Chapter 12

I was soshocked by the question that everything instantly went numb.

For about five seconds.

Then I panicked.

Full on, flipping the fuck out, panicked.

My instinct told me to flee but there was nowhere to go. I was pinned in by Dalton's big body and the side of the boat. I wanted to laugh when I realized that if I tried jumping off the boat, I didn't know what would happen. Would I automatically start swimming because I knew how, or would I flounder and sink beneath the surface of the water?

The latter sounded like a good thing, but Dalton closed his hand around my wrist before I could even move. It was like he knew what I was thinking. Did he know I couldn't breathe? Did he know I was choking on my own fear?

Fear that he was right.

Hope that he was wrong.

I couldn't carry the weight of dreaming about a family that didn't exist. I couldn't do cartwheels and laugh so hard my stomach muscles hurt. I couldn't sit on his fucking boat a moment longer.

"Take me back," I croaked. I managed to see Dalton flip the switch for the autopilot but then my vision began to dim. "Take me back now!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I had no idea where the breath I'd needed to make the demand had come from, but it was gone just as quickly. My head was spinning, and I felt like I was going to throw up.

"Silver, look at me," Dalton ordered. His voice sounded like it was a million miles away. "Open your eyes," he demanded… commanded.

I opened my eyes only to find that both my hands were wrapped around his forearms. He was holding my face, his grip firm but gentle.

"I need you to slow your breathing, sweetheart," Dalton said.

How the fuck was I supposed to do that when I couldn't breathe?

"Keep your eyes on me," Dalton said. It wasn't a suggestion. I should have been telling him to fuck off, but I couldn't force myself to loosen my hold on him or tear my face from his hands. His eyes burned into me, so it was easy to get lost in the dark green pools that reminded me of the trees that surrounded Ivan's house.

I did my best to hold my breath.

"Listen to me counting. I want you to breathe out on every number."

It was the stupidest thing I'd heard. How was him counting going to return oxygen to my starving lungs? But I did it anyway because it seemed like a better choice than passing out or worse.

It took several rounds of Dalton counting to ten to finally pick up on the rhythm that matched the numbers. He kept spreading the numbers out so I was forced to exhale at a slower rate.

I couldn't say how long it took before I felt steadier. I was still breathing hard, but it felt more like I'd been running instead of the sensation of suffocating.

When I finally felt like myself again, I was shocked to find that I was wrapped in Dalton's strong arms. He was whispering things into my ear, but I couldn't make them out. I knew I should yank myself free of him, but my body wouldn't respond to my brain's order.

What if they weren't your parents?

Despite how safe I felt in the bigger man's arms, the instinct to flee was still at the forefront of my mind.

"Take me back, Dalton. Please."

He was the one to untangle our bodies. "Okay. It will take a few minutes," he said as he reached for the steering wheel. When I tried to move out of the way, his free hand closed over my thigh. He got us turned around and then he sped the boat up as fast as it would go, which wasn't fast at all.

By the time we reached his house, my body began to crash, and I found myself leaning against him. He skillfully got the boat tied off. The second it was secure, I practically leapt off the boat and ran to his SUV. All the thoughts he'd put in my head swirled around like a tornado, ripping me apart bit by bit. God, how did I even know what a tornado was? For the life of me, I couldn't remember even hearing the word, much less having any clue what it was. I'd never searched for or seen information about them because there hadn't been reason to.

Not my parents.

What if it were true?

Even the thought had me yanking hard on the SUV's door handle but to no avail. "Unlock it!" I shouted as I moved around the vehicle's hood. I was about to repeat the order when I saw how carefully Dalton was taking the steps that led from the dock up to the house. Knowing I was the cause of him even having to get off the boat that so clearly helped him relax made my already churning stomach send bile up to the back of my throat.

The instinct to run down the path to offer him support like I had when we'd first arrived at the house was strong, but my selfish need to escape was much stronger. My entire body was shaking when I finally heard the definitive beeping from the SUV that indicated the doors had been unlocked.

I rushed to the passenger seat and climbed in. I fumbled with the seat belt so I wouldn't need to experience Dalton strapping me in like a child because I had no idea how to do it myself.

When the thing finally clicked into place, I remembered where we were going. I could feel tears stinging the backs of my eyes as I thought about what I'd have to do to make money. The idea of letting a stranger put his hands on me had me closing my eyes.

It wasn't like I didn't know what it would be like to sell my body. I didn't expect it to be any more degrading and painful than the many things Ivan had done from the moment he'd led me through the huge double doors of a house bigger than I'd ever seen before. I couldn't help but remember those few precious seconds I'd forgotten to be afraid because I'd been so excited about the thought of having food in my belly and a warm bed to sleep in.

I wanted to go back in time and rail at that version of me.

The opening of the driver's side door had me flinching, but I kept myself together and focused on what was to come. My eyes were practically glued to the windshield but there was no missing the sounds Dalton made as he carefully got into the driver's seat.

Sounds he was making because of me.

I could tell from the way he'd handled himself at breakfast that he wasn't as affected as he had been by whatever kind of pills he'd taken the night we'd reached his house. God, had it really only been yesterday that I'd made the mistake of touching Dalton during a nightmare and suffered the consequences?

Funnily enough, his attack that morning no longer bothered me. It was the events that followed that I couldn't get out of my mind.

The little sounds he'd made as I'd rubbed my body against his after I'd all but flung myself into his lap. The feel of his big hands closing around my ass so he could help me increase the friction as I'd ground my dick against the tight muscles of his abdomen. My own cry of relief when he'd touched that place on my body that had only ever known pain. He'd sent me flying as pleasure like I'd never known before had taken over my entire body. Hell, I couldn't even remember having known what any kind of pleasure felt like.

Cartwheels.

I did remember those. I did remember what it felt like to laugh so hard that your stomach hurt.

My first kiss.

I'd never forget that no matter what I had to do to earn money going forward. I wished there was some way to thank Dalton for that. It was too late, though. I'd missed my chance.

Chances.

He'd given me more than one opportunity to speak those words to him and I had squandered each one. I had to turn my head to the right to look out the window so Dalton wouldn't see me struggling to bite back the tears that were threatening to fall.

No words were spoken as Dalton got settled and started the car. I wanted to ask him if he was taking me to a busy bus station in or near a city, but I couldn't find my voice. Even if I'd been able to, I probably wouldn't have been able to get the words out anyway. Now that I had the memory of Dalton's touch, his kiss, in my head, all I could think about was how wrong it would feel when some guy fucked me against the stall of a dirty bathroom.

Or made me get on my knees so he could shove his dick so far down my throat that I couldn't breathe.

Pain speared through my chest as Dalton backed up and then drove past the little red house. I tried to convince myself that the pain was because of what was to come, not what had happened in that small, strange, beautiful red house.

I began rubbing my chest as I tried to think of what I would need to do after I'd earned some cash.

Find someplace to stay, I guess.

I wasn't a stranger to living on the streets because my parents had shot every penny they somehow managed to scrape together into their arms. I'd fished through garbage cans when the hunger had become too much to bear, but my parents had rarely ever eaten the food I'd brought back to them.

Not your parents.

It was all I could do not to respond to the insidious voice in my brain. Dalton's suggestion had hit a nerve, but it had also planted a seed of doubt that was both terrifying and thrilling.

A loud ringing sound had me jumping in my seat. I realized it was a phone call that was coming through the car. Ivan's cars had had that, but he'd only ever answered using his phone.

The large screen on the dashboard lit up with a name and two circles, one red, the other green. I shivered when I saw it was Jace's name on the screen.

To my surprise, Dalton hit the red button on the screen and everything went silent. A moment later he was doing something on his phone to make the screen in the car go dark. The phone itself began to almost immediately ring again but as before, Dalton didn't answer it. Then he held down a button on the side of the phone before setting it in one of the cupholders. The screen on the phone was dark, too.

Had he turned it off?

Had I made Dalton so angry that he didn't even want to talk to his friend? If he'd turned the phone off, did that mean that I didn't need to worry about any of this being a setup that would put me back in Jace's hands?

I should have been relieved, but I wasn't. I was scared shitless. I'd wanted my freedom so badly that I'd been paranoid about being taken captive again, even by Maggie's brother. But a couple days with Dalton hadn't felt like I was being held prisoner.

When the time had finally come for me to earn the money he'd promised me, I'd thrown myself at him first. I'd touched him first. Even when I'd been so certain he was going to fuck me up against the sink this morning, Dalton hadn't laid a hand on me. If anything, he'd been angry with me, yet he'd still tried to give me the money.

"Closest big bus station will be in Baltimore," Dalton said, his voice breaking the silence. "That okay?"

I didn't know the first thing about the city he was talking about. Hell, I didn't even know if it was a city. I might have had a good memory, but it was of no use to me when the discussion revolved around something I'd never even thought to learn about on the internet.

"Yes," I managed to say. It was close and big. That was all that mattered.

It was a full ten minutes before Dalton spoke again, but it wasn't to me. He'd turned his phone back on and was talking to someone I assumed was Jace. God, maybe this was all a setup again? I was so confused. I felt like that eight-year-old kid who'd been placed in the back of the fanciest car I'd ever seen in my life. I'd been completely oblivious about what was going to happen to me.

"Yeah, it's me," Dalton said. His voice carried a strange tone that made me nervous. His eyes kept switching between the rearview mirror and the road in front of us. "He's fine," Dalton said flatly before that strange tone was back. "I need you to run a plate for me. I think I might have picked up a tail."

None of his words made sense to me. Plate? Tail? How did those words even belong in the same conversation?

Since I could only hear Dalton's side of the call and he'd stopped talking, the tension inside of me continued to grow.

"Yeah. No, it's probably nothing," Dalton said. He laughed lightly but it didn't sound like him. It sounded… forced. I didn't like that. I wanted to know what his real laugh sounded like. Did the man even laugh?

"You know me," Dalton continued. He laughed again, though it still wasn't real. "Seeing ghosts. He's pulling off," he added before hanging up the phone. This time, he left it on, but he didn't connect it to the car like it had been before. The screen on the dashboard was still dark.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Nothing," Dalton responded, his voice now even and unconcerned.

I remembered the conversation we'd had about ghosts. He'd said mine would be in good company in his house.

With his ghosts.

He hadn't needed to say that part, though.

I fell silent but I couldn't help but watch the expressions that passed over his features as he continued to check the rearview mirror. Despite what he'd said to Jace, he hadn't relaxed.

It finally dawned on me that he'd thought someone might be following us.

I looked behind me but didn't see a car. He'd mentioned it pulling off and had laughed it off with Jace, but then why was he still tense? Why was he still checking the mirror?

Fear skated through me as I looked over my shoulder again. It wasn't possible. There was no way he could know where I was.

"Are we being followed?" I croaked as I tried to push my irrational fears back to the furthest parts of my mind—that place in my brain where a lot of thoughts ended up.

That place that was dark.

Quiet.

Safe.

"No," Dalton murmured. "It was probably nothing."

Probablynothing? Was that supposed to make me feel better?

"You're lying," I blurted. "You think there was someone behind us."

Dalton sighed and glanced at me. "Jace ran the plates… the license plates on the car. The plates link back to the owner of the car."

"Who was it?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.

"It was just a rental," Dalton responded. I could feel his eyes on me as I toyed with the hem of my shirt. "There are thousands of them in this area. Probably more. It's like I said. I'm just being paranoid. It's not the first time."

"So we're okay," I murmured. I was trying to comfort myself with the words but there was no denying what I really needed to hear.

"Silver," Dalton said softly. "Look at me."

It wasn't a command or order. It was a request.

One I gave in to without thought.

"We're okay," he stated even as his fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

"Okay," I whispered before returning my attention to the road. The traffic was steadily building, so Dalton's eyes remained focused on maneuvering the SUV smoothly between the lanes as more and more cars began to pull onto the fast-moving road.

"We've still got another hour to go, maybe more with this traffic. Why don't you try to get some sleep?" Dalton suggested.

I nodded rather than responding verbally. I really wanted to believe his reassurances but, in my gut, I knew I was anything but okay.