Taken by Storm (Give & Take) - By Kelli Maine Page 0,52

chest rise and fall as she slept, her skin a silky shimmer in the moonlight.

Above them, he could barely make out the etchings in the wooden beam that ran the length of the room. Two hearts with two different sets of initials inside. M.R. + R.D in one. A.W. + I.B. in the other. Even if he didn’t know Rachael’s last name, who the first set was in reference to was obvious, Merrick and Rachael, but he had no clue about the second set.

Maddie murmured in her sleep and rolled over to her side. She’d been out cold for a couple hours, but MJ couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t believe she was here beside him again. He couldn’t stop the fear he kept swallowing back. Fear that this was only one night and she’d leave him again.

MJ rubbed his eyes trying to clear his mind. He couldn’t lie there awake any longer with his thoughts running rampant. He needed air. Slipping out of bed, a flash of light outside caught his eye.

It was a round orb deep in the trees, like a flashlight in the distance. MJ moved close to the window and pressed his palms against the pane. The circle of light was moving, getting closer, making a jagged path through the brush.

He padded silently across the room, down the spiral staircase and out the front door. Under his feet, the wooden deck was still warm from the sun even though the moon cast long, obscure black shadows across it.

At the side of the deck, he pushed his fear of heights aside in favor of curiosity and leaned over the railing. His mind kept yelling, curiosity killed the cat, and giving him visions of lying on the ground below with a broken neck for being so stupid. He told his mind to shut the fuck up and tracked his eyes through the trees, straining to find the light.

There it was, even closer, but completely still.

Abruptly, it was gone, but MJ caught the sound of branches snapping underfoot and a flash of long, dark hair in the moonlight.

“Hello?” he called. “Rachael, is that you?”

He had no idea why Rachael would be walking through the trees, alone, in the middle of the night with a flashlight. If she had such an inclination, she’d stick to the path.

Against his better judgment, or maybe because of poor judgment, he jogged down the tree house stairs to the ground below and trod across the dew-damp grass to the tree line. “Hello?” he said, too low for anyone too far in the trees to actually hear.

A rustle in the brush a few yards in and to his right prodded his curiosity. With measured, deliberate steps, MJ followed the noises hoping to catch a glimpse of light or the mystery woman again.

Reaching the spot where he thought he’d heard the noise, he bent and leaned forward to peer through a grouping of saplings.

Two wide dark eyes stared back at him.

The woman gasped and bolted through the trees.

“Wait!” he yelled. “Who are you?”

She didn’t answer, and he chased after her, sticks and rocks prodding and poking the soles of his bare feet. She wasn’t far ahead. MJ wove his way through the trees and ducked under low limbs. Brambles scratched his legs and snagged his shorts. He heard her panting as she ran, each of her footfalls cracking branches on the forest floor.

Sweat glazed his face and chest. Gnats buzzed around his head. Why the hell did she keep running? Who was she and why was she hiding?

There was a loud snap under his feet and his ankle twisted. He fell with an oomph of air being knocked from his lungs. He rolled through two dense bushes into a clearing and stopped flat on his back on the ground. The woman scrambled to the far side and backed against a tree. In the shadows of the moon, she appeared like some wraith-like being his imagination dreamed up. Her long hair snarled around her face, a white dress torn along the hem from traipsing through the woods.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said holding his hands up in front of him. “Who are you? Are you supposed to be here?” He didn’t think so, or she wouldn’t be running around in the dark hiding in the woods.

“You can’t trust her,” she whispered, her voice deep and raspy. “Everything she says is a lie. Don’t believe what she tells you.”

Her words were a wrecking ball crashing through his mind.