Come to Me Quietly (Closer to You #1)(80)
Author: A.L. Jackson

Flames engulfed the cab and he was drowning.

Falling.

Suffocating.

The bullet wasn’t necessary after all.

He whispered, “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”

Maybe now he’d make it right.

Someone was screaming, the voice piercing through his surrender. Jared just wanted to sleep. Hands searched the fire. Dragging. Pulling. Begging.

Air.

Fists pounded on his chest.

Everything burned, his lungs and his skin.

Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me. I love you. Jared, stay. Please. Stay.

Vomit pooled and gushed from his mouth.

The voice pled, promising him that it would be okay.

Sirens blared and she was gone.

Blackness closed in.

And Jared knew it would never be.

TWENTY-SIX

Jared

Oh, shit.

I hunched over, gripping my stomach. I tripped over the emotion cutting me thin. Realization slammed into me, spinning as this comfort and confusion and inundating warmth. I was pretty sure my heart would beat right out of my chest.

It was her.

I lifted my face to the cool night sky as the memory that had been locked up somewhere in my mind burst free.

It was her.

The world spun as my reality shifted. For years, I’d cursed this fate, hating the life sentence I’d been given. I’d always thought I’d lived as a punishment. An upheaval of questions pitched through my brain, all these voices shouting at me, because I was no longer sure surviving that night had been a penalty.

Nothing made any sense… except that it was her.

Aly.

I sprinted back across the lot and jumped the fence. Three seconds later, I had my bike on the street.

Hours had passed, time lost in the period that my truth was found. Night had grown deep, and the traffic had long since cleared. I raced because I couldn’t f**king stand the distance I’d wedged between us.

I was done hurting her.

When I’d woken up in the hospital all those years ago, I was so pissed off knowing I had failed. The nurse had told me I was lucky that I somehow got out of that car when I did. I hadn’t been lucky. I’d known then that fate had intervened. But not in the way I ever imagined.

It was her.

I flew down the streets, my nerves ratcheting higher with every mile I put under me. When I finally got to the complex, it was quiet as I eased my bike through the gate and parked in the spot that I somehow thought of as my own. I bounded up the stairs and produced the key Christopher had trusted me with so many months ago. Fumbling, I slipped it into the lock. I didn’t bother to knock. One way or another, I had to get to her.

For a fleeting second, I wondered what Christopher would do if we came face-to-face on the other side. Dude would probably kill me if he found me showing my face back around here. I’d take it as it came because hiding was no longer an option.

I burst into the darkened, silent apartment. Christopher’s door sat wide open, like it’d been so many times before. Undoubtedly, the guy was on the prowl.

Aly’d been left alone, again.

Frustrated air puffed from my nose. I didn’t want her to be alone anymore.

Light seeped from beneath her door. I paused in front of it, f**king shaking, because the truth was, I was scared. I was so good at destroying, but clueless when it came to mending the disaster I’d left in my wake. I rapped one knuckle on her door, my heart beating all rough when I placed my hand on the knob. I didn’t wait for an answer. I turned it and let it slowly swing open.

And I just stood there in the doorway, staring at the girl staring back at me. Faint light crept up the walls from the lamp on her dressing table. Her head was cocked up in shock as she sat on the edge of her bed facing out, sitting cross-legged with a large sketch pad balanced on her lap.

Affection rushed through me and I was fisting my hands, trying to keep this insanity under control. Defining Aly had always been impossible. Sexy as all hell, innocent and sweet, keen and unbelievably naive.

This girl was my perfection. Months ago, that’d been my first thought when I looked up from the couch to find her standing there. Never before had someone had such a physical effect on me. I mean, damn, it’d felt just like I’d been struck. I should have known then she hadn’t just impacted me with a shot of lust. The desire and need she’d driven me half-mad with had been so much greater than that.

It’d been truth.

Was I scared of everything my returning stood for?

Yeah.

Because this was real.

Not some f**ked-up fantasy like I’d convinced myself to believe.

Slowly Aly slid the pad from her lap and onto the bed. She blinked, green eyes acute as she watched me with uncertainty. “Jared.”

With the sound of my name on her lips, I broke. In two long strides, I crossed the room and dropped to my knees in front of her.

I was giving in. I was ready for her.

A soundless gasp parted her mouth when I took her face in my hands. Her knees jutted out just over the bed, digging into my sides like a reluctant embrace. Her hair tumbled down my arms in a wave that I wanted to get lost in as I looked up at her. I ran my thumbs under her eyes, capturing the tears that fell.

I struggled to pull a breath into the well of my lungs, and my tongue darted out to wet my lips. I tilted my head to the side, caught in her unwavering gaze. Devotion poured from her. Even after all the shit I’d put her through.

“You saved me,” I whispered, drawing her left hand to my mouth. I kissed along the scar where my life had made its mark. I ran my nose along it, then pressed my face into her palm because I just needed to feel.

God, I needed to feel.

It was warmth and good and the girl. And f**k… if it wasn’t everything.

Aly started trembling as awareness took hold. Slowly she unwound her legs, and I moved back a fraction so she could drape them along my sides.

“How did you know?” I asked.

I felt her pulse accelerate, and she hesitated. “Jared… I… ” She blinked through something that looked like fear.

“Baby, talk to me,” I softly prodded.

She released a weighted breath and slipped both her hands over the tops of mine, which were rested on her thighs. I squeezed her in reassurance. “I never told anyone about that night… maybe because it’d impacted me too much, I don’t know. I mean, I’d tried to tell my mom, but I guess I was just scared.” She kind of shrugged. “That whole week after you got expelled from school, I’d been… ” She frowned. “… unsettled. Everything was so messed up. Your family was wrecked and mine was coming apart at the hinges. I felt like I was losing every single person I cared about.”