Soul Bonded - By Meghan Malone Page 0,9
to take a peek, but froze in place when Rafe spoke again, brokenly. “I promise. Day after tomorrow, she’s gone.”
“If she’s still alive.”
“She will be.” Rafe sounded hollow now. “She has to be.”
His ominous, sorrowful words hit her directly in the gut. Nauseated, she willed her body into motion and retreated into the bedroom. Her knees wobbled as she eased the door closed, taking care to stay silent. She didn’t want them to know she’d been listening, even if she wasn’t sure how to interpret their conversation.
Whatever it all meant, one thing seemed clear: she was in deep, dark trouble.
CHAPTER FIVE
Katie paced back and forth in front of the bed while she waited for Rafe to return to the room. The chicken soup had given her the much-needed energy to exercise her legs and regain some sense of physical confidence. For that she was grateful. Based on what she’d just overheard, she was going to need her strength.
No matter how sexy Rafe was, no matter how protective he might have seemed at times, there was no non-threatening explanation for the things he and his friend had just discussed. Hearing the words raped, tortured, and murdered tossed around so casually—and with such acceptance—scared the hell out of her. That his friend had suggested that Rafe himself might commit one or more of those acts upon her was beyond comprehension. Rafe’s insistence that he wouldn’t might have reassured her more if he hadn’t seemed to indicate that something had happened between them after her rescue—something bad enough to draw his friend’s anger.
Overwhelmed, Katie stopped pacing and forced back the sob that threatened to escape. The worst part of this whole nightmare was not being sure whether she could trust Rafe. He’d sounded sincere when he told his friend he wanted to protect her, but at the same time, he was clearly a liar. He’d been lying to her from the moment she woke up. And he was crazy. Batshit crazy.
So how could she possibly trust him?
“Oh, God,” she whispered. Her eyes brimmed with tears and she swiped them away, frustrated. She had no idea what she was going to do, but crying wasn’t an option. The pissed-off part of her wanted to confront Rafe and demand the truth, while her more pragmatic side urged her to hide the fact that she knew something was amiss. If he reacted to her accusations with violence, she had no way to protect herself, nowhere to hide. Even if she managed to escape the cabin, she didn’t know how to reach civilization—and the cold would likely kill her before she could.
She inhaled deeply, trying to steady her nerves, but immediately regretted it when Rafe’s pleasantly male scent flooded her senses and turned her legs to jelly. Anger surged through her, fiery and all-consuming. How was it possible that the mere hint of his smell on her borrowed clothes could make her body forget that he was obviously a lunatic? She was at a total loss, and resented the hell out of him for that.
At what was almost certainly the worst moment he could have chosen, Rafe knocked on the bedroom door again. “Katie?”
Startled, she stumbled backward a few steps and brought her hand to her chest, shocked to feel her heart thumping in nervous excitement. Infuriated that her mind and body were on completely different wavelengths when it came to this man, she barked, “What?”
The door creaked open and Rafe peeked inside. “Are you all right?”
At the sight of his face—square-jawed, rugged, and handsome—and the concern in his beautiful eyes, Katie’s thin hold on her control snapped. “No, I’m not. I am definitely not all right.”
Rafe’s expression changed instantly, as though he was dropping some pretense he realized she wasn’t buying. His entire countenance hardened, even as his throat jumped in a clear indication of anxiety. “Do you need another bowl of soup?”
No, she wanted to shout, she needed to know what was going on. But she held her tongue, afraid of pushing him too far. “Who was at the door?”
He studied her as though trying to decide why she was asking. Or maybe he sensed that she already had an idea. After a long hesitation, he said, “A neighbor.”
“I thought the roads were closed.”
“They are. He has a snowmobile. And he doesn’t live very far.” Rafe took a step closer, prompting Katie to step back. The complex mix of emotions on his face confounded her. “Tell me what you’re really asking.”
Katie tamped down the urge