I don’t know what to think anymore. Thorne is my stalker… and my savior? I was so sure he pointed that gun at me to kill me. That the entire night before I made it to the stockyards was a ploy to lower my guard. But I was wrong. He killed my attacker without a second thought. The tightness around my heart is gripping me now as the deserted streets whizz by on the back of his motorcycle. My hands are around his waist. I’m literally holding onto him in order to live as we ride far away from the life Grams and I have had for over ten years. The cool early morning air assaults my face like the wakeup-call this last little while has been.

We zoom through a busier section of the city and hit a red light at one of the intersections.

I want to turn back.

Everything I have is there.

Had, I say inwardly.

Letting out a sigh, I roll the tension out of my shoulders and remind myself that the life I had is now past tense.

Time for a new place, a new name, a new everything.

“Hold on to me,” Thorne shouts back. His large hand covers my interlinked fingers on his abs. He lifts his foot off the ground and gets ready to take off when the light turns green.

I blink a few times. This doesn’t feel real. There’s no double meaning to his words, but they hang in the air between us. I’m not the girl who holds on to a man and hope he’ll protect me. As hard as they tried, my parents couldn’t protect themselves, let alone me. I survived that day because the person who had my parents killed had a moral code. That fact has never sat well with me.

Thorne takes a turn at the next corner, leaning the motorcycle into the curve. My body hovers dangerously close to the ground. If I tense up too much, I can bring us both down. My life is unraveling in the same damn way. I don’t want to be the weak link, but one sharp tug and everything around me can fall apart.

I asked Thorne where we were going, and he mentioned some safe house a couple of hours outside of the city. A hunter’s cabin that no one knows about, not even his employer. He’ll spend the day and one night there with me, and then I’m supposed to stay there alone while he goes off like the hero to fix things for me.

To fix my life.

I’d much rather tell him to stop the bike and I’ll figure out my own plans. I could disappear again. With Grams. She’s a lot older now, though. She didn’t put up any resistance when I sent her off to see her brother, and I saw in her eyes that she knew something wasn’t adding up, but she went along with that plan anyway. Who am I kidding? If I run now, Grams can’t go with me. It wouldn’t be fair.

Thorne thinks that following him right now is simple. It’s not. I’m teetering, hanging on, at the end of my rope, conflicted about which path to take. It’s times like these that I want to just stand still. Let them find me. Let fate catch up to me. Let go. Maybe I’ll see my parents at the end of that road.

Taking a breath, I mentally shake myself. Giving up is not who I am.

I’m a fighter.

I fight.

The word brings back the image of Thorne earlier, warning me that the next time he has me alone, he’ll fuck that fight out of me. I swallow hard and feel the heat rise up my cheeks, even with the wind rushing past us. I have to shift around in the seat behind Thorne to stop the throbbing that starts up again between my thighs. This is the wrong time to feel this intense heat. My breasts are pressed up against his back, and I’m holding on to his rock hard abs. My thighs are clenching his outer legs, my pussy rubbing against his firm ass whenever there’s the slightest bump in the road. If this trip to his safe house lasts any longer, I might be the one throwing myself at him, begging him to fuck this need into submission.

My core tightens again. This has to stop. But it doesn’t let up for the entire ride. My body might be doing its own thing, but ultimately, I have control over my mind. All I can do is push the thoughts down each time they threaten to overtake me. Discipline is key.

Our drive comes to an end on a narrow dirt road that stops in front of what I can only call a shack. Looking at it from the outside, it can’t be more than the size of my living room.

“We’re here,” Thorne announces, kicking down the bike stand.

He waits for me to climb off, and when I do, I remove the leather jacket that he let me use for the ride here.

“You can take that off inside, you know?” he says, jumping off.

Ignoring him, I slip my GO-bag off my back and set it on the ground. I stretch my legs and look around, trying to guess the time without checking my phone. It’s dark. The coming dawn is the only source of illumination until he finds a flashlight in his bike’s storage flap.

I left work at three in the morning. It was probably four-thirty when I made it to the stockyards and saw my life flash in front my eyes. We drove for over an hour. Two hours tops. I look up at the sky again. It should be lighter than this, but there’s a mountain range to the west of us, delaying the sunrise.

“Come on inside,” he mumbles, but I’m not ready to be trapped in close quarters with him.

“I need some air.”

He stands beside his ride. He doesn’t move.

“What?” I ask when I notice he has his eyes on me.

“Get inside.”

“Don’t do that, okay?” I say, close to my breaking point. “I’m tired, but I’ll come in soon. Give me some time to wrap my mind around everything.”

“And you prefer to do that out here?”

“Yeah, kind of.”

I look up at the sky, doing my best to find some equilibrium. My fingers rise to my earring again, and I let my eyes close for a moment. Then I feel the warmth of Thorne’s big body behind me, pulling me to the present again. I feel his leather jacket fold over my shoulders.

“Take whatever time you need.” His voice is thick and dark. It sounds the way it did when we were standing beside my car at work earlier. He was taunting me, teasing me, breathing the kind of passion into me that I didn’t know I could feel.

“Thanks,” I reply in a whisper.

In another life, one where he isn’t the man sent to keep tabs on me, maybe…

The long drive, the longer day, and the clean country air finally take their toll, and exhaustion hits me hard. I make my way to the front steps, Thorne a few steps behind me, and I stand aside for him to unlock the front door.

He pushes it open. “Ready?”

I nod and cover my yawn, feeling some of the fight drain out of me. I don’t want him to protect me, but he’s doing it anyway. Maybe I can stop fighting just for today, and for one more night.

I hope I don’t regret it.