Don't Scream

Chapter 58

"Where ar you taking me?" Sarra asked. It was evening now, and Brian drove in the opposite direction of the hotel.

"A safe house. Someone might have seen you at your house today."

"Someone?"

The nerve on his cheek Jumped again. "The press maybe."

Right

Her phone rang, and adreniline shot through Sarra. Not fear. Not terror. Fury. After the way Brandon had left Lexi, after what he had done to Hannah and what he might do to Mrs Chadborne, Sarra was looking foward to telling the bastard off. She dug her phone from her purse as Brian swerved off the road.

"Give it to me." he said. "I will take it."

"I can do it."

"Sarra.' He stopped "Remember what I told you."

She would play whatever game she had to now. She would do anything to catch this bastard.

She looked at the caller's number and blew out a breath. Not Brandon, after all. It was Emily. She pressed talk and listened.

Sorrow. Disbelief.

"What? What?" Brian was whispering, but she ignored him.

The news sank in like a disease into her bones. She told Emily not to worry about it and hung up.

"What is it?" Brian was in her face

"It was nothing. It wasn;t important." She closed her eyes. "Justice disapered.

"Oh, shit." He rubbed his hand over his face.

"It is not Brandon, Brian it has happened before.Emily said J.J left the gate open"

"The toddler?"

She nodded."Justice will come back. He always does." She swallowed ignoring the lump of tears in her throat. Stupid to cry over a lost dog when Hannah lay in the hospital, and Mrs Chadborne missing and a agent had been shot to death on her kitchen table.

"Sweetheart_"

"I said it's nothing, come on he is just a dog."

"Yea right." Brian said his voice rough. He pulled back into traffic. "Just a dog."

The safe house was set in the condominiums, with guards who looked diffrent than Eddie and his crew.  No more blending in like bellhops or hotel maids or janitors. These guys were heavly and visibly armed like soldiers.

Upstairs, she took the first bedroom she saw. Brian followed, his mood dark, and slid her suitcase onto a dresser. He strode the perimiter of the rooms and emerged after a quick inspection of the bathroom. "Jacuzzi," he said coming back out "Ought to keep you warm, anyway."

She didn't bother to tell him she wasn't cold anymore. Feeling had gone away.

"I will put your equipment downstairs," he said " I brought the doll from Hannah's car, and as soon as the lab finishes with the one that come today, I will send for it.

"Thank you."

"I am going to look around. Show my face to the guards. You should try and get some sleep."

"I am not tired."

He made a sound. "Suit yourself."

"Are you going to tell me why you are mad at me?"

He had been on his way, but now turned around dropped the doornob."I am not mad at you," he said. "I am angry at your... independence. Your spine."

"I don't know what you mean?"

"I mean you shouldn't of went into your kitchen, Sarra. I shouldn't of let you. You don't have to keep proving to everyone that you are unbreakable.'

"Unbreakable," she echoed. thinking the word_ applied to her__ sounded ridiculous. Her whole life was defined by the fear of breaking. "You know," she said. "Until Abby was three, we lived in a apartment above the carrige house at Foster's. Abby loved it.

Brian crossed his arms and waited.

"It was safe there. I mean there was people always around, people I knew. But eventually I had to grow up."

"Sarra___"

"No I want you to understand. The house on BayHead the flower boxes and the curtains and the furniture__I sank everything into it to make it a place where I can live and play, even work. A protected little bubble where I could stay holed up and never have to remember there had once been a man named Brandon James, who was still alive when Amy Chaney was dead and I was too much of a coward to tell anyone about it." She took a step toward him. " I needed to see it, Brian. My house, My world, I needed to see if my bubble I built had really popped."

"Damn it Sarra, You don't need a bubble as long as I am here. I can take care of you."

She swallowed. That was probably true, and never, not in seven years had she longed to lean on someone as much as she longed to lean on Brian now. Yet somehow she knew leaning would never be enough for a man like him. He would want to carry her.

How tempting it was. To just let him take over and belong to him. In everyway.

Her eyes dropped to his lips and for a minute all she could think about was his kisses. He was velvet, and steel, his body powerful and hard and demanding, yet his touch so tender that a single embrace from him laid waste to seven years of brutal memories.

She leaned toward him and a fraction was all it took. Brian pulled her in and the years of terror evaperated into thin air. His lips become her universe, and she kissed him with everything she had, taking and giving at the same time, knowing at last she was ready. With Brian, who felt so diffrent from anything she remembered and so much better than anything she dared to dream she knew she could do it.

She was ready.

"I want you to decide if you want to be with me" Brian said.

She was angry." You mean you always ask for a woman's heart after you take her to bed?"

"I am telling you that in all these years I have only slept with woman who never made me think about a new mrs. Fuller. Whose hearts I never gave a damn about." He paused. "That is the difference.

He turned to the door.

"Wait. I don't know what you want from me?"

Brian couldn't help but stroke her jaw. "Then think about it some more, and for Both of our sakes Sarra I hope you figure it out."