not to think about the narrow part. I don’t ask about the lantern or obvious planning he’s done, either. Not now. As he said, questions are for later. For the time being, I just nod and sway toward the cave’s entrance. Adrian catches my arm. “You okay?”
I hate that he fears my freak-out. I hate that I let him see me freak out at all.
“Yes,” I reply and say nothing more. More feels like too much right about now.
He studies me a moment and I don’t know what he expected to find and actually does find, but whatever the case, he releases me. I waste no time settling onto my hands and knees and entering the cavern. The path curves right and left. This ends at a decent-sized hole I climb through and I don’t give myself time to panic. I suck in air and just go for it. It’s not too tight and I’m through in an instant, but there’s another hole to my left. I repeat my efforts, sliding through it, and then I’m there, on my knees, just inside a small, bedroom-sized cave aglow with the promised lantern. There’s also a blow-up mattress, blankets, and what looks like a few boxes of supplies that must have taken real effort to get in here.
Adrian joins me and helps me to my feet, his hand only momentarily on my waist, steadying me, somehow branding me. He’s been touching me the entire time we’ve been on the run in the woods, but somehow now I’m not immune, not even close. How can I be? He, unlike me I’m sure, looks good with his T-shirt clinging to his muscled chest and his dark hair plastered to his handsome, if not weary, face. Not to mention, the taste of that passionate kiss we’d shared in the woods still lingers on my lips despite the rain trying to wash it away.
“Home sweet home until our rescue squad arrives,” he says, giving me a concerned inspection. “How are you doing in here?”
“Fine,” I say and while I’d like to leave it at that, and forget my panic attack happened, I doubt he can forget, not under these confined circumstances. He needs more from me than one word. I rotate to face him and say, “It’s hard to explain, but the triggers are random, unpredictable, and infrequent. And at present, I think I’m too tired, cold, and numb to feel anything but relief to be anywhere but out there in the rain.”
He’s back to studying me with a far too keen eye, and I can feel the tug of a question he isn’t asking between us. And I know why or I think I do anyway. I believe he’s afraid that if he asks questions that I answer, I’ll then ask him questions, and he’ll feel obligated to answer me.
He doesn’t risk the quid pro quo I wouldn’t demand and actually don’t want to extend myself on this particular topic. Instead, he reaches over and strokes my wet hair from my face, tenderness in his touch that defies a man capable of killing his brother—that is unless he had no choice. I catch his hand, silently letting him know that I still believe in him.
If he really killed his brother, I know in my gut that he had no choice. And he certainly didn’t enjoy it.
He cuts his gaze, his expression hidden from view, but not before I glimpse the shame and regret in his eyes. Not before I see the truth. He killed his brother, I’m certain. At this point, that part isn’t a surprise, but I saw something else in his expression. Something I can’t name. Something even beyond the obvious that he doesn’t want me to know right now or I suspect, ever.
Chapter Six
PRI
There’s a heavy beat between me and Adrian that he doesn’t allow to last. “Let me get you a towel and some dry clothes,” he says, and then he’s moving away from me, putting what space there is to garner between us.
He crosses the cavern and squats down near a row of boxes sitting against the wall. “For you,” he says, tossing a towel at me, which I catch easily and accept eagerly.
“How do we know Waters’ men can’t find us here?” I say, doing what I can to dry off considering I have water literally dripping from my clothes. “They found the cabin.”
“No one knows about this place but Walker.” He scrubs his hair with a