Read Online Silas by V. J. Chambers - Free Book Online Page A

“If I make
them, will you drink one?”
    “ Of course.” I leaned
against the counter, watching her get two glasses out of the
cupboard.
    She looked up at me. “Look,
Silas, you gotta trust me when I say I’m no good at repeat sex,
okay? It’s better if we just let it go.”
    I swallowed. “I don’t know
if I can.”
    She set down the glasses on the
counter. She was several feet down from me. So close.
    I went to her. “I keep
thinking about you. I think about you a lot.”
    “ It’s only because you’ve
been seeing me a lot.”
    “ No, I don’t think so.” I
touched her chin, turning her face up to me. “I think…”
    I kissed her.
    She opened her mouth to me, her body
pressing into mine. I folded my arms around her, and she was so
small and perfect, like she fit against me.
    I trailed the back of my
knuckles over her neck and shoulder.
    And she pushed me away.
    “ Damn it. What the fuck is
your problem?”
    “ I…”
    “ I’m not cool with that,
okay?” She backed away from me. “You don’t get to kiss me out of
nowhere. Fucking way out-of-line aggressiveness.” Her nostrils
flared. She was shaking. “I think you need to leave.”

 
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SIX
     
    I woke up in the darkness,
and I didn ’t know where I was.
    I’d been dreaming. The awful
dream about Sylvia. The awful dream where she screamed.
    At first I thought I’d woken
up with Sylvia, in her soft, warm bed, and I panicked, because I
wasn’t supposed to fall asleep with her. The rules were clear on
that front. I knew better. But I always wanted to, afterward, with
her in my arms. I always wanted to hold her close and
relax.
    I felt for her next to me, for her
small, sweet body.
    But she wasn’t
there.
    I wasn’t with her. I sat up
in my bed, blinking until I was sure that I saw the familiar
surroundings of my bedroom.
    Not with Sylvia. Dreaming
about Sylvia. Sylvia was dead.
    I was drenched in sweat, and I felt
clammy and afraid.
    I hated that dream.
    I shuddered.
    But it was wrong somehow. It
wasn’t the same dream. Because…
    Because it hadn’t been
Sylvia this time.
    It had been Christa.
    Rolf stalking over to her as
she crawled away from him, her body already broken and
bleeding.
    She was begging him, pleading for him
to stop. Tears were streaming down her face.
    And he didn’t
care.
    He shot her and shot her and shot her.
Her body dancing as the bullets riddled it.
    It was my fault. He’d never
have done it if it hadn’t been for me. I’d made him hate her, and
he had to hurt her after he knew.
    But she’d been stupid,
playing the kinds of games she played with a man like that. She
should never have tested him the way she did. It was her fault too.
She was the one who’d started all of it with me. She had a choice.
She didn’t have to be with me.
    But, no, it had been Christa , not
Sylvia.
    Why had I dreamed about Christa that
way?
    There was no way that Rolf
would ever hurt her. Absolutely no way. He didn’t even know she
existed. He thought I was dead. He’d seen me go out a window seven
stories up. He hadn’t been able to follow Sloane’s car.
    We were safe.
    It seemed cold it my room.
    But my shirt stuck to my back with
sweat.
    I got up and went to the
dresser. In the top drawer, I’d stashed a gun and some bullets.
Methodically, I loaded the gun.
    We were safe. Sloane was safe. I was
safe.
    Christa was…
    Christa was with Griffin and
Leigh. She was fine. Wasn’t she?
    Shit.
    I set the gun down and
stripped off my sweaty pajamas. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a
t-shirt. I slid the gun into the waist of my jeans, right at the
small of my back. I put a lock-picking kit in my front pocket. I
didn’t know if I’d need it, but I might.
    I did a quick perimeter
check, making sure that none of the windows or the doors to the
house had been breached.
    I checked Sloane to make sure that she
was okay.
    She was sleeping on her stomach in her
bedroom, one of her arms dangling off the bed.
    I made