POV ESMERAY
The desert night was a cold, indifferent witness to the storm brewing inside the cramped trailer. After the bonfire, after seeing Jade's hand on his chest and hearing the whispers of a past that didn't include me, I was vibrating with a mixture of fury and a hunger I was ashamed to admit. I had tried to sleep on the moth-eaten sofa, but the silence of the desert was too loud, filled with the phantom roar of engines and the memory of Ruan's steel-blue eyes.
The door creaked open, and the scent of leather, tobacco, and the dry desert wind flooded the small space. I didn't have to look up to know it was him. Ruan's presence was a physical weight, a magnetic pull that made the air in the trailer feel too thin to breathe. He locked the door behind him, the heavy click of the
