Lainey (Dreamcatchers Romantic Suspense Series Book 4)

by Jamie Garrett

  God, he was close. So close she could feel his movements rippling in the air. She grew frantic. “No,” she whimpered. “Josh, please. I’m sorry. Please. Josh. No.”

  He laughed. “Are you begging?” He was inches away, staring at her like she was a piece of meat to carve. “You think you can fucking beg after what you did to me?!” He roared and spun around. “She won’t let me! I cared about you. I was going to protect you from all of this, but she wouldn’t let me.” A grin settled over his face, but his eyes were dead. “But then you hurt me, and it was all okay after all.” He lunged forward again and this time, the world stopped.

  She couldn’t die! She wouldn’t! What had she done to deserve to be hunted? She shouldn’t be there. He should be the one hunted! He should be the one to suffer! The thought twisted inside her, pulling, swarming, until it gained a power of its own. The knife pierced the fabric of her shirt and a warmth bloomed over her skin at the same time as Josh fell backward. He hit the pavement with a thud and lay on the ground, orange bolts of pain covering his entire body.

  Lainey fell back herself, her palms scraping along the rough ground. He should feel that. With the thought, Josh’s trembling grew stronger, and he screamed, begging her now to stop. The wailing continued for seconds, minutes—was it hours?—before he grew silent, his body convulsing. Lainey turned and ran.

  What had she done? Her skin was crawling with disgust and exhilaration. What the fuck had she done, and could she do it again? Was she really capable of torturing a man twice her size? Was that what had happened? She flinched and stumbled, her energy drained. Rounding the corner to the front of the gym, she fell to her knees, throwing up.

  Her skin was crawling even as the world blazed past, and she felt as if she was sinking underground, further and faster every second. The blazing fire had rushed from her and thrown Josh onto the ground. It was still running through her, her mind unraveling. She had to keep moving, had to hide so that he wouldn’t find her when whatever the fuck that was wore off. She had to leave. Lainey pushed herself to her feet, but it was getting harder and harder to move. Her feet somehow hit sand, but it wasn’t enough. Black spots gathered over her vision and her breath sawed through her as she forced her feet toward the shade of an outcropping. He was still going to find her. He would find her, because he wasn’t dead.

  Why hadn’t she killed him?

  The black gathered and overtook her mind.

  26

  Aaron

  Light streamed in through the thick bedroom curtains, falling in lines across Aaron’s face. The warmth heated his cheek and a smile crept across his face. He was floating in a field of clouds, Lainey lying alongside him, her soft hair billowing out behind her as the cottony clouds brushed against their skin; a tactile heaven second only to the bliss of her being in his arms.

  The sun had been up long enough to warm his room . . .

  Fuck! He’d overslept. His eyes flew open as his hand smashed around on his bedside table, trying to find his alarm clock through the drowsy haze that still had a hold on him. Watching Lainey’s place long after she fell asleep and then returning early enough to be on her doorstep when she left for work had obviously taken its toll. Whenever he was near her, he needed to touch her, even just holding her hand. It was a tiny gesture that shook his world. Even that had been a thousand times sweeter than he’d ever imagined it. He finally found the clock, face side down on the floor. He must have knocked it over during one of his more active dreams. Despite Lainey filling his days with more happiness than he’d ever dreamed he’d have, the nightmares still plagued him at night. Only now, sometimes Anna’s face morphed into hers.

  Shit. It was 10:30 a.m. Aaron threw off his boxers and turned on the shower. He barely had time to get wet, let alone wash. There was no time for a morning run, or breakfast. He was supposed to be there with Lainey already, not dreaming about her. Cole was picking her up, but Aaron was supposed to have already been there when she arrived, opening the gym for the dawn crowd. He grabbed a banana and a protein bar and ran out of the house, jumping in his Jeep. Even mid morning, the traffic hadn’t died down and he weaved between cars. He was supposed to be protecting her, not stuck in traffic. Josh had been right on one thing: Aaron didn’t deserve her. It was why he’d held himself back from taking things between them further than just kissing her. She deserved more than a man who couldn’t wake up on time to make sure she stayed alive.

  He pulled out his phone, stabbing the call button every chance he got in between hitting the gas. It rang, and rang again, and kept ringing until the call went to voice mail, over and over again.

  Damn it!

  She could just be working, be overrun with customers or out the back prepping and didn’t hear the phone.

  Or something was wrong.

  Something was wrong. His skin was prickling with it. Motherfucker! The gym was still more than six blocks away, and the traffic snarl wasn’t easing anytime soon, and so Aaron flew into a park and cut the engine. He could run the rest of the way faster. If Josh had hurt Lainey, even scratched her, Aaron was going to make sure the bastard died slowly.

  He sprinted the rest of the way to the juice bar, thoughts of Lainey’s body lying cold on the ground rolling through his head like a demonic vision. She was okay, she had to be okay. He was taking care of things, and this would all pass. He loved her too much for anything else to be the truth. Lainey dying just wasn’t an option. When his feet finally skidded around the last corner, he almost ran headlong into the security gate. It was sitting half open. Lainey wouldn’t have just left it like that. He might already be too late. He rushed behind the building, his heart pumping and breath racing—she had to be okay.

  The ground was empty. Nothing.

  He sprinted around front. Her car was there, but the juice bar door was locked. He peered through the windows. The bar was empty and there were no signs of life inside. He pulled out his phone and dialed her again. No answer. Again. No answer. He hit the speakerphone button and mindlessly keep calling as he searched the surrounding property and through the gym itself. He rushed through the hall and darted through the training areas and the weights room before finally finding himself out the front again, swimming in a sea of desperation. There was still no fucking answer! Adrenaline flashed through him and left him unable to do anything but keep running. His feet found the stairs down to the beach at random and he jumped down them, landing with an artful crash in the sand. He was probably going the wrong way—there was no way Lainey would go down to the beach alone that early—but he couldn’t turn back. He was going to look everywhere to find her. Maybe he already had her. Josh was already a dead man. If he saw him with Lainey again, he’d kill him in broad daylight. He didn’t care who saw.

  He scanned the beach. Close to the top of the dunes was a brightly colored pile. He made his way there quickly toward it to rule it out. It couldn’t be her. It had to be something else. It had to be. It was too damn still.

  Getting closer, he could see better. Blonde hair. The person wasn’t moving. A flash of Anna’s body blinded him as he stepped forward, her body spilled open for the world to see.

  “Lainey!”

  Christ. It was her. She wasn’t moving! A minute rise and fall caught his eye. She wasn’t moving, but she was alive, her breath silently moving her back up and down as she lay face down in the sand, out cold. He dropped to his knees and lifted her up. “Lainey! Gorgeous, can you hear me? Are you hurt? God, are you hurt?” He ran his hands over her body, checking for injuries, when she groaned and fell heavily against his shoulder. Aaron nearly fell over himself from the relief, and he laid her gently back on the sand. She swung her head over drowsily to look at him, blinking her eyes open.

  “You’re here.”

  His hand moved toward her instinctively, brushing away the stray hair and grains of sand sticking to her cheek. “And you’re alive.”

  His fingers found the tear in her shirt, stained red. She sighed softly and her eyes d
rifted closed again. “Lainey? Stay with me. Are you hurt anywhere, bleeding?”

  No answer.

  He reached underneath her to pull her up into his arms. “Let’s get you to the hospital.”

  Lainey’s eyes stayed closed, but she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. “No, can’t risk it.”

  “But you’re hurt. I—”

  “I’m fine. It’s a scratch. Just tired.”

  “You can’t know that. What if you pass out again and don’t wake up? I wouldn’t survive it if something happened to you.”

  Lainey’s eyes opened and she shifted to look him the eye, her head resting against his chest. “You care so much,” she said softly. “Why? I’m a freak who keeps putting you in danger.”

  A shudder ran through Aaron and he dropped his forehead to hers, closing his eyes before he fell apart. She was safe there, lying in his arms, soft and warm. “How can you ask me that? Don’t you know how amazing you are? How precious you are to me?” He rose back up and tucked a finger under her chin, lifting her gaze up to meet his. Her eyes were wide and sad. “Don’t ever call yourself a freak, Lainey. You’re special . . . shit, you’re a goddess. The things you can do . . . you’re more than special, you’re incredible, and I’m not leaving your side.” He moved in slowly, touching his lips to hers and took her mouth, deepening the kiss when she moaned and gripped his shirt. She tasted just like the warmth of the sunshine still flowing down on them. He could stay like that forever and be blissfully happy.

  Lainey broke away first, her eyes still wide but this time wonder was in her expression. “You really think that?”

  “Yeah. I really do.” He lifted her shirt, examining the skin of her belly. She was right. Something had nicked her, but it wasn’t bleeding heavily. He picked her up, carrying her across the sand and back to the stairs that led to the street. “No hospital?” She shook her head, so vigorously he was worried she’d hurt herself. “Okay.” He dropped his lips to hers again. “Then let’s get you home.”

  27

  Lainey

  Of course Aaron had been the one to find her. It was almost as if the universe had heard her pleas—both spoken and unspoken—when she realized she wasn’t going to be able to fight Josh off.

  But then she had. Lainey frowned as Aaron lowered her into his car. The couple walking on the beach, and now Josh. Had she done that? Had she made him writhe on the ground in pain? She was silent the entire ride home, chewing on her nails. Every time she lifted her head, she’d catch Aaron looking back at her, his brow wrinkled and his expression a mask of concern. She didn’t talk as he helped her out of the car or as he wrapped a strong arm around her waist and helped her up to her apartment. It was almost as if she was stunned. Her brain couldn’t process what had happened, and until it did, talking about it was all but impossible.

  Finally, as he unlocked her front door and practically carried her to the same couch he’d placed her on the day before, the fear and confusion gripping her heart lessened just enough for her to ask the question. “Josh . . . was he . . . is he still alive?”

  Aaron knelt in front of her, brow furrowed and gaze sharp, taking her hand in his. “I don’t know, Lainey. He was gone when I got there.” He eyes closed briefly. “So were you.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  His eyes flew open. “You have nothing to be sorry about!” His body was coiled tightly, every muscle at the ready. “None of this is your fault.”

  “But if I hadn’t brought them here, whoever they are.”

  Aaron stood, pushing back and turning away from her. His shoulders stooped, but his hands clenched into fists. He was full of power, even when there was no one standing there to fight. “I don’t know that,” he said. He took a deep breath, his strong shoulders surging upward. “Lainey, I don’t know that they’re not here for me.”

  What?

  “But Payton said—”

  “Payton doesn’t know the whole story. Neither does Cole, or anyone.”

  He stood tall, his chin up but his eyes looking away, focusing across the room, rather than meeting her gaze. “Aaron, I don’t understand. Did you know something was coming?”

  His jaw clenched and Lainey’s stomach along with it. She was hitting a serious nerve, one he obviously didn’t want exposed, and yet he was telling her anyway. She stilled, waiting for him to talk. It seemed almost an eon had passed before he spoke again. He stood, his eyes darting around the room, feet planted, almost as if he was scanning for an invisible enemy. Finally, he slumped in the chair opposite hers.

  “I used to be a cage fighter when I was younger.”

  Lainey’s chest tightened at the look on his face—almost as if he’d already given up. “But you are now, aren’t you?”

  “I teach now, fight the occasional demonstration match.” He finally met her gaze. “But it’s nothing like what I was like . . . before. Lainey, I was involved in an illegal fight club. It was a sick fucking place, but it was money. They sucked in young talent on the scene, hyped you up, told you they’d make you rich and famous. Then they got you high and dumped you when you when you lost one too many. I knew it, before I even got involved that first night, what was really going on, but I did it anyway. I needed the cash.” His aura was sickly yellow. “I left everything else alone, but that didn’t change what I saw.”

  Aaron’s aura swirled black, so thick it covered his face and moved down over his whole body, leaving Lainey covered in goose bumps. She shivered, a coldness washing over her. Aaron’s face was pallid, almost as if his spirit had already fled. She reached over and took his cold hand in hers.

  “I saw people die,” he said, his voice half strangled. “And not just in the fights. There was this girl—Anna—she was in trouble. Her boyfriend beat the crap out of her every night he lost in the ring, and probably fucked her just as hard every night he won, whether she wanted it or not. I tried to get her out of there, once I realized what was going on.”

  Aaron grew quiet again and his body tensed, his hand squeezing Lainey’s so hard she could barely hold on. She waited, ignoring the pain.

  “I had everything set up, just one more fight and I was going to take her, get her out of town—hell, out of the state. While I was fighting that fight, someone killed her in the parking lot. Left her there for me to find.”

  “Oh, Aaron.” A wave of blue rushed from her, as if her heart itself wanted to calm him, heal him. “It wasn’t your fault.” God, he was so still. “I know you, you would have done everything you could to try to help.” She moved to sit next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

  “But I didn’t save her.”

  “You tried. You were probably the only one who did. Don’t punish yourself for something someone else did, please.”

  “I let you go with him, too. I let Josh hurt you.”

  “Aaron, I didn’t tell you I was meeting him that day.” She pulled back so that she could look him in the eye. “I know you think you let me down, that you let Anna down, but you can’t control the world and you can’t take responsibility for it, either. All you can do is live in it.” She concentrated, imagining wrapping him in a warm blanket of love, healing him. The beam grew slowly in her mind, cresting and dropping like the waves on their beach, until it pushed through the barrier between them. She gasped at the sensation, and Aaron pulled her into his arms, setting her on his lap.

  “Before all this started, before Payton said a word, my old trainer called me. He told me there was someone poking around, trying to find someone who sounded exactly like you. How do I know that whoever killed Anna isn’t tracking me, trying to kill you because of me?”

  Lainey grabbed his head in her hands. Fuck waiting for him to make the move. She leaned forward, kissing him hard. Aaron responded, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close, until she was straddling his lap, her tongue fighting with his for dominance and he took over the kiss. His cock hardened beneath her, pushing up and rubbing against her core, igniting the fire in
side her. Aaron moaned. “God, Lainey.”

  She broke the kiss, but didn’t move from his lap, rocking herself against his hardness. “Listen to me, Mister, and listen hard, because I’m only going to say this once. You are not responsible. You’ve saved me countless times and you’re going to keep being there for me, but I’m going to be there for you, too.” She rocked again and Aaron groaned, his eyes rolling back. “We’re in this together, and we’ll solve it—together. Your trainer might be behind it, or he might know who is. We’ll deal with it.”

  “But what if I led them here?” His worry was a palpable wave of green so strong it threatened to fill up the space between them, to push them apart. No fucking way. Lainey summoned back the red, surrounding Aaron.

  “Then we’ll deal with it. For now, you have something better to do.” She dropped her lips to his again, wrapping her hands around the hem of his shirt. She pulled it over his head. Aaron responded by pulling it the rest of the way off his body and then grabbing her ass, lifting them both up as he kissed her again, walking them toward the bedroom. He bumped against the wall as he attempted to move them around a corner blind and Lainey giggled, her breath catching in her throat when he pulled her closer, grinding her down on his dick. A pulse of pleasure went through her. He maneuvered them through her bedroom door, his lips never breaking contact with hers, even as he placed her on the bed, his body following her down, a pile of flesh and tantalizing heat. God, she needed this. He thrust forward again, his denim-covered hardness rubbing against her clit, driving her wild.

  It wasn’t just about the pleasure, or the need to fuck.

  No.

  It was about their connection, finally giving in to the tension between them, reaffirming everything between them as he moved over her, his tongue brushing against hers, his hands roaming over her entire body. Lainey opened her eyes and was almost overcome by the pink and red filling up the entire room, taking over her entire being. Aaron was entirely and wholly devoted to her, appreciating every dip and curve of her body, as he examined her first with his hands and then his mouth, his tongue and lips sliding against her skin as the warm rush of his breath covered her. He moved down her neck, kissing across her chest, pulling down her shirt, before taking a cloth-covered nipple into his mouth through her bra. Lainey shifted, cradling his body between her thighs, and he pushed forward again, grunting softly every time he made contact. The pressure inside her grew until she could hardly contain it. Just as she was about to burst open with the pleasure of it all, he moved, sitting up and lifting her, his hands moving swiftly behind her to remove her shirt and unclasp her bra. He dropped her shirt on the floor and she sat, giving him enough room to slide her bra straps over her shoulders. His eyes widened slightly as it slipped from her arms, leaving her bare—exposed—and she smiled as his pupils dilated. She took his hand and placed it on her bare breast. She was already on fire from his touch, and she wasn’t going to waste a single second of it.