Page 165 of Hunt for You
All my senses were thrumming, every inch of my skin on fire.
I swallowed hard and stared right into her eyes, terrified of what I was going to see there, pleading with her to understand, to see that I never plannedthis. She wasneversupposed to meet me as Sam. Only as Cain. She wasneversupposed to care for me—or me for her.
With a groan dripping in self-disgust, I threw the blade aside, away, deep into the bushes, cursing it and everything it stood for. Then I stared down at her and took her precious, shocked face in my hands, silently begging her to understand.
I’d done this all wrong. Right from the start. The fact that we’d gotten this far was all my fault. When she got so desperate, I was terrified she’d find someone else. So I’d agreed to come. But we could still salvage this, if only she’d—
I went still as her eyes welled and her chin trembled. “Fuck you, Sam.Fuck you!I thought you were the good one!”
“I am… fuck, Bridget. I am—can’t you see? This is a battle I fight every day, and sometimes I win, and sometimes I lose. But I’m here and…”
“You’ve been lying to me!”
“No! No! Everything I said was true. All of it—it was real. I changed my life.Godchanged my life—”
“You said you were going to kill me!”
I grimaced and shook my head. “No, I… I never actually agreed to do that,” I murmured, loosening my grip in her hair and shaking my head. “I let you think that when I talked about hunting you… But it was never… I was always going to try and convince you not to go that far. I always planned to disappear when you changed your mind—it’s what I do! And I did… whenyou said you wanted to live, I walked away! But I couldn’t letyougo. And you didn’t either and… it wasn’t supposed to be this way, Bridget. I didn’t know you’d come to the church—I wasn’t even supposed to be there! But I can see now, it was meant to be. I’m telling you—”
“Oh shit,” she hissed, and suddenly started struggling.
At first I tried to stop her. “No, please, let me tell you—”
“Get off me…Get off me!”she shrieked.
I shoved off her with a curse, stumbling back, but keeping my hands up as she rolled onto all fours, choking and coughing, sobbing, staring up at me with welling, devastated eyes.
“Bridget—”
“You have to go!” she sobbed. “You have to go…right now!”
“No. I know this is a shock, but—”
“No, Sam. You don’t know. I didn’t know it was you. You didn’t tell me soI didn’t know!”
I frowned, dropping to squat in front of her, trying to take her face. “I need to explain—”
“You can’t. You don’t understand—you have togo!”she shrieked, batting my hands away. “Go! Get out of here! Leave mealone! Fucking leave!”she screwed her eyes shut and screamed so hard her face shook. “DO IT! GO! NOW! GET OUT OF HERE—!”
“I’m not leaving you!” I barked back.
The sound of a cocked pistol rang through the dark like the gunshot it threatened.
Every sense jangled with alarm—I shoved to my feet, already stretching to run, but jerked to a halt immediately as several large, male forms inched out of the trees dressed in head-to-toe black with weapons gleaming in the moonlight and pointed directly at my chest.
I turned to see if they were also behind me, just in time to find one of them leveling a pistol at me and circling around tostep between me and Bridget, who was still sitting in the dirt, her face now in her hands so I couldn’t even see her eyes.
Our eyes met and his narrowed.
“I’m Special Agent Jeremy Haines with the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” he said, tearing a Velcro flap at the chest of his black ops suit with one hand while keeping the gun on me with the other. The flap dropped to reveal a badge and identification.
My heart sank to my toes, but I put my hands up, swallowing hard. “Agent, I know how this looks, but it’s a fully consensual—”
“Sam Priestley, you’re under arrest for violation of parole, and on suspicion of stalking as defined by Oregon statute 163.732, and attempted murder as per statute 163.115—”
“Wait,what?!”
“—You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”