Keep Me Safe (Slow Burn #1)(3)

“Please,” she begged, her voice breaking. “Just go and leave me be. I gave you what you wanted. I helped you, now go. It’s the least you can do.”

Caleb stood, wiping a hand over his hair and down the back of his neck in agitation. “I’ll go, but I’m coming back, Ramie. I’m going to make this up to you.”

“You can never take this back,” she whispered. “There’s no making up for what’s been done. Just go and take care of your sister. She needs you.”

She closed her eyes, tears seeping from her eyelids. How could he just leave her like she asked? And yet how could he not go and ensure that his sister was safely recovered? He’d never felt so torn in his life.

“If you have any humanity whatsoever, you’ll leave and never tell anyone where you found me,” Ramie said hoarsely. “Please, I’m begging you. Just go. He plans to kill her tomorrow. At dawn. You don’t have much time.”

Her words proved to be the impetus, driving him to action. But goddamn it, he would make this up to her. Somehow, someway.

Regret swamped him. Worse was the fact that even knowing now what he hadn’t known before, he couldn’t say he would have done anything differently. Not when it meant the difference between Tori’s life and death. But at least now he better understood Ramie’s resistance. No longer did he look at her and think she was selfish and cruel. Now he realized her disappearance had been self-preservation. He didn’t know how she’d survived this in the past. He just prayed he wasn’t the tipping point in pushing her so far over the edge she’d never recover.

Caleb closed his eyes and then gently touched her cheek. “I’m so sorry. You’ll never know how much. My family and I owe you more than I can ever repay. I’ll go for now and pray to God I’m not too late. But I’m coming back, Ramie. Count on it. I’ll make this up to you if it’s the very last thing I do.”

TWO

RAMIE dragged herself toward the end of the couch, lacking the strength to even make it to her feet. Caleb had departed just a few minutes earlier. Not that he’d introduced himself. But his name had been a strong presence in Tori Devereaux’s mind, her anchor to reality as her captor pushed her further and further to the brink of insanity.

She could summon pity and even understanding for Caleb’s actions. She could even forgive what he’d done. But she’d never be able to forget. That was worst of all. The images, the memories, engraved permanently in her mind.

Tears burned a trail down her cheek. She felt hollow and empty. Not even like a person. She’d been stripped of all humanity time and time again.

She pushed herself upward, forcing her way through the horror and pain that flooded her. Because the connection to Tori Devereaux didn’t end when the scarf was taken away. Ramie was still very aware of what she was enduring. The link could last an hour or a day. Ramie could only pray it ended soon.

She had to run. Had to get as far away as possible and this time make sure no one could find her. So he couldn’t find her. Because if Caleb Devereaux had found her, then the man stalking her could as well. Never again could she go through what she’d just experienced. She wasn’t sure she’d ever recover. Too much, too soon, too fast. She hadn’t even healed from the last time she’d located a victim and now she’d been forced to do it all over again.

Numbly she shuffled like an old woman to the tiny bedroom of the cabin. She couldn’t even summon hate for what Caleb had done. She understood desperation. Had encountered it time and time again. Who was to say she wouldn’t do the same exact thing if she had a loved one whose life hung in the balance?

But no, there were no loved ones for her. She supposed at some point she had a father and a mother. Somewhere. But she’d been abandoned when she was just a baby and had become part of the system. Bouncing from family to family with no real roots.

The discovery of her powers had only alienated her many foster parents. They looked at her with fear, like she wasn’t a human being with feelings. And the last foster home where she’d been placed had ended in horror and violence.

Ramie had lived her life alone ever since. She’d never been able to bring herself to trust someone enough to become involved with them. Being isolated didn’t bother her. She embraced it.

Except . . . ​every once in a while, she grieved for what she’d never had and never would. A normal life. Friends and family. All the things most people took for granted. Ramie would never make that mistake. If she were ever blessed enough to have family or friends, she would cherish every single day and never take life for granted. It was impossible for her to do so because she’d witnessed death and unimaginable horror over and over again.

Where to go now? Where could she be assured no one would find her? She simply wanted to disappear.

For good this time. And pray that this time she’d do a better job of covering her tracks. Of hiding. Of making certain no one could find her. Because if the one man who’d focused all his concentration on destroying her ever found her, she would die. And her death wouldn’t be quick and merciful. She would die an agonizing death, spending her last breaths praying that each one would be her very last.

THREE

CALEB received word as his plane touched down that Tori had indeed been found at the location Ramie had provided. His brother Beau grimly filled him in on her condition and even though Caleb had known through Ramie exactly what happened it was still a fist to his stomach to know his baby sister had endured such horrific treatment at the hands of her captor.