Edge of Desire (17 page)

Without looking back, Riley shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and set off into the forest, hoping like hell he could find a way to forget.

Wednesday night

B
Y THE TIME
Riley had returned to the cabin, Hope was gone. Not that he’d expected her to stick around and wait for him. Knowing he couldn’t leave her alone with Gregory out there somewhere…not to mention the rest of the Casus…he’d stayed close by, keeping an eye on the cabin as he smoked his way through enough cigarettes that his throat now felt raw. When she’d finally grown tired of waiting for him to return and walked back to the house, he’d headed over to the search area, pacing around, doing God only knew what. Trying to…to sense the Marker, as ridiculous as that sounded. He’d even tried excavating another patch of land, but the weather had finally sent him back inside the shelter of the cabin, and after he’d taken a shower, he’d passed the time staring at the television screen, listening to the endless warnings about the severity of the coming weather system.

The worst storm to hit that area in over a century was surging toward the shore, set to wreak complete havoc
once it hit. Thrashing waves, tropical storm force winds, and enough rain to flood the inland areas. It was the last bloody thing that they needed, considering it was going to make their search for the Marker all but impossible. But it was more than just the crappy working conditions that had him on edge. Riley couldn’t shake the eerie feeling that the end was rolling in along with the foul weather, as if the monsters were being carried in on the waves…dropping from the clouds like acid rain.

He’d called to check in with Kellan earlier, just to make sure the guy was okay. After the strange attack on Monday night by one of Westmore’s men, as well as the mysterious blue-eyed stranger who’d warned Kellan of the coming danger, Riley didn’t like the idea of the Watchman being in town on his own. He only hoped Kell wasn’t taking any chances. With so many enemies roaming around, the last thing the Watchman needed to do was make himself an easy target.

Rolling his shoulder, Riley moved to his feet and began pacing from one side of the warm, rustic room to the other, trying to convince himself that he was just on edge because of the run-in with Gregory that morning…his worry over Kellan. But he knew there was more to it.

And why don’t you stop hiding from the real issue?
a tired voice drawled in his head.
You’re doing everything you can to keep from thinking about her. About what happened. Pointless, really, when you know it’s going to haunt your every waking moment, as well as
your dreams. Might as well suck it up and face it head-on, like a man.

Stopping in the middle of the floor, Riley braced his hands on his hips and closed his eyes, concentrating on keeping his breathing even and slow, while his pulse kept gaining speed…rushing faster and faster. God, what was the point of denying it? Whatever smart-ass part of his psyche had delivered the lecture, it was right. He couldn’t avoid thinking about what had happened that morning, because it was all he could hear, see, smell. The lush, exquisite clutch of her body as she’d taken him deep, holding him tighter than any woman he’d ever known. The mouthwatering scent of her skin. The addictive taste of her mouth.

It’d been madness to think that he could have her once and ease a measure of his craving. Instead, it’d only geared his hunger—the clawing, insatiable need—up to the point that he could all but feel his reason slipping away. The desire was a thousand times greater now that he knew just how incredible it was to make love to her. There’d been a level of intensity to it that he’d never even known he was capable of experiencing. His style had always been aggressive, but nothing that could have prepared him for what had happened with Hope. He’d been crazed. Out of control. And the connection between them had been mind-blowing, looping the pleasure back again and again, magnifying every moan…every gasp.

Knowing he couldn’t keep pacing the floor
boards…reliving those moments again and again, driving himself out of his mind…he walked to his bed and grabbed the jacket he’d laid across it earlier, pulling it on over his white linen shirt and shoulder holster. Since Kellan had yet to return, he figured he’d brave the weather and spend some time searching the grounds again, making sure nothing was out there that shouldn’t be. He couldn’t shake the thick cloud of uneasiness hanging over him, scraping against his nerves, as if something else were about to happen.

He’d only just reached the door, when his phone began ringing on his hip. Glancing at the screen, his muscles clenched as he saw that it was Hope’s number. After the way that he’d treated her that morning, Riley couldn’t imagine she’d be calling him unless there was a problem, and he went ahead and started making his way down the path as he talked to her.

“What’s going on?” he asked, the strange prickle at the back of his neck growing worse, creeping him out.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” she burst out, the husky words tumbling over themselves in her rush. “But I need you to come up to the house, Ri. Please. As soon as you can.”

“I’m already on my way,” he told her, hating the ragged edge of fear he could hear in her voice. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but…just hurry. I’ll tell you everything when you get here.”

Seconds later, the house came into view, and he
could see that Hope was waiting for him on the back porch. The instant she saw him, she started running, launching herself into his arms. Riley caught her against his chest, shaken by the feeling of how right she felt there as she clutched onto him, burying her face against his shoulder. He could feel her shuddering, though there were no tears on her cold cheeks. Her breath was coming in short, painful gasps, and he steeled himself as he said, “What is it, honey? What happened?”

Shivering, she shifted in his hold until she could look into his face, her luminous eyes shadowed by worry. “He went after Hal,” she said unsteadily. “His niece just came by to pick up Millie on her way to the hospital up in Wellsford. He’s in emergency surgery. They’re saying that it was some kind of…of animal attack. He would have been killed, but some kids who were walking past his house heard him screaming and called the police. I guess he’s lost so much blood, they don’t even know if he’s going to make it.”

Cursing under his breath, Riley ran his hands down her back, over her shoulders, stroking the thick, silken weight of her hair, just to assure himself that she was safe and unharmed. He knew it had to have been Gregory who made the attack, just as he knew that the Casus had purposefully picked Hal Erickson because of his association with Hope’s family.

“I want to go up and see Millie at the hospital,” she said, staring up at him. For the moment, the endless rain had eased up and the stars had burned their way back
into the early autumn skies, the tiny shimmering lights reflected in the burnished depths of her eyes. “Will you go with me, Riley?”

“God, Hope. Of course I will,” he replied in a heavy voice, pulling out his phone to call Kellan, asking him to meet them there. After Hope gave the Watchman directions, she ran inside to get her car keys, since Kellan still had Riley’s truck. They left immediately for the hospital, and made the trip in good time, the respite from the rain making it easier to navigate the highways. Hoping to avoid Millie’s wrath, Riley waited out in the hall, talking with Kellan, who arrived not long after them, while Hope went in to see her aunt. Hal’s niece had apparently known, like Hope, that there was more than just a friendship brewing between Millie and her uncle, and had arranged for Millie to be allowed into the private family waiting room.

Standing beneath the harsh fluorescent lights that ran the length of the ceiling, Riley got Kellan to agree to stay and keep an eye on things at the hospital until Millie was ready to leave, so that he could go ahead and get Hope back home. She finally came back out a half hour later, looking tense with worry, and thanked Kellan for staying to look after her aunt. Hal, she said, had come out of surgery okay, but was expected to be in recovery for a while. Riley shared a meaningful look with Kellan, and he knew they were both wondering what Erickson would remember from his attack, and what he would be willing to admit to the police.

Just as they were leaving, Millie caught up with them near the exit, running up and grabbing hold of his arm. Expecting her to slap him—or worse—Riley tensed, ready for the blow. But she simply stared up at him, her gray eyes red-rimmed and swollen as she pulled him away from Hope, obviously wanting to speak to him privately. “I don’t blame you,” she said in a low voice. “So you just get that gutted look off your face, young man. I saw that monster for myself and I know there’s no explanation for evil like that. I should have warned Hal, but I…I just didn’t think. Didn’t realize…” She cleared her throat, then firmly said, “I want you to do something for me, Riley.”

He nodded, expecting her to tell him that she wanted revenge. Gregory’s blood. The bastard’s head on a stick, which he would have been only too willing to give her. But she asked for none of those things. Instead, she said, “Take care of yourself. I know you’ll take care of Hope, so I won’t even ask. But it will kill her if anything happens to you. She’s already lost too much in this world. So you just make sure that you watch out for yourself.”

She turned and walked away then, and Riley made his way back to Hope, heading out with her to the car, while running his mind over everything that had happened. He offered to drive again, and after they were both settled in the car, he reached out, pushing her hair back from her face, studying her with a worried frown.

Riley knew that no matter how he looked at it, the
truth couldn’t be denied. He was a curse creeping over this family. These lives. He was already wreaking destruction, and the true nightmare hadn’t even started. This was just the preshow, giving them all a taste of what was to come. And he would end up bringing them all down with him.

There were so many things he needed to say to her, but all that would come out was a gruff, quiet “I’m sorry.”

Heat flared in her eyes, burning away the fear that had shadowed her gaze since walking out of the waiting room. “Don’t you dare apologize. It’s not your fault that Marker is buried on our land. You didn’t put it there. And you’re not the one who hurt Hal.”

“But it’s my fault that bastard’s fixated on you,” he argued. “Our past…the present. Maybe you should be thankful this happened now, before you let this thing between us go any further.”

She stared back at him in disbelief. “So because of what happened to Hal, I’m supposed to be glad that you’ve only had sex with me once? What does
that
mean, Riley?”

He would have smiled at her spark of temper, if he wasn’t so wound up inside, sick with worry. “It means that if you’re smart, you’ll cut your losses while you still can and get the hell out of here, Hope.”

“Well, I won’t,” she snapped, bristling with anger and frustration. “I’m not running. I’m not going to let that monster scare me away from my home.”

Wondering what the hell he had to do to get through
to her, Riley tore his gaze from hers and stared out the front windshield. “Gregory’s only going to keep at it,” he said in a low voice, bracing his left elbow on the door as he rubbed his fingers against the pulsing pain in his forehead, the mother of all headaches knocking around in his skull. “And eventually the others will make their moves. The Collective. Westmore. The danger is only going to get worse, Hope. I just…” He blew out a rough breath, struggling for the words. “I just wish I hadn’t brought all this shit down on you. That I’d never even started looking for that goddamn Marker.”

“Instead of blaming yourself,” she said softly, “have you ever considered the fact that maybe you were meant to come back into my life, Ri?”

He snorted, shaking his head. “To do what? Screw it up?”

“No. To save me. Think about it. Even if you toss the issue of the Marker aside, what would Neal have done if you weren’t here? How far would he have gone?”

He cut her a dark look, not knowing what to say.

“In a way, you’ve been like my knight in shining armor,” she told him with a small, teasing smile. “So stop blaming yourself already.”

“I only do it because I
am
the one to blame,” he persisted. “You need to get that through your head, Hope. I should have known, after Capshaw, that Gregory might try something like this. Should have had Millie warn Hal, but my goddamn head isn’t working. I’m not even thinking straight anymore.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, we can keep arguing about who’s to blame later,” she said with a tired sigh, pulling on her seat belt. “Right now, I’d just like to get back home.”

They made the drive back to Purity in silence, the sound of the windshield wipers and the light rain that had started to fall the only sounds within the cozy confines of the car. As they pulled into the parking lot on the side of the house, Riley turned off the engine, while Hope’s words kept playing through his mind, pushing him…tempting him to do the unforgivable. To actually believe that there was something positive in his being there. Was it possible that she was right? That in some weird, mystical way, he’d been meant to come back into her life? How else did you explain it? The way they’d been pulled back together? There was no logical explanation. No sound reason. There were forces at work that he didn’t understand. Ones you couldn’t see or touch or feel. Ones you simply had to accept, and take the miracle when it was offered.

And as corny as it sounded to his bitter psyche, that was what she was. His miracle. His glimpse of heaven before he slipped into hell. He was so tired of fighting it. He just…He couldn’t keep waging the battle. It had worn him down…left him too wanting, too needy. Hope wanted him, though God only knew why, and as they sat there in the quiet car, Riley finally accepted the fact that he was going to play the bastard and take her. For one night, he was going to shut out the rest of the world
and take everything that he’d ever wanted from her. And then he’d suck it up and do what was right. Do whatever was necessary to give Hope her life back. One without danger and evil and fear.