Trust In Lust

by Rhylie Matthews

He put a hand down on each side then lowered his head and I resisted the urge to climb on his back. I’d gotten used to his size years ago, but it was times like this it really struck me. He looked like a pony down on his hands and knees like that. A giant moody pony.

  I’d definitely ride that.

  I did a couple of sweeps and tried not to laugh when he angrily grabbed a stick and threw it in the hole. My foot twitched with a need to kick him in the ass and topple him in. Maybe if I knew it was safe? Definitely if I knew it was safe. I smothered another laugh and looked around again. I needed to focus and stop using his ass as a distraction from the hole.

  When I looked back, he jerked his head toward it with a questioning glare.

  I’m not sure what he expected, I couldn’t feel Hicks, but the buzzing on my skin had lessened, which I took to mean he was further away. I closed my eyes anyway and focused. The only thing still lingering, was the slight warning from earlier. I opened them and shrugged.

  Confusion washed over him in my mind and he frowned up at me.

  I rolled my eyes then waved down at the hole, nodding before he got even more agitated. He didn’t do confusion well; I, on the other hand, was used to it. I may not know what the hell was going on, but he saw Hicks go down and the only threat out here was down that hole. So that’s where we were going. One plus one equaled two, right?

  Worry quickly replaced his confusion, and I motioned to the gaping hole of death for him to get on with it.

  He shrugged, then raised up and sat on the edge. He twisted his upper body around, planted his palms on the ground, then flipped. He held himself up, biceps bulging, his enormous bulk hovering in the hole before meeting my eyes.

  I tapped a rhythm on my thigh with the barrel of my gun while I watched; a nervous habit I’d yet to kick.

  A soft sympathetic smile graced his lips before he held up two fingers and then lowered himself down.

  Fuck. I glanced around the rock yard one more time and then knelt down and leaned forward.

  He was hanging, kicking his legs out around him. I tilted my head to the side while I tried to figure out what he could possibly be trying to accomplish, but came up empty.

  “Look, beefy barbie, now’s not exactly the time for cheer practice,” I hissed.

  He stopped and looked up, scowling. “I’m trying to find a fucking wall, dipshit.”

  “To do what with, exactly?”

  He looked at me like I was an idiot.

  “You going to scale it down?” I asked sarcastically. “Because, it’s pitch black and you weigh damn near three hundred pounds, genius. Or did you just plan on spiderman’ing your freight train lookin’ ass down it?”

  His head fell between his biceps and his shoulders shook with laughter. “I hate you so much right now.”

  “Uh huh, I bet. Now, if you’re done with the acrobatics, can we get this over with?”

  He brought his head back up and the mischievousness smile on his face, mixed with the glint in his eyes, had me shaking my head immediately.

  “Of course.” He winked and, in the same instant, let go.

  My heart skipped a few good beats as I watched him drop and disappear, grinning, into the inky blackness.

  Then there was nothing.

  No noise. No light. No Sutton. Yeah, that wasn’t helping me want to go down there. How could someone that big not make one sound when they hit the ground?

  I bent down further and squinted into the pit; he’d landed, right? My stomach rolled, and I started to sweat as the mental image of a bottomless pit took root in my mind. The cool wispy feeling at my spine hadn’t gotten worse, so nothing had gone wrong yet, but it was hard to feel my other ‘feelings’ past my own fear of dark depths. And I only had two minutes before I had to jump down after him.

  I checked my watch before I sat down, moved my ass to the edge, and swung my feet over to wait.

  It didn’t take long for my knuckles to ache from the grip I had on the ledge. It was peaceful here, alone amongst the piles of sand, stone, and upturned earth. Almost serene; unlike the storm that raged within me as I sat on the literal edge of the only trigger I’d never been able to fight against. Too bad it wasn’t even breakfast yet, tequila would be great right about now. But the balancer kept my sixes in check, and Sutton’s constant stream of worrying from below grounded me and reminded me I wasn’t alone.

  Twenty seconds.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and let my gun rest above my breast. May as well get it over with. I leaned forward and peeked down. My stomach pitched, and I quickly leaned back and looked up at the sky, blinking long slow blinks. No. Nope.

  I forced my eyes to stay open and took one last deep breath; I flipped the safety on, just in case.

  I knew he’d catch me, but that safety net didn’t guarantee I wouldn’t shoot myself in the boob. I’d never live that down.

  I was procrastinating, I knew, but fuck. Couldn’t he have made some noise, any noise, to give me an idea of how far down it was? Then I wouldn’t care. Hell, I’d swan dive down; I didn’t give a shit how far down as long as I could see the bottom. But jumping into a dark hole you can’t see the bottom of and have no idea how deep it was? No, just no.

  My heart kicked up another notch, and I internally screamed at myself for that train of thought. Don’t think; trust. Fuck this.

  I locked my jaw and pushed off the ledge.

  Turns out I didn’t have to worry about screaming. My heart lodged itself in my throat as every muscle tightened, rebelling against the free fall. The granola bar from earlier threatened a reappearance, and I’d barely shifted into position for him to catch me when I landed, hard, in arms that felt like steel.

  The sudden impact jarred my bones and knocked what little air I had left out. Concrete would have been a softer landing.

  He pulled me into his chest as I struggled with the first couple of breaths and gasped quietly for air. My nose brushed against his neck and I breathed the comforting scent of him in while his hand traveled up and down my back in swift brisk strokes as I caught my bearings.

  The tightness in my chest slowly eased, and I drew in a long, deep breath. There’s nothing quite like having the wind knocked out of you. I didn’t remember his arms ever being that hard before; maybe I should quit dragging him to the gym with me so much?

  I patted him on the chest to let him know I was good. Sore, but good. His arm tightened around my back before he dropped my legs and the side of my body slid down the front of his as he lowered me to the ground.

  He kept me pressed against him and his free hand landed on my stomach. I covered it with my own as I looked around us. It was like standing in a closet with the light off. Except the closet had walls. This felt endless. Complete darkness surrounded us and I looked up to see how far above us the hole was. A small spot about 20 feet up shone just enough that I could see it, but none of the light made it to us. How had he made that landing so quietly? It was almost two stories up. I gripped his hand harder and looked away, not wanting to think too hard on that.

  His fingers dug into my stomach and his arm around my back tightened as he hugged me to him. Threads of worry lit up the air around us in my mind and I knew I had to get my shit together before he lost his. While I tended to internalize my freak outs, his were very much external.

  We didn’t have time for that. We normally hung back and followed at a distance; flying blind was kind of our specialty. But if we waited any longer, we risked losing him. I sighed and bumped him lightly with my hip. We needed to go.

  His worry fizzled out and was quickly replaced with anger and resentment. Yeah, I didn’t like this either, big guy. The arms engulfing me squeezed lightly, then fell away. Our moment was over; it was time to focus.

  I swung around behind him and pushed my hand up the back of his vest and under his shirt again. My palm rested lightly against his soft skin and a shiver ran down his body. Heat washed over me and a slight throb started up.

  I rolled my
eyes. He might be twenty-nine but I’d swear he had the hormones of a teenager. They were all over the place and now was not the time for him to be that kind of excited. I slid my hand across his back to his side and pinched him as hard as I could. The muscles under my fingers tightened but a low grunt was my only satisfaction before his vest pulling on my hand let me know he’d started walking.

  I followed behind him closely, my gun resting against my thigh, and let him guide us step after step through the darkness blind. Well, I was anyway; I couldn’t even see Sutton right in front of me, and only his emotions flared in my mind. I knew without a doubt he could see in the dark now because this wasn’t normal. He moved gracefully through the tunnel, weaving around unknown obstacles, not once tripping or even so much as stubbing his toe. The tingling along my skin got worse the deeper we went, and after about 200 yards it felt like my skin was alive.

  My hand tugged my arm to the right, and I sidestepped that way, following him. My elbow brushed against something hard and I jerked it back in close to me, thankful for my sleeve. There was no way in hell I wanted to touch anything down here.

  We went another twenty yards before he slowed and came to a stop. He shifted forward and a foreboding weight settled in my stomach. I pressed my fingertips into his back and he froze instantly. I don’t know what he’d been about to do, but whatever it was would have been bad. I felt a deep breath release from him and then three fingers pressed into my forearm.

  Three paths. Tunnels? I wish I could fucking see something!

  When we started walking off to the right, I closed my eyes to ‘do my thing’. Five yards in, the tingling sensation in my arms eased and there were no other warning signs. I pulled my hand back a little against his vest, using the tightness of it to stop him. We were going the wrong way.

  We turned around and headed back. The stinging increased and when he veered right again, my stomach tightened and grew heavy. That familiar chill made its way up my spine again, and I pressed my index finger harder against him. He slowed, heeding my warning, but kept going.

  The further we went, the more my skin calmed. But the weight in my stomach grew heavier with each step, and the chill quickly turned to ice. I had four fingers pressed into his skin at this point, and my nerves were on edge. Something wasn’t right.

  The colder the sensation, the worse the threat; five fingers—one to five scale. And if the skin thing was Hicks, he wasn’t even down this tunnel. But the weight of dread that had settled in my stomach worried me. That meant this was going to end badly. If we kept going, something was going to go wrong. Very, very wrong.

  My fingers shook as I held them against him, and my shoulders tightened as we kept going.

  He turned right, and ice encased my spine, squeezing like a vice. I dug my fingernails into his back and gasped when a sharp pain shot through my stomach that caused me to double over.

  He instantly took a knee while I fought for control. But it was too late, I could barely breathe.

  He reached back and ran his hand up and down my leg, comforting me, and tried to help calm me down.

  But there was no calming down. My heart raced as every muscle in my body slowly locked up. My sixes were shutting me down and keeping me from going any farther. If I didn’t listen to their warnings, they stopped me on their own.

  His hand left my leg and pulled my hand from his back. I tried standing but couldn’t force my body to listen. Having control taken away was terrifying. I shook as a tremor ran through me, and I tried not to think about the last time this happened. The burn of the bullet piercing my chest. Sutton’s horrified face painted in blood splatter.

  The back of his head brushed against my chest and brought me back to the present as he slid his back under me, wrapped an arm around my waist, and lifted me over his shoulder.

  I hung, still frozen, as he spun back around and quickly backed us out.

  I couldn’t move. I couldn’t see. I could only wait and trust him to get me out of here. Panicking wouldn’t help. His bruising grip on my hip kept me grounded as we retreated until my sixes deemed us a safe enough distance away and released their hold on me.

  The pressure eased, and as my body temperature climbed, the paralyzing lock on my muscles relaxed. But the further we got away, the worse the buzzing along my skin grew.

  Hicks wasn’t the only threat down here. Hell, he wasn’t anywhere near as dangerous as whatever that was.

  Sutton knelt and lowered me to the ground. As soon as my feet hit, his hands found my waist, and he eased back until my head laid on his shoulder.

  “What the fuck was that?” His warm breath blew against my ear, across the still chilled skin of my neck, and a shiver followed in its wake.

  I shook my head against him. We didn’t have time for that explanation.

  “We need to figure out what’s going on and get out of here.” My tone brooked no argument, and I didn’t care if Hicks heard me. I was ready to get this over with, and I needed to get Sutton out of this cavern of death. I pushed against his chest as I stood. “Now.”

  He released his hold and stood but grabbed the shoulder of my vest and curled his fingers under the strap.

  I turned my back to the way we came and tried to get my bearings. Right, nothing. Then straight. Straight was bad.

  Left it was.

  I took off that direction only to be stopped by the fist still wrapped around the shoulder of my vest. My body jerked as he yanked back on it and spun me around.

  Okay, we all knew I had absolutely no sense of direction. I tried though, damn it. I marched off in that direction and dragged him behind me like a blind dog on a leash.

  I had no idea where I was going; I just knew it was this way and hoped I didn’t run smack into a rock wall. Less than a minute later, my vest was lifted and I damn near came off the ground as he moved me around something and set me back down. Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have been so impatient.

  Before long, my skin started tingling and that familiar chill ran up my spine again so I stepped to the side to let him take the lead.

  His grip on my vest loosened and his fingers trailed down my arm as he pressed by me and brought my hand to his belt.

  I slid my palm up his back and pressed one finger more firmly against him to let him know the threat was there but the feeling of dread wasn’t a weight in my stomach so I knew we’d be ok.

  We carried on silently, controlling our breathing, and moving slowly to conceal ourselves within the darkness. Both sensations intensified as we progressed and by the time I had four fingers pressed into his back, my skin was alive. No longer was it just itching and tingling, it felt as if it were going to crawl off my body. But with four fingers down, the threat was close, and any sound could get us killed. You’d be surprised how loud scratching your leg actually was in dead silence.

  The complete darkness kept us from seeing anything and I hated it. Hated knowing the threat was that close, but unable to do anything but wait it out. It fucked with my head.

  My body started to burn and the cold that had been working its way further and further up spread and started swirling itself around my spine. I set my jaw against the pain from my skin and refused to let it affect me physically. I pressed the fifth finger down and he stopped, but stayed still. Five fingers down, immediate danger. Unlike the last time, there was no sense of unease inside me and my lack of nails digging into him let him know that as well.

  He knew we were here. But I knew we’d win. Or at least, as of right now, make it out alive. The same thing couldn’t be said for Hicks.

  Chapter Five

  So we waited.

  I closed my eyes and concentrated on listening for the slightest sound. There wasn’t anything to distract me, even Sutton’s emotions in my mind were calm and focused, but it was like turning the radio down to see street signs better while driving. It just worked.

  The silence seemed thicker now, heavier somehow, with the knowledge we were no longer alone. My pulse was almost
deafening as my heart raced from the adrenaline pumping through me, but there was nothing else. No movement. No footsteps. No whisper of fabric from clothing slightly shifting. I couldn’t even hear him breathe. And if Sutton couldn’t either, he’d definitely had training of some kind.

  It’d taken me years of training with Sutton for us to conceal ourselves at this level; who was this guy?

  “I know you’re here, little monster,” he said gleefully in a deep sing-song voice.

  Sutton tensed and everything inside me froze at his creepy arrogance and the condescension in his voice when he said ‘little monster’.

  Hicks was to our right, only a few feet away. I slowly extended my arm and brought my gun up aiming in the general direction his voice had been.

  “I can feel you, like a disease, crawling through my veins.”

  He was in front of Sutton now, and I felt the muscles of his back flex as he raised his weapon quietly.

  My stomach sank. Shit. Hicks had intent now.

  I dug my nails into his back softly and together we dropped into a crouch. He shifted at the last minute, dislodging my hand.

  I quickly pushed it back where it was supposed to be. We had a system; we didn’t break contact unless shit was about to hit the fan. If my hand came off his back, it was either to shoot or run.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever felt one quite like you before. This should be fun.” He was behind me now, excitement clear in his tone.

  He was taunting, wanting a reaction that he wouldn’t get. Not from us. I just stayed there and maintained my soft even breathing.

  He could feel me.

  Was it the same way I could ‘feel’ him? Or could he...

  The thought of him being able to find us, how I found others, caused me to break out in a sweat and I prayed that wasn’t what he meant. People lit up in my head like fucking Christmas lights in the dark, making them the easiest of targets.

  God help us if that was the case. Because he’d circled us without us even knowing and that, more than his taunting or threats, is what scared me. Made me think the latter was a likely possibility.