Read Online Rage's Story (Vanish Book 1) by Elle Michaels - Free Book Online Page A

leg. I’m rolling, the world passes between grey concrete and deep blue sky.
    It stops. My eyes feel like they’re spinning. I feel something against my cheek, warm, clammy. I grab it instinctively. A hand. Held in mine, held against my cheek. The two copies of a frame I see before me slowly merge together. She’s leaned forward over me, brown hair dangling between us. Auna. Oh my God.
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
    11.
     
    I want to ask her where she’s been, who took her, who deserves the revenge stewing in the pit of my gut, but a crooked grin sneaks its way across her face, same as I saw it the night we slept together, from across the room, contagious. There’s heat swelling through my body, confused, whether rage or love, I can’t distinguish. I want to fight for her. I want to hold her. My body is sore from the tumble, but nothing is broken. I lift my head slightly, just enough to survey her. She seems okay, I don’t see any serious damage. She’s a little dirty, some filth smudged across her sweaty, olive skin. Her hair seems a touch greasy, but lovely, lifting on a passing wind.
    The damage is in her stare. My eyes meet hers and I don’t only see it, I can feel it. It aches, and she’s fighting against it. Trauma, threatening. I’m still a bit woozy, but I reach up and grab her upper arms, I hold her. Auna. She’s warm to the touch, where my hands wrap around her thin arms, where her hands cradle my face. So warm. Maybe I’m cold. But she doesn’t flinch when I rub my hands along her, only falls into me, laying atop my chest.
    “Are you okay, Wes?” she asks.
    “Me?” I reply.
    She lifts her head, her nose teasing the end of mine. Our eyes lock, her lips slam into mine, and it’s the same moment again, every time we kiss, a timeline unhinged, erasing what other clock hands tick across the numbers, broken, tumbling, set free. With my eyes shut tightly, I see her behind them, golden and shimmering, all what glory I’ve wrapped her in, like a blanket she cuddles within.
    She lifts, I feel my lips reaching forth for more. She looks into my eyes again. Hers well, wetness threatening to spill. I wrap my large hands around her face, my thumbs already resting on her cheeks to wipe away what tears may come. There’s a hell behind her eyes, stoked flames raising terror. She’s gone through something. Something terrible. Auna. I’m sorry. I never should’ve left you. After tonight, I’ll never leave you again.
    She helps me to my feet and onto my bike. It’s a little scratched, but luckily nothing destroyed. I built it well. She hops on behind me and wraps her arms around my torso and squeezes. I feel her soft cheek pressed against my shoulder, her breasts warm against my back. I rev the engine, then I release the break and we fire into the street, back towards her apartment.
    Her head lifts, her lips meet my neck and suckle, she moans softly. She’s missed it as much as I have, this closeness, our salvation.
    Claps sound in the distance, at first indistinguishable. I listen to a few more, following quickly one after the other. Gunshots. The bullshit that’s been piling here in Westwood Valley reached the fan. Aston, Al, Evin, the Devil’s Right Hands, who knows. Blasting away at one another. No better night for escape.
    But I have one final task. It has to be clean. I can run, but he can follow. I can’t watch over my shoulder for the rest of my life, not with her. It’s too dangerous. I couldn’t risk it, risk Auna in danger.
    We reach her building, it’s a silhouette against a dark sky, the remnant of the sunset finally evaporated for the stars to flicker in. I park alongside, at one end of an alley. I feel her body limp behind me. You saved me, now it’s my turn. I collect her in my arms, light, still warm, but wavering. Her weak arms wrap around my neck and hold her body close. I rise the stairs and find her door ajar. Within, all is as it was, even Aston’s liquor bottle lays spilled out on