Dangerously Mine

Chapter Four: Ghosts

Emily's POV

I thrashed, kicking back hard with my heel connecting with a shin.

“Ow! Goddammit, Em, always so feisty,” a voice growled in my ear.

A voice I knew.. a voice that made my blood run cold for a completely different reason.

He loosened his grip just enough for me to twist around. The dim light from the streetlamp caught his face... the smirk I’d grown to despise, the cold eyes that had haunted my nightmares.

Kyle. Kyle f*****g Ramsey!

My ex.. the human embodiment of a mistake.

“Miss me, baby?” he sneered, his breath hot against my face.

My mind went into a total system reboot. How? How was he here? Of all the towns in all the world, he had to walk into mine. I sold my dad’s house and moved a thousand miles to get away from this creep!

“How did you find me?” The words burst out of me, sharp and panicked.

He just laughed lowly.

“A little birdie told me my favorite girl skipped town. Didn’t think you could hide from me, did you?” He tried to force a sloppy kiss on my cheek. I jerked my head away in disgust.

“Get off me, Kyle!”

His amusement vanished and his fingers tangled in my hair, yanking my head back painfully.

“Don’t be like that,” he spat, his face inches from mine. “We’ve got unfinished business, you and I.”

“Let her go.”

The voice was authoritative and totally unexpected.

Both of our heads snapped toward the entrance.

Blake Beaumont stood there, silhouetted against the streetlights. His hands were shoved in his pockets with his posture relaxed. He looked every inch the arrogant rich boy but right then, he looked like a damn guardian angel. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the people…

Kyle’s grip on me loosened in his surprise.

“Well, well,” he scoffed, recovering quickly. “Who’s this? Your new rich boy toy, Em?”

Blake didn’t even flinch. A slow dangerous smirk spread across his face.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes, I know who you are.’ So I’m only going to say this once. Skedaddle.”

Skedaddle? Who even says that? But the way he said it with that icy calm made it sound like the most threatening word in the English language.

Kyle hesitated. I could feel the conflict in him... the desire to prove himself warring with the instinctual recognition of a more dangerous predator. Blake took a single, deliberate step forward and that was all it took.

Kyle shoved me away from him.

“This isn’t over,” he hissed at me, his eyes blazing with promise. “You’re gonna see me real soon, Em. Count on it.”

He slunk out of the alley, melting into the darkness and the second he was gone, the bravado drained out of me, leaving me shaky and cold. I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to stop trembling.

Blake’s eyes were on me, intense and searching.

“Who the hell was that?”

“No one,” I said, too quickly and my voice sounded thin and reedy. “It was no one. Just… a misunderstanding.”

He raised a single, disbelieving eyebrow.

“A misunderstanding? He had his hands all over you. Looked like a pretty clear understanding from where I was standing.”

Annoyance flared, cutting through the fear.

“And why were you standing there? Are you stalking me now? Is this part of your ‘make her life miserable’ master plan?”

A flash of guilt? irritation?... crossed his face and he looked away, running a hand through his perfectly messy hair.

“I wasn’t stalking you. I was just… walking. I needed air.” He sighed and then his gaze locked back on me. It was different this time.. softer and more confused.

He just stared.. and stared.

“What?” I finally snapped, unnerved. “Do I have something on my face?”

“We knew each other,” he said with his voice quieter now. “A long time ago. You, me and Bernard. We used to play together in the summers. I remember now.”

A memory, fuzzy and warm, surfaced with three kids building a fort in my mom’s backyard. I pushed it down.

“Yeah. So? We were kids.”

“We made vows,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. A faint, almost nostalgic smile touched his lips. “We swore we’d all be friends forever. And you… you said you were going to marry me one day. You made me pinky-swear on it.”

Heat flooded my cheeks. Oh god. He remembered that? I remembered it too, suddenly and vividly. It was a silly game, a childhood crush I’d completely forgotten about. I wanted the alley to open up and swallow me whole.

“We were ten,” I said with my voice tight with embarrassment. “It was children’s play. It didn’t mean anything.”

“We stole a kiss once,” he said with his eyes glinting with mischief now. “Behind the old oak tree. You ran away and told your mom I had cooties.”

That was it.. I had reached my maximum capacity for humiliating childhood flashbacks.

“Okay! Wow. Memory lane is closed for renovations. Goodnight, Blake. Thanks for the… assist.”

I didn’t wait for a reply. I turned on my heel and practically sprinted out of the alley. I didn’t look back but I could feel his eyes on me the whole way.

I power-walked the entire way home with my head on a swivel, jumping at every shadow and every rustle of leaves. Kyle was here.. he’d found me.

I fumbled with my keys, finally getting the door unlocked and throwing myself inside. I slammed it shut and engaged every lock, leaning against the cool wood, my breath coming in ragged gasps.

He’s here. Kyle is here!

With him back in town, I was more than screwed. I was completely f****d! If he opened his mouth, if he told anyone about what happened, about why I really left… my fresh start would be over before it even began.

***

The next day, I dragged myself to class. My one and only class that, of course, I shared with a certain dark-haired, smirking complication.. Blake.

I slid into a seat as far from Blake as possible and buried my nose in my textbook, pretending to be deeply fascinated by… whatever it was. My brain was too busy screaming in panic to actually read the words.

I could feel his stare but I refused to look. I focused on the professor’s droning voice, on the highlighter in my hand.. on anything but him.

My willpower crumbled after ten minutes and I risked a tiny, furtive glance in his direction.

My eyes never made it to him.. they snagged on the large window next to him and the face pressed against the glass outside.

Kyle.. he was just standing there on the lawn, staring right into the classroom. Right at me! A wicked triumphant smirk was plastered on his face as he lifted a hand and gave me a slow creepy little finger-wave.

My blood turned to ice and my textbook slid from my numb fingers and hit the floor with a loud thwack that echoed in the quiet lecture hall. Every head, including Blake’s, turned to look at me.

I saw Blake follow my petrified gaze to the window and his brows drew together in confusion but by the time he looked outside, Kyle was already melting back into the crowd of students passing by.

Blake’s eyes snapped back to me with a question in them. He must have thought I was staring at him. He raised an eyebrow, a silent, cocky ‘can I help you?’

I ripped my gaze away with my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest. I stared unseeingly at my desk with my hands trembling. I couldn’t breathe. He was toying with me.. letting me know he could get to me anytime, anywhere.

With Kyle back in town, my disaster was no longer a possibility. It was a promise and if he revealed my dark past, the life I was trying so desperately to rebuild would shatter into a million pieces…!