Rhyme or Reason by Erica Spindler

Author:Erica Spindler [Spindler, Erica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Double Shot Press
Published: 2016-09-26T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Victoria Ridgeman left the cottage in tears. Alex watched her go, her own emotions reeling. She felt sorry for the woman, but she ached for Walker. As the door closed behind her, Alex turned to him. His face looked as if it had been carved from granite. His expression told her nothing of how he felt except for his eyes—they were naked with pain.

Her heart constricted. Walker valued control, admired restraint. He would hate it if he knew how much he was revealing to her. As if he read her mind, he swung away from her and faced the windows once again.

His shoulders and back were rigid with his attempt to regain control of his emotions, and Alex fought the urge to go to him, to try to comfort him. Already his pain roiled inside her, to touch him would hurt too much. She drew a deep breath, let it out shakily, then drew another. The oxygen didn’t help and the ache in her chest became almost debilitating.

She had to get out of here, Alex thought, a thread of panic winding through her. She’d only reached “overload” once before and it had been terrifying. She had thought, really thought, that she was going to die.

Alex took a step backward, then stopped. As fearful as she was, she couldn’t bear to leave him alone.

He settled her quandary for her. “Alex... do me a favor?” His voice was choked, tight.

“Yes.”

“Go find Lacy at the arcade. Stay with her... don’t let her come back here for at least an hour.” Looking over his shoulder, he met her eyes. “I don’t want her to see me this way.”

Relief washed over her, and she felt like the coward she was. “All right,” she murmured, moving backward until her hand found the doorknob and closed over it.

“Alex?”

She twisted the knob but turned back to him. He hadn’t taken his gaze from the window. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry I got you involved in this mess.”

It scared her to realize just how involved she’d already been. “Don’t worry about it.”

He continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “I know how I must look to you.” He drew a deep breath which sounded heavy, almost labored. “She seemed so heartbroken, so sincere—” He did meet her gaze then—“but she did things you couldn’t imagine... subtle cruelties, the kind that break the spirit without bruising the flesh.”

She longed to put her arms around him but couldn’t move a muscle. “People can change,” she said finally, thinking of Victoria, but more, of him.

He turned away from her once again. “I can’t chance it, Alex.”

You can’t not, she thought, staring at his rigid back. There was so much she wanted to say to him, but now was not the time—for either of them. Instead, she reassured him in the only way she could. “You’re a good father, Walker. I hope you know that.”

She pulled the door lightly shut behind her. Resting her back against the cold wood, she squeezed her eyes shut and willed the phantoms away.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.