Read Online Closer: A Novella by Dannika Dark - Free Book Online Page A

who raised me—was a truck driver and finishing his route on the East Coast. Mom went through her pregnancy living alone, and one night, she went into premature labor in an empty parking lot behind a warehouse. She hadn’t been feeling well all day and was looking for a dealer to give her something to take the edge off. We all knew that mom was a user; that’s something our dad threw in her face a lot during their fights. The pains started coming so fast that she had to slide into the backseat and deliver it herself. The baby was born dead. She got scared and wrapped it in a bag and put it in a dumpster.”
    “Oh my God,” Caroline gasped as she sat up beside him. “That’s awful. Why did she do something like that?”
    “She was scared the cops would blame her for the baby being stillborn because of her addiction. I don’t know what kind of shit was going on in the cosmos that night, but when she got back to the car, there I was, swaddled in a blanket in the front seat. So she took me home and pretended that I was hers. All those years, she wondered if maybe it was just a hallucination from being high on whatever she had been taking that day to get through the pain.”
    “No one found her baby?”
    “There was a blip in the news about a pregnant woman they’d found dead, whose body had gone missing, but nothing about a baby.”
    “Cleaners,” Caroline said.
    She was right. The Breed never allowed one of their own to be taken by humans; they had inside men who worked in hospitals and law enforcement, disposing of all evidence to keep our secret safe from humans. That evidence also included bodies.
    “Yeah. She didn’t mention if anyone had found her baby in the dumpster. Probably not. I’ll never know what happened with my real parents or why I lived. Mom never told a soul, but my dad knew that I wasn’t his. I didn’t look anything like them. He never said anything until I left home; he just disowned me and said that I wasn’t even his son. I guess he thought that my mom had an affair, and sometimes I wonder if that’s why he made her life a living hell. Someone murdered my real mother. That’s what I lifted from the bloodstain on the blanket. Death never leaves; it sticks around like an invisible fingerprint waiting to be dusted.”
    “So you grew up without knowing any Sensors?” she asked in an inquisitive voice.
    “I grew up thinking I was one fucked up human until I hit my late teens and met another Breed.” He stroked his left hand down her arm very slowly, secretly taking pleasure in being able to feel the soft skin of a woman without any pain involved. “You ask a lot of questions, Caroline.”
    The soft feel of a woman’s body sank against him like a security blanket.
    “I like it when you say my name,” she said decidedly. “No one ever calls me that.”
    Kane looked down, taking a deep breath. This reality was so vivid that he couldn’t get over how real she felt in his arms. Her scent reminded him of wildflowers on a hot summer morning.
    “You have a pretty name and I think you need to drop the Carrie nickname. I didn’t like that movie.”
    “Then you can call me Caroline, but no one else can.” Her fingers traced small circles on his stomach and he sucked in a sharp breath. Kane loved the sound of her voice, and having her wedged against him made it feel like she belonged there.
    “How much time do you think I have left?” she asked wistfully.
    “Decades.”
    Kane tenderly stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers. It was a gesture he had always denied himself, but one that never escaped his attention when he watched the physical interaction between other couples. He’d always wanted to be one of those guys who could cup a woman’s face in his hands, stroking her cheeks with his thumbs while kissing her hard and slow. Unfortunately, the gloves made it an impossibility to indulge in such fantasies.
    Her pupils dilated when she looked up at him and his eyes