getting hurt badly.
She yanked her arm out of my hand. “Don’t touch me,” she snarled.
“Angela, listen,” I said, but she shook her head.
“Who the hell are you?” she demanded.
I took a deep breath, trying to slow my heartbeat, trying to keep my shit together. This was all wrong. It shouldn’t have happened this way. Dammit, she shouldn’t have found that shed.
“Let’s go back to the cabin,” I suggested. “We can talk there.”
“The hell we will,” she spat. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Please, Angel.”
“Don’t call me that.”
She shook her head, her hair flying around her face. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright, and hell if I didn’t think she was the most beautiful woman on the fucking globe. I was aware of the forest around us, of the trees and the shrubs and how much they could conceal. I felt like there were eyes on us from every direction, and my skin crawled. There was probably no one out there, but I didn’t want to take the chance. I had to get her back to the cabin where it was safe.
“What are all the guns for, Viktor?” she asked, her gaze angry.
“Living alone in the forest can be dangerous. I need to be able to protect myself.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “From what? A fucking army? That was may more than self defense.”
I didn’t want this conversation to go in that direction. I didn’t want her to know who I really was. She wasn’t going to stay with me, that was for damn sure.
I sighed. “Please, can we get out of the open?”
“Because it’s so dangerous out here, right?” she asked, sarcasm thick. “Are you going to tell me what’s so damn dangerous? Or are you just going to stand there and continue to lie to me?”
“I’ve never lied to you,” I growled.
“Yeah, you’re right,” she said with a curt nod. “You’ve never lied. You just didn’t bother telling me the truth. And really, that’s the same thing.”
I shook my head. I hated that she was calling me a liar. I’d never lied to her. So I hadn’t told her what was really going on. But if I had, she’d have just done what she was doing now. She would have tried to get the hell away from me. And I hadn’t wanted that.
I hated the look she was giving me, as if I were a villain. It had taken me a long time to convince myself that I didn’t have to be, that I could change.
“I can’t believe this,” she said, shaking her head, muttering as if speaking to herself rather than to me. “Of all the fucking cliché stories that are too good to be true…” She looked at me, her eyes sharp. “I’m leaving.”
“You can’t do that.”
“The hell I can’t!” she yelled. “You don’t get to stop me from going. I’m not a hostage or a prisoner. You saved me and I’m grateful for that, but this is it, Viktor.”
I shook my head. It wasn’t safe in the woods but telling her that without further explanation wasn’t going to work. And I didn’t have answers for her. None that I wanted her to know.
“Angela,” I said, using her name because she got upset when I used the pet names I’d been using all this time. “I had a rough past, a past I walked away from. A life I don’t want anymore. None of what happened in my past is who I am now. Can’t you see that?”
“What am I supposed to see? You’re not giving me any information!” she exclaimed, exasperated. “You’re a closed book, Viktor. You play your cards so damn close to your chest, you’re forcing me out of the game.”
I frowned at her. “All that matters is the person I am now. The person you’ve been with this week.”
Her face hardened, her eyes fiery. “The person with a shed full of guns and a head full of secrets.”
Her words were sharp, and I nodded, steeling myself. If she was going to insist on seeing nothing but the bad, there was only so much I could do to try to convince her I wasn’t a monster. If she chose to believe it anyway, it was out of my control.
“I’m not going to force you to do anything,” I said.
“That’s a nice change,” she snapped.
“The only thing I’ve ever done was try to keep you safe.”
She didn’t answer me. We stood there, staring at each other, both of us seething.
“I’m leaving, Viktor,” she