Page 71 of Ravage
But can I do that? Could he mean it?
Of course, he wouldn’t. He’s playing you.
Still, I don’t move or fight it.
His lips stop so close to mine I can taste him.
“Liar,” he hisses. He grabs my wrists and pins them behind me with one hand, and I watch a wide metal bracelet around his wrist transform into a blade that he grips and holds to my neck. “I know your secret, Raegan.”
My eyes widen, and I stop breathing.
He couldn’t.
“No.”
His brown eyes look pitch black as he glares down at me with contempt. “I do. I found out while we were still on the island.”
I can’t breathe. Fuck, I can’t breathe. My chest constricts tighter and tighter, and I might see dots in my vision, but it’s too dark in here to know for sure.
Was that why he left me on the island? Did he somehow see one of the things I did for Gordon? Is he disgusted by me? Does he hate me for what I did?
I start to slump in his grasp. He frowns and shifts the blade from my skin.
He knows.
I can’t pretend it never happened if someone knows.
It means it’s real.
I fall to the ground and try to drag air in through my lungs, but it feels like I’m getting nothing.
Aiden crouches in front of me and almost looks concerned when he grabs my shoulders and shakes me so I look at him. “You’ve been accused of working for GE before and never freaked out like this. What am I missing? Breathe, Raegan.”
My hands grab for his arms automatically like I might draw strength from him. I pant over the floor and squeeze my eyes shut while struggling to regain control.
He picks me up, and I cling to him, if only to keep myself here and present with him as my anchor. I’m set down on the couch and then he opens the curtains and window. The cool morning breeze sweeps in, and I feel like what air I breathed that time actually worked. I jump toward the window, sticking my head out of it and breathing in deeply. Again. And again.
My body is trembling when I bring myself back to sit on the couch.
“Why would knowing about your birth certificate scare you so much?”
I’m still trying to breathe right again, but my eyes snap to his in confusion.
“Birth certificate?”
His eyes narrow. “Your secret,” he repeats.
“What are you talking about?”
“I found your birth certificate. You were born on the island.”
I breathe a sigh of relief.
He doesn’t know.
“So?” He’s sitting on my coffee table and watching me like I’m the biggest puzzle for him to solve.
I try to ignore the crack in my psyche for what almost happened. “I’m not sure what you found, but I wasn’t born on the island. I was raised by my Gram in Alaska. As far from the islands as you can get.”
