With Every Breath (Slow Burn 4)

Her hands shook when she saw Thomas smile at the cop nearest him and the two shared a laugh. Thomas looked happy. Satisfied. Like he didn’t have a care in the world. How could he be smiling or laughing when he was about to appear on live television to presumably proclaim his innocence and express his gratitude for the cop who’d supposedly tampered with evidence coming forward and admitting his part in sending an innocent man to prison?

Innocent my ass.

She was seething with fury and she quickly got a handle on her rage and forced herself to calm her rioting emotions before Thomas stepped up to the podium. She couldn’t blow it now. She only had one shot at this and she had to pull it off before Thomas selected his first victim. She would not let that happen to another woman. Never again.

She sucked in several steadying breaths, purposely focusing on more pleasant, bland and nondescript thoughts. She immediately shut down the most pleasant thought that crept into her mind. Thomas dead, no longer wearing that smug smile, no longer laughing, never being able to hurt another person again and boarding a one-way trip straight to hell for his appointment with the devil.

He didn’t immediately see her when he stepped to the microphone, his police entourage strategically placing themselves to ensure his protection. She quickly swallowed back the bile rising in her throat at the knowledge that the soulless bastard was being protected by men sworn to bring men like Thomas to justice.

He smiled broadly at the crowd, as though greeting long-lost friends and as if he were expecting a hero’s welcome home. Strangely, the crowd was completely silent. Eerily so. It was as if time stopped as everyone anticipated the purpose of Thomas calling the press conference.

“It is with great joy and relief that I stand before you here today. A travesty of justice has been corrected and I am grateful to the officer who came forward to right the wrong committed against me.”

She was going to be sick. He dared to speak of travesties of justice when he stood there, a free man, exonerated of crimes he was guilty of? It was hard but she forced blankness to her face, an expression of disinterest as if it didn’t matter to her whether or not he was guilty and was here for one reason and one reason only.

She knew the instant he saw her. Felt the sudden intensity of his gaze. He paused in his speech, his chin lifted as if looking beyond her so his gaze encompassed the majority of the crowd. But his eyes were fixed solidly on her. She felt a peculiar sensation, a flutter of awareness in her mind as if he were probing to find his way in.

And as suddenly as it happened, it was gone, and a slight frown marred Thomas’s face before he quickly recovered and once again resumed his speech.

Relief and a keen sense of victory fizzed through her body like a bottle of champagne having the cork popped and the contents bubbling out and over. He hadn’t been able to push past her barriers! She’d felt his attempt, something she’d never even been aware of before. She’d never felt or sensed anything at all when he’d accessed her mind all those years ago.

She was careful not to let her jubilation show and to temper her thoughts of victory and immense satisfaction. He would try again. Of that she had no doubt. And she’d give him that attempt. One more and then she was done here. She’d accomplished what she’d set out to do and she’d baited the trap. All she had to do now was hope he fell neatly into it.

She went rigid when she tuned back into his polished, very practiced recitation of expressing his thanks to everyone who supported him and who fought for him and believed in him blah blah. She’d zoned out until she heard her name. Or rather what used to be her name.

Her gaze caught his and for the first time she looked directly into his eyes, boldly, refusing to look away. And as he spoke, once again she felt that odd fluttering sensation in her head, sharper, more forceful than before. Pain sizzled through her head and she clenched her jaw against the nearly unbearable strain, but her thought patterns never changed, didn’t deviate from what she was focusing on and none of her hatred for the man now saying her name had diminished in the least.

“It was with a heavy heart that I learned that Melissa Caldwell has been the recipient of so much ill will and has been treated poorly by the citizens of this town. I harbor no animosity for Miss Caldwell. I pity her, as you all should too, and she should be granted more understanding. You see, she was but a child then. A mixed-up, confused child who had no family, no home of her own and had been on her own with only herself to rely on since she was fifteen.”

Nausea welled in Eliza’s stomach and it took every ounce of willpower she possessed not to vomit right there on the ground. She was shaking and this time, no attempt at controlling it was successful. She had to keep it together. She should leave now. Her objective had been achieved. But she was frozen to the spot where she stood, unable to turn away without hearing the rest.

Thomas sighed dramatically and affected a pained, sympathetic look of regret.

“She convinced herself she was in love with me,” he said, as if admitting to some heinous crime. “I fear I carry partial blame for that, though that was never my intention or desire. She was attacked on her way home from work very late at night and I happened on the scene and managed to fend off her attackers. I felt responsible for her in a way that an older brother would feel responsibility for his younger sister. I would walk her home because I couldn’t in good conscience allow her to come to harm when she had no one else to look out for her.”

He ran his hand through his hair in faked regret.

“She mistook my kindness for something more and as a result she became obsessed with me. I tried very hard to let her down gently. I didn’t want to hurt her or embarrass her in any way. I explained that even if I felt for her the way she thought she felt for me, it wouldn’t be appropriate. She was far too young and I was much too old for her. I told her that she was too young to be thinking about the kind of relationship she wanted. With me,” he added with a grimace. “That she had all the time in the world and that one day she would meet the man meant for her but that I wasn’t—could never be—him.”

He paused for dramatic affect and once more flickered his eyes in her direction, a thoughtful, puzzled look on his face. She had to act fast. No, she didn’t want him fucking around in her head and yes, she wanted him to know he could no longer control her, but she didn’t want to come across as hating him. She was here to convince him that she came for him. That she still loved him and wanted to be with him. The thought nearly made her gag, but she quickly swallowed and sent a slow smile aimed directly at Thomas, one she put everything she had into making sincere, welcoming, loving and hopeful.