Chapter 11

ChapterEleven

ISLA

Bryce rushed me out of his apartment in the middle of the night. He didn’t give me a choice, shoving clothes at me and ushering me into a black sedan.

The drive is long, and the view is full of picturesque nature. I’m pretty sure we’re going somewhere upstate.

“What’s this place,” I ask as Bryce opens the car door.

He grips my hand and helps me out of the car. “It’s a safe house.”

“Why do we need a safe house?”

“Because we weren’t safe,” he says dryly, and I can’t help but laugh.

“You’ve got a pretty laugh. You should do it more often.”

“Then give me something to laugh about.”

He smirks and tugs my hand. “I plan to.”

I take in the vast landscape of sugar maples, white oaks, flowering dogwoods, and eastern white pines. A cozy log cabin with a wide wrap-around porch is nestled in the middle of all the lush trees. “This place is breathtaking.”

“It’s not bad, is it? I forgot how peaceful it is up here. Haven’t been here in ten years.”

I stalled as we walked, forcing Bryce to turn around and stare at me blankly. “What’s wrong?”

“You own a place like this and haven’t been back in ten years?” I gape at the beautiful view. “If I owned a property like this, I’d never leave.”

“You like it? Once I get shit done, it’s yours.”

“What?”

“You can have it.”

This man is an anomaly. He’s deranged. That much is clear by how he beat his own child without blinking an eye. But he’s also kind. I’ve never met anyone who’s shown me compassion. I didn’t expect him to hold me the way he did after my nightmare, but I’d desperately needed the comfort. He could’ve done all kinds of ungodly things to me, but from the moment I stepped into his home, he’s kept me safe. I’ve never felt safe before.

Bryce unlocks the door to the log home and holds it open for me to step inside. “Aren’t you going in?”

“Ladies first.”

I don’t know why, but that simple, inconsequential act of chivalry makes my body hot, and I’m sure my cheeks are beet red. “Thank you,” I whisper as I move past him, unable to meet his gaze.

“You look cute when you blush.”

I spin, shocked at his observance of my nervousness. “I’m not blushing.”

“I’m sure that pretty pink on your cheeks isn’t makeup.”

“I’m just hot,” I lie to hide my embarrassment.

He shuts the door behind him and walks toward the open kitchen, discarding his keys on the counter. “It’s sixty-five degrees out.”

“I overheat easily.”

He opens the fridge, pulls out a bottle of water, and lifts it to his mouth. My eyes focus on the fullness of his lips. He smirks. One of his eyebrows rises on his perfect face before he steps toward me. “You must be parched”—he winks—“from all the heat.”

Is he flirting with me?

“Um, some water would be nice.”

I tremble as he holds the bottle to my mouth. My lips part, and he tilts it until the cold water trickles down my throat. I don’t know what it is about the act, but my body is about to combust. My mind tells me to run fast and far. And just like that, the heat in my body is doused with ice as I get my bearings and come to my senses. This man is dangerous. Lethal. He killed another man in the most heinous way and didn’t show a glimmer of remorse.

When he left me upstairs, hands shaking, holding his gun, I feared the intruder—worried that something would happen to Bryce. I was shocked at how much the idea of him being harmed agitated me. After what felt like an eternity of breaking glass and screams of terror, there was a knock on the door. It was Bryce demanding I get dressed because we were leaving.

There were so many questions I wanted to ask him, but the blood covering his body twisted the words on the tip of my tongue and held me silent.

When I didn’t move, instead of yelling, which was what I expected, he rushed to me, falling on his knees. His large hand wrapped around mine, and he removed the gun. Then he framed my face with bloodstained hands, forcing my gaze to his. “We have to go. It’s not safe here.”

I didn’t react. I didn’t know what to do.

“Isla, I need you to pull yourself together. I’ll answer all your questions once we’re in a safe location. Can you be a good girl and pull yourself together for me?”

I nodded like a robot. We flew toward the front door, and that was when I saw the bloodied and battered body slumped over his aquarium. Through the crimson water, I viewed the half-eaten head of a man staring back at me with the eyeball still attached to its socket.

In the darkness, with the vision of the horror before me, Bryce brushed his mouth by the shell of my ear and whispered. “I am a monster, Isla. But I’m a monster that will never harm you.”

The drive was silent, my gaze on the mountains and trees and Bryce’s on me.

“You’ll be safe here. I need to figure out what all that was about in my apartment. I have a good idea, but I can’t focus on the search and your safety.”

I nod. “I’ve been held in one prison or another my whole life. What’s one more?”