Crash and Burn (1)

that's because you can't run forever

♚ ♛

WRENCHING FROM HIS WARM EMBRACE was the hardest thing to do.

My head whirled with old memories, crippling memories that I'd never be able to escape. I took a step away from him, aware of his wary gaze on me.

With reckless curls and worried green eyes, he slid the gun into his pocket. "Lacey..."

"Why did you do that?" I breathed, glancing down at the motionless man. Blood slithered into cracks of gravel, catching in the slight light rising around us.

I'd seen it a million times, but Soren had seemed so much like him that it rattled every nerve in my body.

"Why?" I asked again, breathless and desperate. "Why did you do that?"

Maybe it was irrational or maybe it was a trigger, but as the scene flashed by me again, my breathing quickened.

Breathe.

I staggered away from him in fear. "You..."

Soren took one fucking step in my direction. He yanked at my sweatshirt, swung me around and then I was pinned to the brick wall. "This sounds nothing like the fucking gratitude I was expecting."

As he pressed both palms to the wall, trapping me in place, an indecipherable emotion capsized me. In those mesmerizing green eyes, Soren wielded something violent and vicious.

I couldn't be afraid of Soren.

Licking my lips, I held his gaze strong.

His breath fanned along my cheeks as he inched closer. "No? I don't even get a thank you from the princess?"

"That was reckless," I whispered. "You killed someone that we could have handled. You killed someone that could've had information."

Soren froze.

It was kill or be killed. I couldn't be angry about Soren killing him, I couldn't be angry at Soren for triggering memories I'd fought to keep buried, but I—

"He mentioned you."

—I could be angry at him for being able to extinguish every flame in my body with only three words.

"He knew you," he said softly. It wasn't a question, it was a mild accusation.

Fuck. Diverting Soren from that secret, my voice rose. "Soren, you didn't even stop to think. You didn't even think about how he could've helped us. He cou—"

"Well, I'm fucking sorry, Lacey," Soren hissed, his eyes narrowing. I scowled when his chest pressed against me, fighting off the urge to punch him. "We haven't exactly had the time to come up with a plan together."

"But we—"

His lips came down on mine.

I gasped in surprise, my lips parting for him. Soren didn't waste a breath before deepening the kiss. Tongues dancing together, chests glued together and a dead body beside us, we descended into a careless rollercoaster of grunts and groans.

When he pulled away, the early morning light fluttered along his dark lashes. "It's one thing after the other with you," Soren murmured, sliding a hand up to my cheek. "I haven't even been able to think since I found you."

Rage crept up on me like whiplash. This was my fault? Shoving at his shoulders, I glared at him. "This one was all you. You have no idea what you're doing, do you?"

Who the fuck was Soren Calloway?

"I don't?" His cynical, crooked grin told me all he wanted to without even saying it. "You think I have no idea what I'm doing? You would be fucking dead right now."