloves from the other and put them on as well.
As Leon opened the door, the blast of freezing wind made him second-guess his decision to take Anastasia on a walk. Even with the coat on and a scarf wrapped around her neck, it was still too cold for her.
“Are you sure about going out?”
“Yeah.” She pulled the scarf down over her cheeks. “I’m used to this weather.” She stepped out. “What happens to the victims after you rescue them?”
“They are taken to a sanctuary run by the organization I work for. The people there help get the victims back on their feet, so to speak. The next step in the rehabilitation is a halfway house, and when they are ready to go out on their own, the organization helps them with jobs and housing.”
Perhaps that was the key to getting Anastasia out of the cult?
She wanted to help those in need, but she needed the support of a community of people working together toward that goal. Maybe he could talk her into doing so outside of Safe Haven?
She could work in the sanctuary, or in the halfway house. They were always short on staff.
“You have no idea how much I admire you for doing what you do. How did you get into that line of work? Was it because of something personal?”
He chuckled. “In a way. My entire family works for the organization, so joining was natural for me.”
She cast him a sidelong glance. “How come you left the military?”
“I retired.”
She arched a brow. “You are too young to retire. Did you get dismissed because you got into trouble?”
“Why would you think that? Do I look like a troublemaker?”
“No, you don’t. But that doesn’t mean that you aren’t. Your friend Devlin, on the other hand, he definitely looks it. Did you meet him in the service?”
Leon reached for her hand. “I thought that we were going to talk about you and your reasons for joining the Safe Haven community.”
“Your story is much more interesting.”
“I doubt it, and I’m very interested in hearing your reasoning.”
“So you can convince me that I’m wrong?”
“I’m going to do my best.”
24
Anastasia
Sam was surprisingly easy to talk to.
Normally, Ana would have been too nervous to have a decent conversation with a hot guy like him, but he wasn’t full of himself or obnoxious like most handsome men she’d met.
It also helped that it was dark outside, and her face was partially covered by the scarf. All Sam could see was her nose and her eyes. Her cheeks, which she knew were red like ripe tomatoes, were hidden. Except, they were so hot that there was mist coming off of them.
Ana was seriously cursed with a redhead’s skin that was prone to blushing, and she was destined to never hook up with anyone that she actually wanted because she couldn’t play the aloof, uninterested game that got guys to chase women.
Sam seemed to be into her, though, and he’d even given her nice compliments, but that was probably an act. He was getting paid to get her out of the community, and he was using any tactic available to him to achieve his objective, including his hot as sin body and gorgeous face.
If he decided to seduce her, she would have a difficult time resisting even though she was pretty sure that he was just pretending to want her.
Why resist? a small voice in the back of her head whispered.
After all, she lived in a community that believed in free love and didn’t believe in relationships.
So what if he was just acting?
But what if he wasn’t even attracted to her? What if that was an act as well?
Men had a harder time faking arousal than women, but unlike women, they didn’t need much to get aroused. Ana wasn’t a be
auty queen, and her body wasn’t fashionably thin, but she knew that she looked sexy when naked, or at least good enough to get a guy in the mood.
Except, the last time she had been with a man was over a year ago, and her sexual experience was limited to one partner.
“What are you thinking about?” Sam’s voice sounded husky.
Had he seen her red cheeks somehow?
She checked her scarf, but it was still covering most of her face.
“I was trying to figure out where to start,” she lied.
He cast her a questioning look. “And?”
“I can start with why I came to the retreat and then continue to why I decided to stay.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Should she tell him about the voices?
Nah, that would kill any chance she had with him. But what if he already knew?
“First, tell me what you know about me. I’m sure you didn’t come here without conducting a thorough background check.”
“I didn’t, but my friend did. I know that you lost your mother in a freak accident when you were very young, but I don’t know the details. That wasn’t relevant to my mission. I also know that you were an exemplary student, and that you had just one year left to finish your law degree. You come from a very wealthy family, and you’ve never wanted for anything.”
Except love, but she wasn’t going to say that. It would make her sound needy and ungrateful for the financially privileged life she had led.
“Is that all you were told?”
He hesitated for a moment. “You can also hear conversations in your head, not between ghosts, but between people that you are convinced are alive. Your father thinks that the voices are the reason you’ve always felt different and didn’t fit in, and he also believes they are the reason for you joining the cult.”
She let out a breath. Sam knew about the voices, but he didn’t seem overly bothered by that.
Gathering her courage, she looked up at his eyes. “First of all, Safe Haven is not a cult.” An image of Emmett in his ridiculous white gowns and his perfectly curled hair popped in front of her mind’s eyes. Maybe Safe Haven was a little cultish, but it wasn’t like those crazy ones with mass suicides or child abuse. Emmett was a good guy. “And secondly, my father doesn’t believe that the voices are real. He thinks that I have a mental problem.”
There was an implied question in her statement, and she wondered how Sam would respond. Her bet was that he would change the subject.
His brows dipped low. “I don’t know enough about you or the conversations you hear. But I do know someone who communicates with ghosts, and another lady who can attach a string of her consciousness to a person and hear what they hear and see what they see. Her sister can hear echoes of past conversations that were left embedded in the walls. So, I have no reason to think that what you hear is not real.”
Ana’s mouth fell open. “And you actually believe that they can do that?”
The first one’s paranormal ability was somewhat believable. After all, not all mediums were charlatans, and some could prove their claims, just not to her. She’d done a lot of reading on the subject, and she had even gone to see several reputable ones and paid a lot of money to hear that they couldn’t summon her mother. So, the jury was still out on that.
But she’d never heard about talents like the other two he’d told her about.
“I know for a fact that what they claim is true. They have proven their abilities beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
He was either extremely naive or a liar. But since she doubted an ex-commando could still be naive after what he’d seen, he must be the latter.
“Where did you meet these extraordinary people?”
He smiled. “My family. All three are mated to my cousins.”
The term mated threw her off for a moment. Had he meant that they were married to his cousins?
Not likely. Even though Sam had managed to sound sincere, even fond of those imaginary 'mates,’ what he’d claimed was logically impossible. What were the chances of people with psychic talents that she’d never heard of all marrying Sam’s cousins?
None.
Wow, what an actor. He should get an Oscar for that performance.
What better way to lure her out of the community than to offer her a better alternative? People with psychic abilities who put hers to shame?
“Good one, Sam.” She pulled her hand out of his. “You almost had me there for a moment.”
He frowned. “You don’t believe me?”
“Of course, I don’t. How naive do you think I am?”
“Everything I told you was true. Why would I invent stuff like that?”
“To make me come with you. It’s not hard to imagine that I would want to meet these people and compare my experience with theirs.”
“And that’s bad how?”
“If it were true, it wouldn’t have been bad. But it’s a big fat lie.”
25
Leon
Leon considered himself a patient man, but Anastasia was pushing his limits.
He might twist the truth to protect his people, and he’d lied about his name because he was working undercover, but he would never deceive or manipulate for any other reason.
Even if it was for her own damn good.
“Let’s head back.” He pivoted on his heel and started walking.
She hurried after him. “I thought that you wanted to talk.”
“I’m done talking for tonight.”
“Are you mad?”
He stopped and turned to her. “What do you think? You just called me a liar. I don’t take kindly to that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not. If you were, you would take it back.”
“Would you believe me if I did?”
He leaned down so he could look into her eyes. “I don’t go around accusing people of lying.”
“But people lie all the time.”
“Yeah, a lot of people do, and yet you seem to buy all the crap that Emmett is spewing. You are a smart woman, Anastasia. I’m sure you can do the math. How much money is he making out of the retreat? And that’s in addition to what he makes from people like you who join his cult.”
She glared at him. “People like me who have issues? Well, excuse me for not being perfect.”
He shook his head. “Everyone has issues. What I meant by people like you was rich spoiled brats who are searching for meaning to their otherwise meaningless existence and letting themselves get swindled out of their money. Or, in your case, your daddy’s money.”
He’d gone overboard, and he didn’t even know why.
Leon rarely lashed out at people, especially at humans, but Anastasia just brought the worst out in him.
Maybe it was because he was there to help her, and she was spitting in his face, or perhaps it was because he wanted her but couldn’t have her.
Anastasia was an assignment, and therefore off-limits. No matter how much he was attracted to her, he wouldn’t stoop so low as to seduce her to achieve his objective.
Fire blazing in her blue eyes, she lifted her hand, but he wasn’t about to let her slap him.
Catching her wrist, he shook his head. “Don’t even think about it.”
As fear replaced the anger, she took a step back and tried to pull out of his grip. “Please, let go of me.”
Letting out a sigh, he dropped her wrist. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things.”
Tucking her shaking hands inside her coat pockets, she looked down at her pink boots. “At least that was the truth. That’s what you really think of me, and I can’t even say that you are wrong.”
When she’d been verbally attacking him, she’d somehow seemed bigger, but now that she was barely audible, she seemed so tiny. Bundled in the white puffer coat and pink scarf, she looked like a sweet marshmallow.
And she had tears in her eyes.
Damn.
He didn’t want to a
rgue with her. Leon wanted to peel back the layers of clothing one by one and taste her all over.
“I wish I could take it back.” He reached for her arm, but she twisted away. “And just so you know, that’s not all I think of you. I was angry, so I spewed out every negative I could think of. But there is so much more to you than that.”
She smiled without lifting her eyes to him. “At least you didn’t call me crazy.”
“Because I don’t think you are. If I did, I probably would have said that as well.”
She looked up at him. “I want to believe you, which means that I probably shouldn’t.”
“That’s a strange logic.”
“It isn’t for me.” She turned around and started walking. “I want the voices to be real, so I can stop doubting my sanity. But that makes me vulnerable to manipulation.”
“And yet, you are here because of them.”
“That’s why I came here, but it’s not why I stayed.”
Leon was glad they were talking again. “Why did you?”
“I fit in here. Everyone in Safe Haven has issues, so no one is judgmental or dismissive. No one is trying to convince me that what I hear is real or not, or that I’m crazy or not. I’m just accepted as I am, and that’s liberating.”
“What about their no-couples policy? You must realize that’s unnatural.”
She shrugged. “I’ve lived in the outside world for twenty-four years and haven’t found anyone I wanted to share my life with. Maybe there is no one out there for me. I don’t want to give up what I have here for something I might never get anyway.”
Leon didn’t want to antagonize her again, but he couldn’t think of a gentle way to say what he thought of her decision. “That’s a nihilistic approach to life. You choose to hide and not live life to the fullest because you’re scared of what the future might bring. None of us has a crystal ball, and still, most people wake up in the morning and go out there and work for what they want and what they need.”
“The fact that everyone is doing things a certain way doesn’t mean that’s the only way. I didn’t choose to be born different, but I can choose the way I want to live my life, and neither you nor my father can tell me that your way is better than mine.”