Way of the Shadows (Shadow Agents 8)

Thomas nodded.

“Why? It’s my life!” Anger was cracking through her.

“But other lives were on the line. We thought... We thought your abduction was an isolated incident.” He tried to reach out for her, but she flinched back. “I didn’t know there were other girls involved, not until we found those pictures.”

Had Mercer known? Was that why he’d been so adamant she investigate the senator? “Tell me everything.”

“Clearance—”

“Don’t!” How dare he throw that up to her? “You just made love to me. There were no barriers between us. It was you and it was me.” She heaved out a breath. Her heart wasn’t beating slowly anymore. It was thundering in her chest. “I’ve had a void in my mind for years. A void that you could fill. All you had to do was speak. Just...tell me.” She was about to rip that cover in two with her grip. “Do it now, Thomas. Tell me. I’m not crazy. I remember your voice, I remember—”

“You were in the woods.” His voice was flat. Ice cold. “I heard your screams, so I ran to investigate.”

Her knees almost gave way. She grabbed for the mantel and kept one hand around the cover that shielded her.

His hands were fists at his sides. “You were fleeing in the woods. You were hysterical, crying, saying that a man was chasing you.” The faint lines around his mouth deepened in the firelight. “Hunting you.”

Goose bumps rose on her skin.

“I didn’t see anyone, and you... You were too pale. Your pupils were dilated, and I thought—I thought you were on drugs. At first.”

She could only shake her head. But...the doctors had thought she’d been drugged. Rohypnol. Since it could cause memory loss, that had been the drug they suspected the most. And since it could be untraceable in the blood after the passa

ge of time, they’d figured her abductor must have given it to her.

“Then I saw your hands. You had bruises around your wrists. As if you’d been tied up. Restrained.”

Her lungs were starving for air, even though she was breathing as deeply as she could.

“I never expected to find you in those woods. Saving you... It wasn’t my mission, but... I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt you.”

“They found me in the cabin.” His story wasn’t making sense to her. She’d been in the cabin, not out in the open, in the woods.

“Because I took you back there.”

She stumbled away from the mantel. “I was tied up! You did that to me?”

He tried to grab her, but even though she’d craved his touch before, she couldn’t stand it right then.

And she needed clothes.

Clothes!

She spun away from him. Grabbed a flashlight and then she was running up the stairs.

“Noelle!”

Her world was shaking, and she wasn’t going to stand there, naked. She shoved open the door to her bedroom. Her flashlight hit on the bed. It was so cold in there. Icy.

She grabbed for her suitcase, even as she heard him thundering up the stairs behind her. She yanked on her jeans. Pulled on a T-shirt. Didn’t slow down for underwear. Her teeth were chattering. So cold. So cold because—

The window was open.

Noelle froze.

“We’ve started, and we aren’t stopping,” Thomas said as he stormed into her room. “Mercer is going to fire my ass, but I don’t care. I won’t hold back with you any longer. After what happened tonight, I can’t.”

Her flashlight was on the window. “Why is it open?” It shouldn’t be open. It had been locked when they’d left before.