Twisted Ever After
Page 10
Plus, her crazy behavior keeps reminding me of David... making this all even harder.
EMMA
After the loss of my brother, I'm trying to exist in a world where there’s no pain because I can’t attach myself to anything or anyone.
I’ve learned that attachment leads to loss, and I don’t intend to learn the same lesson twice.
My plan seems to be working… until Shane starts coming around.
When Shane and Emma are forced to work together on a college class project involving relationships and survival, will all of their feelings and behaviors be too much... or will Shane's promise be kept after all?
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PREVIEW of Promise to Protect
Emma
I drop my backpack by my feet and peel off my coat. I place it on the backpack. I strip off my shirt and my jeans, everything coming off like I'm a butterfly breaking open its cocoon. The snow crunches under my feet and when I take off my boots and socks, it melts into hardened slush. The snow changes shape, but it remains the same just like everything else.
Sentry Lake seems to be a darker blue than it is during the fall. I could be convinced it's an optical illusion, caused by the contrast with the snow, but under the circumstances, the stark color feels like an invitation. It's usual faint blue fades into the background of the vibrant pine trees, but this darker blue is impossible to ignore. It's more than beautiful— it's haunting.
The moment my toe slips into the lake, the chill bites into my skin. It's the opposite of an invitation— it's an expulsion or a revocation. The lake doesn't want me. But the pain fades. I move farther in, the water quickly surpassing my ankles and climbing up my calves. The rocks and silt drift underneath my feet. All I can hear is the blood rushing under my skin, frantic to bring warmth to my organs.
The water sways against my chest, sending my heart into a frenzy. I push my feet against the ground and let my body glide near the surface of the water before my arms propel me forward. Now, as I let myself be surrounded by the lake, I'll be haunting instead of just being haunted.
The farther I move out, the less cold I feel. I don't even feel my heart beating, and I imagine if it stopped I would continue swimming as if nothing happened. It would be like my day-to-day life, where I'm surviving, but nothing ever breaks the surface in my mind. Nothing feels real, except when the risk is high enough to drown me.
David's face flashes through my mind. There's a smile on his face, but his eyes are as dull as mine have been lately. I should have been a better sister to him. His pain had been like radiation, so I had lingered on the edges of his life. And now his life is gone, and I'm on the sides of my own life. I was a coward, but now I'm not afraid of getting sick, getting burned, or getting a heart attack in the center of a lake. I'm searching for something I can't quite—
Someone grabs me so fiercely that my first thought is a Kraken or the Loch Ness monster, intent on dragging me to the bottom of the lake. Their arms wrap under my arms, and they're dragging me backward. From the hard chest that my head keeps bumping against and the size of the person's muscular arms, I have to assume he's an MMA fighter who moonlights as a serial killer, but I can't turn enough to see him. I twist my body, trying to get out of his grasp, but the man is built like a mountain and even using my whole body weight doesn't seem to be affecting him at all. I continue trying despite knowing it's useless, the water around us spraying down onto us as I kick and flail my arms.
I feel my ass hit against solid ground, but the man continues to drag me to the shore. As my feet drag onto dry land, the man picks me up, dropping me on the balls of my feet. I look up at the man before I can steady myself.
I nearly trip over my own feet.
"Fucking hell, Shane!" I snap, grabbing my pile of clothes. A small breeze pierces my skin. I shiver, but I try to hide it by acting like I'm just shaking out my clothes. His eyes linger on my soaked bra. I shove my shirt over my head. "Why the hell did you do that, Shane? I was trying to see how far out I could get."
"It's less than thirty degrees out. You were trying to trigger cardiac arrest, Emma.” He scowls, his frown distorting his scar that stretches from above the left side of his mouth down to his chin. It creates a line where his five o'clock shadow won't grow. I used to trace that scar, and he'd kiss my fingertip, making my heart beat harder than it ever did in Sentry Lake.
I yank on my pants, my wet hair slapping against my arms as I reach down. "How did you even know I was out here, Shane?”
He gazes at me, his expression making me feel more exposed than when he was looking at my bra. His hazel eyes remind me of this lake— especially when they glow in contrast with his dark hair and the bronze tint of his skin. He is also more than beautiful, and painfully haunting.
"Your brother was concerned about you..."
"David committed suicide," I cut him off, jerking my arm through my coat sleeves. "Let's not use euphemisms. I've accepted it. You don't need to bring it up to me."
"If you're swimming alone in the winter, you haven't accepted anything."
"You didn't answer my question, Shane."
"Your brother was concerned about you," he repeats. "Back in June, you were dating that chickenshit and your brother wanted some extra eyes on you. He put an app on your phone, so we could both see where you were."
"There are no new apps on my phone," I snap. "And that is such a gross betrayal. I'm an adult. He shouldn't have put anything on my phone, and you shouldn't be using it."
"You were heading to an area that only had woods and a lake. I needed to know you weren't hurting yourself."
"I know," I say. "And I know that's why you've been hanging around here. You're feeling guilty because you weren't around before David died and now you think you can make up for it by becoming my best friend and making sure I don't… throw my life away. I don't want to be your friend, Shane. I don't want to be anything to you. Stay out of my life."
I sling my backpack over one of my arms. When I finally look him in the face again, I focus on that scar. Shane had been hustling a guy during pool and the guy attacked him with a knife. Shane won the fight, but the cut had been deep enough that blood coated his neck and was seeping into his shirt. David helped Shane to the hospital. He was that kind of person— not likely to join the fight, but always willing to help afterward. That's why it made no sense for him to join the Marines. Except that he admired Shane, and Shane had signed up first.
"Emma," Shane says, unzipping his jacket. "You need to get somewhere warm."
"Then I should be far away from you," I retort, ignoring his outstretched arm that offered his jacket. I stalk away from him, trying to appear more self-assured than angry, but the fury pours over me like a waterfall. I swing my backpack off, unzipping it to look inside. My cell phone, another set of clothes, my wallet, and David's journal are all still nestled inside it. It's everything I need, and everything I shouldn't be attached to.
I take out my cell phone. I only have a few extra apps on it that didn't come factory-installed on the phone— a more sophisticated weather app, a music app, and an app that David guilted me into downloading that would emit an air horn noise if I clicked on it and if I didn't click on it again within a minute, the police would be alerted. It was strange that he had wanted me to download it since we didn't live in a dangerous area, but I thought it had been his paranoia and his overprotective nature guiding his actions. And if Shane is telling the truth, I suppose it was.
I turn, looking over my shoulder. Shane is watching me. I put my cell phone back and zip up my bag. I keep walking, the snow crunching under me. There is a time to learn that chemistry between two people can lead to miracle medicine, but it can also lead to an atom bomb. There are risks that are impossible to ignore, no matter how enticing they are, and Shane was a perfect precedent for that.
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Get Promise to Protect and find out what happens next with Shane and Emma!
p; Cole, Kayley, Twisted Ever After