Bastian's Storm (Surviving Raine 2)

I’d feel good when it was done. Not completely right again, but good.

Raine would be here alone. Whoever came into the condo could come back again.

All thoughts of leaving her alone vanished. With the window barely cracked open, I chain-smoked the rest of the night. As the storm passed and the sunrise over the ocean began to light up the balcony window, I found a bottle of Febreze and sprayed it around the kitchen.

If Raine noticed, she didn’t say anything.

I was on guard the whole next day though it probably didn’t make any difference. With my paranoia still at its highest, I considered following Raine to her classes. I knew she’d be seriously pissed if she caught me hanging around the campus. Still, if whoever had been inside the condo had been looking for her, she was vulnerable whenever she was away from me.

I made a mental list of who might have been inside the condo. The most obvious answer was one of Franks’ men, maybe even one sent to kill us both. As likely an idea as it seemed, I didn’t think it was right. John Paul was still in close contact with Landon, and he would know if Franks had ordered a hit on me. Landon would have given me some kind of warning; I was sure of that.

Wasn’t I?

The only other person I could think of was Landon himself, but like John Paul, it wasn’t his style. If he wanted something from me, he’d just come out and demand it.

So who, then?

I had no idea. As I watched Raine walk out the door, I couldn’t stand the idea of her going to class alone, and I ended up following the bus on my bike. I hung out around her classrooms all day, trying to keep myself to the shadows. Thankfully, it was Wednesday, and she didn’t have any evening labs.

She almost caught me when she headed to the university cafeteria for lunch, but I managed to duck behind a tree before she could see me. It was a good thing, too—I was fairly sure that conversation wouldn’t have been a civil one. By three in the afternoon, she was back on the bus and heading home. I sped past and beat her back to the condo.

We ate and she talked about her day. I smiled a lot without saying anything. Every time she asked me what was up, I changed the subject. When we went to bed, I held her against me but couldn’t get past my own head enough to even fuck her.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?”

“I’m good,” I lied. “Maybe I’m coming down with something. It’s fucking spring break all over the damn beach. I probably caught something from a tourist.”

She wasn’t buying it, but she dropped her line of questioning.

At three in the morning, I couldn’t sleep.

Again.

The dream that had awakened me played back through my head.

We are on the beach, and the helicopter has landed just a few hundred yards away. Raine’s stomach is rounded, and she places her hands over the top of it as she looks down and smiles. She waves at me as she gets in the front seat of the helicopter, and it starts to rise up and away from me. I raise my hand to wave back, but she’s already gone.

My breath caught in my throat, and Raine stirred, opening her eyes slightly.

“What’s wrong?” she asked immediately.

I let my eyes drift to hers and shrugged one shoulder.

“Nothing,” I muttered.

“Bad dream?”

She knew me way too well.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Are you going to tell me about it?”

I didn’t want to. Talking about it was like living it over again. I also didn’t want her to know how much being back in civilization where people could find us easily scared the shit out of me. I also knew her patience was going to w

ear out, and eventually I would have to tell her. Telling her about the dream would be far less complicated than telling her I thought someone was stalking us.

Might as well get it over with.