Theirs to Keep - Maya Banks Page 0,66

room. She was standing in the middle of the floor, her expression completely blank as she stared into nothingness.

Then her forehead wrinkled as though she were in pain, and her lips tightened.

“Elle. Elle!” he said louder as he approached. “Baby, it’s me, Merrick. You’re sleepwalking again, baby. Wake up for me.”

“I trusted you,” she said in an accusing tone.

“Huh? What was that, baby? Come on. Wake up for me. Let’s go back to bed so you can rest some more.”

His hands closed over her shoulders, and as soon as he touched her, she jerked to awareness. The cloudiness left her eyes, and she blinked rapidly, and then she lifted her gaze to Merrick.

Then she crumpled on the spot, as if all her composure fled. She sagged precariously, and Merrick caught her against him before she fell. Cade stalked forward, flanking her other side.

“Let’s get her back to bed,” Cade said grimly.

“It happened again, didn’t it?” Elle asked in a small voice.

Merrick sighed. “Yes, baby, it did.”

She closed her eyes as Cade led her gently back toward the bedroom. A moment later, she was sitting on the edge of the bed while Cade rubbed warmth into her hands. She was visibly upset and shaken by the events. And whatever she had dreamed.

“Who did you trust, honey?” Cade asked. “Who betrayed you?”

She raised startled eyes to Cade.

“In the living room, while you were still out of it, you said, ‘I trusted you.’”

Her brow wrinkled, and for a moment, she seemed to fade out again. Then she simply said, “Him.”

“The man who attacked you?” Cade asked gently.

“I think so. I don’t know. Maybe?”

The frustration in her voice ate at Merrick. He hated that this caused her so much pain and heartache.

Merrick eased down on the bed beside her and pulled her into his arms, rocking her carefully back and forth.

“It’ll come, baby. Don’t rush. When you’re ready, it’ll come. When you’re able to cope with the knowledge of what happened to you, then you’ll remember. Until then, your mind is protecting you from what it believes you aren’t ready to deal with.”

She nodded mechanically and then buried her face in his chest. He pressed his mouth to her hair, inhaling her scent. Closing his eyes, he took in a deep breath and tried to still her quivering body.

He wanted to absorb the fear and darkness that invaded her soul. Take it from her so she never suffered again.

Damn it, but every time it seemed they were making progress, her past reared its ugly head. It wasn’t that he and Cade had discounted her past. Or that they were stupid enough to think it would never matter.

But the selfish part of him wanted to make damn sure she was tied to him and Cade, emotionally and legally, before they dealt with whatever ghosts haunted Elle.

It made him sound like a manipulative asshole. No better than the bastard who’d abused her trust and hurt her physically and emotionally.

He curled his hand into a fist. Fuck that. He loved her. He wanted only the best for her. He knew damn well that Cade felt the exact same way. They wanted to be there for her every step of the way. Even if it meant the end result was having to give her up.

It sure as hell wouldn’t be without a fight. But there was a small part of him, his deepest, most dreaded fear, that she could already belong to someone else. That one morning she’d wake up, remember her old life and realize she was in love with someone else. That she’d leave him and Cade and return to the life she’d once lived.

But he also knew that part of loving her was wanting her to be happy. It would gut him to have to let her go, but could he honestly ever try to manipulate her emotionally in order to make her stay?

Hell no.

Someone in her past had hurt her. Had betrayed her trust and made her the wounded, fragile woman they’d discovered in the gun shop so many months ago.

If Merrick had his way, that man would never have another chance to hurt Elle. He hoped like hell that Elle hadn’t been in love with the bastard who’d raped and then tried to kill her.

All evidence pointed to a dirty cop, which meant that they couldn’t just barge ahead and do a wide-open search for her identity or her past.

“Merrick, ease up, man,” Cade said in a low voice.

Merrick looked down, realizing how