by Cynthia Eden
He grabbed her, lifting Luna into his arms and holding her tight.
“Maddox?”
Memories were driving him mad. Tearing apart his mind. Pushing him to the brink of sanity. But Luna wasn’t a memory. She was real. Flesh and blood. In his arms. His. “The past doesn’t matter.”
Pain flashed on her face.
He pressed her up against the wall. His cock shoved toward her. She hadn’t put on underwear, and he was still buck-ass naked. “You matter.”
Luna licked her lower lip. “You matter to me, too.”
He kissed her, swiping his tongue over the lip she’d just licked. Then he was thrusting his tongue into her mouth, tasting her, even as his cock thrust into her body. Deep and hard. There was no holding back. There was no going back. The past—dammit, he wasn’t going to make the same mistakes. He wouldn’t do it.
Her fingers dug into his arms. He thrust harder and deeper as he kissed his way down her neck. He licked her throat, bit her lightly, wanting to mark her. Wanting to own her.
Just wanting her.
She came, crying out with a fast, hard release, and it was his name that she called. His body that she held.
He emptied himself into her. Shuddering as he came, filling her completely even as Maddox knew that he would never, ever get enough of her because…
“I love you,” Maddox rasped.
Her breath caught. Her eyes flared wide.
And he just said it again. “I love you.”
Chapter Fourteen
Night had fallen again. Maddox had told her it was safer for them to travel at night, that they’d be harder to spot under the cover of darkness.
He’d stolen a different car. Nothing flashy. A small sedan that wasn’t going to attract too much attention. He drove it now with single-minded determination, his body tense. His gaze was focused on the road that just stretched and stretched before them.
“Did it work?” Luna asked, breaking the silence that had settled heavily in the car. She hadn’t been able to bring herself to ask the question before even though she’d suspected the result. They’d spent the day fucking. Sleeping. Eating. Not talking. Not much talking at all. Except for…
I love you.
Her hands twisted in her lap. She hadn’t responded to his declaration because she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to respond. His gaze had been blazing, his face so hard and fierce when he growled those words to her.
And she’d…she’d liked hearing them. She’d felt ice melting inside of her. Ice she hadn’t even realized was there—ice around her heart. She’d warmed up, and Luna had found a smile curving her lips.
To be loved by Maddox…
She liked that idea. She liked him.
Did she love him, too?
She wasn’t sure. Mostly because she didn’t understand love, not fully. She knew fear. She knew fury. But love—what did it mean, really? That she trusted him? She did. She’d put her life in his hands, and he hadn’t let her down.
Did it mean that she wanted him?
Absolutely. She couldn’t imagine wanting someone else the way she did him.
He made her feel safe. Strange, since the first time she saw him, Luna had been utterly terrified.
“It worked.” His deep voice filled the car.
Her breath exhaled in a rush. “You don’t seem very happy.” And she was confused. She’d wanted to make him happy.
Was that love? Wanting someone else to be happy?
“Not all memories are good, Luna.”
“Oh.” Yes. Of course. Luna cleared her throat. “Some are though, right? Some have to be good.”
Now he glanced at her. His gaze seemed to heat. “Some are.”
She tried to smile for him, but he’d already looked away. She searched for something to say. “I think it would be better to have the bad memories, too. Better them than nothing.” Considering the only memory she had was a bad one.
“You might be better not knowing some things.”
The road twisted up ahead. They’d left Vegas. Those bright lights were far behind them now. The desert surrounded them.
Maddox glanced in the rear-view mirror.
Automatically, Luna glanced back, too. The road was pitch black behind them, but—
“I hear an engine,” Maddox said, his voice tense.
She strained, and, yes, she could hear an engine, too, in the distance. But she didn’t see anyone.
“The driver isn’t using lights because he doesn’t want to tip us off that he’s there, but I hear the engine. He’s not hiding well enough.” Maddox shot into the curve up ahead, and when he came out, the car lunged forward even faster—as fast as the sedan could go—as Maddox shoved down the gas pedal. The sedan’s engine snarled.
She was still looking back. Still not seeing anything, but definitely hearing the other vehicle approach. “Maddox, no one followed us from the motel.” She was sure of it.
But the car was there, right behind them. And the fact that the headlights were off…not a good sign.
Up ahead, the road twisted again.
“Big rig is about to pass us,” Maddox growled. “I can hear it coming from the north.” He slowed down, just a bit, as they took the twist in the road.
When they came out of the curve, she could see the big rig’s lights, too. Bright and shining. Such a stark contrast to the vehicle tailing them. The sedan shuddered as it hurtled ahead on the road, staying in its own lane as it swept past the big rig and—
The big rig whipped toward them. The movement happened so fast that Luna didn’t even have time to scream. The big rig careened into their lane, slammed into their sedan, and a terrible crunch of metal filled her ears. The rig hit hard on the driver’s side, and glass exploded through the sedan.
The impact tossed the sedan off the road. It hurtled through the air, and Luna fought to suck in a deep breath so that she could call out to Maddox.
Her hand was reaching for him when the sedan slammed into the ground. It hit, rolled and rolled. The impact whipped her head back and forth. Air bags exploded around her. She shoved the bags out of her way even as she felt blood trickling down her cheek. Her heart thundered in her chest, and she clawed at her seatbelt, ripping it out of the way. The top of the sedan had crumpled onto her. The passenger side door was bent and twisted, and Maddox—
The car stopped moving.
There was a terrible silence, one punctuated only by the ragged gasp of her breaths. An airbag hadn’t deployed near Maddox. His upper body was crumpled over the steering wheel, and the driver side door appeared to be cutting into his side. The coppery scent of blood filled her nostrils.
“Maddox?” Her voice was a whisper as she reached out her hand to him.
He didn’t move.
She strained, fighting to get to him as she shoved the dashboard out of her way. And she focused hard, trying to use her enhanced senses to pick up his heartbeat or the rasp of his breath. But…
No beat.
No beat and no breath.
Maddox wasn’t breathing. His heart wasn’t beating.
“No.” She touched him, his skin was still warm, but there was blood, a whole lot of blood all over him. “Maddox!” Her fingers slid down his neck, but there was no pulse. Of course, there was no pulse. How could there be a pulse when there wasn’t a heartbeat?
The scent of gasoline reached her, burning her nose. Oh, God. Maddox was dead. They were trapped in the car, and gas was leaking from the wreck. Just like the scene before!
For one wild moment, she remembered the mother and son that she and Maddox had helped. The boy had been trapped in the car, and she’d smelled gasoline just like this. If Maddox hadn’t moved so fast, the boy would have died in the explosion.
Luna knew she had to move fast, too. She had to get Maddox to safety.
“You wake back up, do you understand me?” Glass cut into her arm, but she didn’t care. The steering wheel and front dash had crumped into Maddox, and she pounded t
hem with desperate fury. “You hurry up and come back!”
Footsteps rushed toward her. A man’s voice shouted out, “Please tell me you’re alive!”
She was.
Maddox…
Will be.
“Oh, God, oh, God…” The man’s frantic mutters reached her as she heard him hurrying toward the wreck. “I just…I was reaching for the glove box. Swerved. Not used to driving that rig. First freakin’ time out. Didn’t mean to hit you…please be the hell alive!”
“I am alive!” Luna called. “But we need help!” Maddox did. Even with her Lazarus strength, she couldn’t get him out of the sedan from that angle. She turned her body and kicked hard at the passenger door. Once, twice, and the door flew off.
Not that it had been held on very well, not after the crash.
She leapt from the car and saw the man who’d just ran to the vehicle. He wore a baseball cap, a big coat, and loose jeans. The cap was pulled down low over his face. He grabbed her, and his hands ran down her arms. “You’re okay. Thank Christ! I was afraid I had killed you!”
Not her. Maddox. “We have to get my friend out.” She yanked away from him and started to run around the wreckage.
But the guy grabbed her once more. “You smell that gasoline?”
She did. All the more reason that they had to get Maddox out of there, right then. She’d seen exactly how a scene like this could end already. Maybe the car would blow, maybe it wouldn’t. But she wasn’t going to take any chances with Maddox. “We have to get him out.” She yanked free and ran to the driver’s side. So much glass. So much twisted metal. And the scent of blood was almost as strong as the acrid odor of the gasoline.
She grabbed the door handle. Heaved. The door was smashed in tight, and she knew Maddox’s side had taken the worst hit when the big rig had collided with the sedan. She pulled harder. Harder.
“You’re not getting that open,” the guy in the baseball cap said in a cracking voice. “We need to call nine-one-one.”
They didn’t have time for nine-one-one.
She pulled harder. The door groaned but didn’t move.
“You need the freaking jaws of life,” the guy groused. “Oh, shit. Wait, that guy—” He shoved his hand through the broken window. Touched Maddox’s neck. “He’s dead.”
“Only for the moment!”
The guy’s shoulders stiffened. “What?”
“He’s only dead for the moment. He’ll be fine soon enough. I just need to get him out.”
The fellow backed away. His cap was pulled low over his face, so she couldn’t see his expression, but, voice shocked, he announced, “Lady, you’re crazy.”
The door groaned again. She could feel it giving way. She could get it off, get Maddox out, and then the fire could do whatever the hell it wanted to the sedan. “Hold on, Maddox, please,” Luna begged as blood dripped into her eyes. “I’m going to get you—”
Something hard swung into the back of her head. Big, heavy, and the hit sent her slamming into the wrecked side of the sedan. Her hands flattened against the metal, and she whirled around.
The fellow in the baseball cap had a tire iron in his hands, and he was holding it like a baseball bat.
“You…hit me?” Luna gasped.
He smiled. His head angled up, and she finally got a good look at his face. And she caught sight of the red hair that had been hidden beneath his ball cap.
I know him.
“Sure as hell did hit you, sweetheart. And I’m about to knock your pretty ass out.”
He was—oh, God, he was the guy who’d shot at her when she’d been trying to escape with Maddox from the inferno that had been the first cabin! The fellow who’d moved too fast, the guy who’d hidden when Maddox took everyone else out. The guy who was—
“Lazarus?” Luna whispered.
“That’s right, and you’re my key to getting my life back. So, sorry, but the guy in the car is staying dead, and you’re coming with me.” He swung the tire iron right at her head.
She ducked. Drove her fist into his chest as hard as she could. He grunted and jerked, but he didn’t let go of the tire iron. Instead, he slammed it into her back. Pain burst through her body. Luna hit the ground, rolled, sliding away from the car. Away from the bastard with the tire iron. “You’ve been…hunting me.”
She could hear the crackle of flames coming from the sedan.
“Hell, yeah, I have been. And you made it easy. Hell, you even gave me the idea for this attack. You just had to stop and play the hero, didn’t you? Help that mom and her kid? Heard all about the story when I was tracking you.” He once again gripped the tire iron as if it were a baseball bat. “Here’s a tip. When you’re on the run, don’t pull some dramatic rescue shit that has local cops talking like they just witnessed a miracle.”
“I don’t want your tips. I want you to get the hell away from me!”
“You should have stayed in the old hospital. We weren’t done with you. But after you attacked the doctor, we had to get her to safety. She was the best we had, so we couldn’t risk her. Don’t look at me like that. I cleaned you up, didn’t I? Got all the blood off you. Sure, I broke your neck because I needed you out for a while, but I didn’t leave you a bloody mess. Even gave you a new hospital gown. I’m a gentleman like that.”
He was between her and the sedan. Her and Maddox. And the flames were getting bigger.
He smiled. “If he burns, he won’t be coming back now, will he?”
Her hands fisted as she rose to her feet. “I’m not letting him burn.”
“You don’t get a choice. I wasn’t hired to bring him in. Only you.” He rolled back his shoulders. “So I’m afraid this is going to hurt.” He lunged at her, swinging the tire iron.
She caught it in her hand. Held it inches from her head. “You too used to hurting regular humans? Did you forget that I’m strong, too?”
He laughed.
She didn’t. Luna rammed the tire iron back at him, aiming for his collar bone. He howled in pain, and she zipped past him, throwing the tire iron as far as she could. Luna grabbed for the sedan’s door.
And the bastard grabbed her. He curled his hands around her waist and heaved back. She didn’t let go of the door, and when he pulled her—
Hell, yes.
The driver’s door finally broke loose. It crashed into the ground even as her attacker threw her down. Luna surged up, but he drove his fist at her. And the hit was so powerful it felt as if he’d hit her with the tire iron again. For a moment, everything seemed to go dark.
“You’re coming with me, sweetheart.”
Did she look like his freaking sweetheart?
“The doctor thinks you’re the next level. The way to make us stronger without losing our memories. You’re the key, the fucking key to it all, just like Adam said. And you’re worth more money that you can imagine.”
He knew Adam? Wait—had he been working with Adam? “You…you were working with Adam.” She tried to think. Tried to remember what Adam had said in that lab. He’d mentioned a partner. Said the guy’s name was— “Sam?”
He stiffened. “How the hell do you know my name?”
“Because…” A rasp. “Adam told me, right before he died.”
“No!” A fierce denial. “No way! No freaking way!”
She heard doors slamming. Oh, dammit. Was that his backup? His team?
He bit off a curse. Then she felt a knife at her throat.
“One wrong word,” Sam snarled into her ear, “and I will cut off your head. Do you understand me?”
Bullshit. Sure, he might be strong enough to do it, but he’d just said she was his money train. And without her…no way are you riding on any train.
Footsteps rushed toward them. Two men, both big, strong, and wearing dark coats. Their faces were locked into tense lines.
Behind her, the fire burned hotter. She could hear it. Smell it. The car hadn’t exploded, though. Not yet. Not yet.
“That car is
going to blow!” One of the approaching men yelled. “You need to get the hell away from it!”
“Right!” Her captor yelled. “We’re coming your way, we’re—”
She drove her elbow back into him, as hard as she could. But when Luna attacked him, the blade cut across her throat. She felt the blood pour out as the pain sliced right through her.
She sagged onto the ground, falling to her knees. She’d been so certain he was bluffing. So sure—
“Bitch,” he growled, “now you can’t say a word. Not a damn thing.” He smiled at her.
And a bullet tore into his chest. He staggered back, his eyes flaring wide, and then he let out a roar. He turned for the man who’d just fired—one of the men in the thick coats. He lunged for the shooter—
Another bullet hit her attacker in the head. He went down, and he didn’t get up.
But Luna got up. With one hand at her neck, she ran for the sedan.
“It’s going to blow! Lady, we need to get out of here!”
She grabbed for Maddox. So still. Too still. With one arm, she started pulling him from the wreckage.
But in the next instant, Luna found herself yanked away from Maddox. Yanked by a guy who seemed far too strong.
“I’m saving you!” He barked at her. “Look, don’t fight me, okay? My name is Sawyer, and I just want to help you.”
“She’s bleeding like crazy,” the other guy muttered.
“Yeah, Flynn, I see that. She needs a hospital right the hell now.” Sawyer held her with his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, lady, but your friend in that car is dead.”
No, he wasn’t. She tried to speak, only the knife had cut her too deeply. Her body was swaying.
“She’s losing too much blood,” Sawyer snapped. “We need to stop the blood loss now, or she’s going to die.”
Dizziness burst through her. Sawyer tried to lift her into his arms.
She punched his nose. Luna was pretty sure she broke it because she heard the crack of bones and felt a spurt of blood beneath her fist. He let her go, and she flew back to the car.
“She’s fast,” Flynn’s low voice easily reached her ears. “And strong.”
She grabbed Maddox. Hauled him out. Held him tight even as she swayed.