Liar (Madison Kate #2)(45)

My brows shot up. "And?"

Archer shook his head. "And nothing. They didn't last long enough to tell us anything useful."

My heart stopped. "You killed them?"

Archer tilted his head to the side, ignoring Kody's sound of protest.

"That a problem for you, Princess? Who knows what they had planned for you. Would you have liked being sold into the flesh market? Or kept in a cage for months until your father caved and paid some insane ransom? Or, hell, I dunno, maybe let loose in an abandoned amusement park and then hunted like a fucking deer?" He grew more and more incensed with every word until he was practically shouting them at me. "They're lucky they died the way they did, and I didn't get my fucking hands on them. Believe me, it was more humane this way."

With a disgusted sneer at me, Archer stomped back into the gym, and seconds later the heavy thud of fists striking a sandbag reached us.

"Kody!" Archer shouted when his friend didn't immediately follow.

Kody gave me a pained frown, and I shook my head. "Don't stress," I told him softly. "Archer actually made a good point. Whatever happened to Steele is my fault."

"It definitely wasn't," he retorted quickly, firmly. "You didn't ask for any of this. If anyone is responsible here, it's—" He cut himself off with a grimace, then sighed heavily. "I'll come back upstairs with you. Just give me two seconds to pack up the gym."

"No," I replied, laying a hand on his arm. "No, it's fine. Seriously. I'm going to go and creep into Steele's bed and hope he doesn't freak the fuck out when he wakes up and finds me there."

A grin curved Kody's lips. "Damn, MK. If I’d known that was how to get you into bed, I'd have rolled out of a speeding vehicle months ago."

I groaned but rose up on my toes to smack a quick kiss on his lips. "Good things come to those who wait, Kodiak Jones."

He kissed me back, a brief peck of lips against lips. "You're fucking killing me, Madison Kate Danvers."

With that warming sentiment, I made my way back upstairs and into Steele's room. I closed the door softly behind me this time, then made my way around his huge bed to the vacant side. Someone had cranked the heat up in Steele's room, so I slipped out of my thick sweatpants and climbed under his covers in just my T-shirt and panties.

He let out a sigh as the mattress shifted, and I tensed. The last thing I wanted to do was wake him up or cause him pain. I just... needed to be near him.

Steele mumbled something in his sleep as I slowly lowered my head onto the spare pillow and got comfortable. I held my breath, trying to hear him, and was instantly glad I did.

"Hellcat," he said on a sigh so soft I wouldn't have heard it if the room weren't totally silent. "Don't leave me."

My heart thudded heavily, and I shuffled closer to him in the bed, finding his hand and linking our fingers together.

"Shh," I breathed, pressing a gentle kiss to his bare shoulder. "I'm here, Steele. I'm sorry."

He mumbled something more, but I couldn't make it out. A moment later, his breathing slowed into the steady, even rhythm of deep sleep once more.

I didn't sleep. I couldn't. But a small piece of my scarred soul rested at ease just lying there beside Steele.

That was better than any night’s restful sleep I'd had in a long time.





18





By the time two thirty in the morning rolled around, my usual nightmares were nibbling at the edges of my consciousness, trying to drag me down into the savage depths of my own mind. The last thing I wanted to do, though, was thrash around in my sleep and end up hurting Steele more than he already was. Chances were the nightmares would be worse than ever, given the attack I'd suffered at the diner.

I placed a gentle kiss on his cheek, then slipped out of his bed as silent as the night itself. I needed to sleep, but it was already so late it’d be a pointless venture. I'd be better off just keeping myself awake and passing out after my exam.

I didn't bother stopping at my room to get changed, because it was two-thirty in the damn morning. If anyone else was awake at such an ungodly hour, they deserved to see me wandering around in just a T-shirt and panties. The heating for the whole house had been turned up, anyway, so I wasn't exactly freezing my nipples off.

On silent feet I made my way downstairs and let myself into the dark gym, just like I had done countless times since returning home. With a yawn, I flipped the lights on and headed over to the treadmill. I’d decided weeks ago that it was too cold, the snow too thick, for me to run outside. Not to mention, too dangerous. But half an hour of hardcore sprinting on the treadmill usually did the trick of clearing my head and either waking me up fully for the day or putting me back to sleep for a couple of hours—not long enough for the nightmares to sink their claws in, but enough to keep me functioning.

I dialed in my usual settings, then started running. My bare feet slapped the rotating belt, and my breasts jumped uncomfortably in the unsupportive crop top I wore under my T-shirt, but I ignored it all. I just needed to—

A hand slapped down on the power button, and I jumped out of my fucking skin.

"Kody, what the fuck?" I exclaimed, "You could have killed me!"

He arched a brow over those bright green eyes and twitched a half smile. "Uh-huh. Shutting down the treadmill could kill you. Pretty sure you've survived worse, MK."