PowerLess: Anti-Hero Game: Power Chain Book Three

by Chelsea Camaron

“Absolutely.”

  “Alright, see you in the morning.” She waved as she turned the corner. “Oh!” I heard her say, my head popping up.

  Dane came around the corner holding two plastic bags, and as the smell drifted over my stomach growled. I’d forgotten lunch, working right through it, and he brought me food. My heart jolted.

  He held up the bags. “Thought I’d bring dinner to you. Since I knew you’d be busy.”

  Cora, behind Dane, gave me two thumbs up with a wide go get ‘em, smile and left.

  It was just he and I. As much as I shouldn’t like it. As much as I should tell him to just go. As much as I didn’t want to let him in even a little, this was sweet and thoughtful.

  My gramma always said for me never to look a gift horse in the mouth, and I was heeding her advice.

  “Hey,” I said softly, standing as he came up to my desk. He leaned over and kissed the top of my head, a gesture that took me off guard and it took everything I had not to gasp. Another something sweet.

  “I got spaghetti from the place up the road. I heard they have the best bread,” he said, pulling out containers and setting them on the desk.

  “Thank you. That was sweet of you.”

  His hand paused for a moment. It was only a second like what I said meant something to him, but he closed it down quickly. While I wanted to pry, I didn’t. If he wanted to share, he would. Maybe.

  After setting all the food out and opening up the packages, we ate. We talked. We laughed. We had a great time together.

  And in a way it hurt knowing how good this felt and not being able to have it. It was within my reach, but I’d never be able to grasp it. Yeah, that hurt.

  He cleaned up while I went over to my wheel. I wasn’t lying. These pieces had to be done tonight so they could dry. I opened up the five-gallon bucket and grabbed a lump of clay, lifting it out and forming it in a ball.

  Dane turned just as I slammed the piece down on the board.

  “Damn. And here I thought you liked clay,” he joked, and my lips dipped. It was funny.

  “It needs to stick to the wheel good. I’ve found the best way is to throw it as hard as I can and then work from there.” I took a seat on my roller chair.

  “Would you mind if I watched you for a bit?”

  My lower lip went between my teeth. It would be rude of me to tell him to go, that no he couldn’t watch me. He brought me dinner and was super sweet to me. I thought for a brief second about it.

  Truth was, I wanted him to see me. Watch me. I wanted him to understand me and everything around me. I wanted to lean on him and him to be an anchor. While I knew none of that could happen, this could.

  He could watch me mold and bend the clay. Then, at least, he’d have a small part of me. That I could give him.

  “Absolutely.”

  His smile was bright, stealing my breath from me. Amazing what an emotion could give off. Inside my heart fluttered, even when I told it to shut up.

  He watched. I worked. He asked questions. I answered them. It was comfortable. It was safe. It was exactly what I needed.

  “Will you teach me?” he asked as I finished the first piece.

  “You want to learn?”

  “Yeah.”

  Why did he have to be so damn sweet?

  “Sure. You’ll want to find an apron, though. You’ll get dirty.” I pointed over to the hooks where I kept my aprons. He walked over, picked the dirtiest one, and tossed it on. This made me smile. He was definitely a man’s man who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. I loved that.

  “I’m ready,” he said after tying it around him, and I patted on my chair. He moved and sat. I got my desk chair and moved behind him.

  I had this déjà vu hit me from the movie Ghost once again. Only this time, there was a man in front of me and I wasn’t going at it alone. This was better. This was nice. This was better than anything I’d seen on television or the movies.

  I was screwed.

  14

  Dane

  Watching her work was a thing of absolute beauty.

  It was intriguing, captivating, and inspiring. The way her eyes followed the movement of the wet clay. The way her hands molded and shaped it, forming it into a magnificent piece of not only usable material but true art.

  I wasn’t a sophisticated man. Art wasn’t something I admired. Paintings, sculptures, crafts of any kind didn’t faze me. It just didn’t matter.

  Not until her work.

  It pulled me much like the woman herself and seemed to not want to let me go.

  Donning an apron, I stepped up behind her. Within moments she had my large hands molding this clump of clay into a working bowl. We were quiet, letting the material change in front of us.

  In my mind, things were changing between us just like this bowl.

  With a little time and a few soft caresses, she was no longer my target, but instead this incredible person I craved to learn more about.

  I knew the facts.

  I had an entire file on her. I knew her medical history, financial history, even her damn high school awards and GPA. I wanted to know her. What made her tick. How she found comfort in her solace. I wanted to memorize her body and push her beyond her boundaries. I wanted her.

  This wasn’t good.

  We were both playing a dangerous game. She knew she was on the run, and I knew the truth behind who she really was. Neither of us would come out of this unscathed. I knew the types of people we were dealing with. She didn’t.

  She was in too deep in a world where she truly had no business being. She didn’t know the extent these people would go to. Hell, I was sure she didn’t even realize what she did wrong. I had a feeling she left on the word of Royal alone. Which I had to say was smart.

  Guilt riddled me. She didn’t know she was fucking the enemy.

  Except, I didn’t want to be her enemy.

  The more I was around her, the more I wanted to know her, the real her not the shit on the papers. These feelings I had were not ones I was accustomed to.

  The seconds ticked by turning to minutes as the mud formed into shape. As she got lost in her work, I watched her face. Her mind was completely on the task. It was remarkable to see her eyes dance with excitement watching the piece come together.

  She controlled the speed of the wheel with her foot pedal.

  Control.

  I had lost all of it.

  I was unable to deny the pull, deny the attraction, or deny the desire. I had to have her.

  Right here.

  Right fucking now.

  Her neck was exposed to me. Following the pull, allowing my need to drive me, I dropped my lips to the curve of her neck and shoulder where I gently placed a kiss upon her skin. The wheel slowed, her breathing hitched. Slowly, her head turned to me. Before she could stop me, I pressed my lips to hers.

  Everything was forgotten.

  She was no longer my target. She was my lover. Her name, her past, what she was tied up in didn’t matter. Only this moment.

  Our kiss deepened.

  The wheel stopped completely as my hands left the wet clay and cupped her face.

  Lost in the moment, lost in each other, she abandoned the project, her own clay-covered fingers coming to my chest.

  Feverishly, she grabbed at the apron as I devoured her mouth with my tongue. It was Normandy and I was invading her space, her world, her body, and I wasn’t about to back down.

  I was truly fucked.

  The power she had over me without knowing it only consumed me more because she wasn’t playing games with me the way I was her. In fact, other than her name she had concealed very little. She didn’t share much either, but she wasn’t seeking me out all for a way to take me down. I was setting her up for the ultimate betrayal.

  I was hired to kill her.

  Then the job changed.

  Fate was a twisted bitch because if I had taken her out before I touched her, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Except we were here, and
I was weak when it came to her.

  The game we both happened to be sucked into was one with absolutely no winner.

  Pushing all those thoughts aside, I worked at removing her clothes as she pawed at mine. I had to stop thinking about what drove me to her and simply be with her while I could. Everything else I would face when the time came. We were a flurry of hands, sloppy kisses, and clothes flying.

  Resting the edge of her ass against her work table, I wrapped her legs around my waist. Sinking inside her, I didn’t stop to think.

  She felt too good.

  I paused.

  Shit.

  She rocked her hips.

  My cocked throbbed as I tried to remain still.

  “Ahhsss,” her name almost slipped from my tongue. “Hannah,” I groaned. “Condom?”

  She paused, her face paled.

  “It’s okay, baby.”

  Baby.

  Fuck.

  The word had my cock shriveling up into my balls.

  She shifted as I withdrew.

  “You are too much to resist,” I whispered as she was shrouded in shock.

  “Dane, you need to leave,” she said as I watched her shut down. “You’re a complication in my life I can’t afford.”

  If that wasn’t the truth, but I couldn’t tell her what I knew.

  “Hannah,” saying her name pissed me off every time because she had a beautiful name she couldn’t use because of some sick fucker and his twisted relationship. “Eyes,” I ordered, and she kept looking down. Tipping her chin, I made her look at me. “I’m clean. I get tested annually because it’s the smart thing to do. I was tested last month. I didn’t come yet, so it’s fine. We both have a strong attraction to each other. We should’ve talked before we got caught up. But please don’t shut me out.”

  God, I sounded pathetic. Honestly, I didn’t care. I wanted her to be open to me.

  “Dane, I’m trouble, and you’re more than I can have in my life.” Her words were filled with despair. “I’m in a hopeless situation, and you really need to leave. Your order will be ready in a week. Until then, please don’t contact me anymore.”

  I felt her pain cut me to the core. I stood in front of her, stripped bare physically and emotionally as she scrambled around for her clothes.

  Moving without another word, I dressed. She composed herself and reset her work station without speaking to me.

  There may have only been a few feet between us, but mentally she had put miles distancing us from reconnecting.

  “Don’t stay too late, lock the door behind me,” I whispered before placing a kiss to her forehead and exiting her space.

  The pull between us was too much. I needed to take a step back and regroup.

  Outside I sat in my car wondering what the hell I was going to do next. At some point Freeman would want her dead or returned to Pennsylvania. That was the only thing I was certain of. How was I going to get her out of this mess?

  Going with my gut, I did something I never thought I would do.

  “Well hey, stranger,” Paxton greeted on the second ring.

  “Liquidate all my assets.”

  I listened to the phone shift and what sounded like him leaving a room. Most likely for privacy, so I gave him a moment to reply.

  “Dane, do you realize what you’re asking for?”

  “Cash,” I replied.

  “Whatever you need you got it, but no need to shut it all down.”

  I leaned over the steering wheel of the Tahoe frustrated. “Don’t want any ties back to any of you. Liquidate my assets, get Garrett to clean up my existence. I’m a ghost. Give Ellen Sue the house.”

  “Fuck!” he roared. “Does Onyx know?”

  “You’re my first call, he’s my next.”

  “Whatever you’re in Dane, we’ll take your back. No need to go this far.”

  I didn’t explain myself further. “Five business days, with the weekend that gives you an extra two days. I want it done.”

  “Consider it handled,” he replied, but I could hear the disappointment in his voice.

  “Remember Monopoly?”

  He gave a half-hearted laugh. “Yeah.”

  “When you’re backed against the wall, you sell out to make your comeback.”

  “Fuck yeah you do.”

  “So let me sell my shit to the bank so I can have the necessary funds to come back.”

  “Told you, consider it done.”

  I leaned back in my seat. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Right now, I’m the weakest link. Gotta break off so I don’t carry down the empire.”

  “Understood.”

  I ended the call without anything more shared.

  I had to prepare myself, my life, and her for what was to come. The only way to keep her alive was to go with her. That would take cash that couldn’t be traced. If Freeman couldn’t get me to complete the job, he would send someone else.

  Except they wouldn’t just be going after her.

  I defy him like I planned to do, he would want my cold, dead body as much as he wanted hers.

  This left me no choice.

  I would have to find a way to win her over because walking away simply was no longer an option.

  15

  Aspen—Hannah

  I’d done it, pushed him away and put him behind me. Two days and nothing. I kept telling myself that this was what I wanted. Him to be out of my life and cut out all the complications that came with Dane. I had no business sharing time with him, with anyone.

  But my heart hurt. Every second that ticked by these past two days was its own brand of torture. Laying in my bed, I smelled him. His imprint was all over my body, inside and out. Not a single moment had gone by without me thinking about him.

  It was completely and totally stupid. We’d known each other days, and this would be crazy to even think this could be more. Yes, he said that he felt it, but it couldn’t happen.

  I wasn’t who he thought I was.

  The clay on the wheel fell putting a huge hole in the side and skittering all over the wheel.

  “Shit,” I muttered to no one but myself. That was exactly the work I’d been able to accomplish these past two days. Where I should’ve had several pieces done, I hadn’t and was behind once again. Not by much, but enough.

  It was my own fault, but part of me hoped. Hope was such a shitty thing sometimes. This time was just the same. I’d hoped he would come by the shop and not take no for an answer or called me saying that we could make this work.

  Something. Anything.

  But this was for the best. How was I supposed to tell him the truth? No, it was done, and I needed to make peace with that.

  It didn’t matter that he made me feel beautiful and safe for the first time since all this bullshit hit me from all ends. It didn’t matter that he flipped something inside of me that craved him like a drug. It didn’t matter that the connection between us was so strong that all I wanted to do was crawl in his lap and have him hold me close.

  None of that mattered.

  I was in a shit storm and this was for the best. The more I kept saying that, the more I felt as if I were trying to talk myself into it.

  It hurt.

  Having something good and then losing it because your life was so fucked up sucked. I had no other options. Him being out of my life was the only way.

  I’d never wanted a damn white picket fence or any of that shit. All I’d ever wanted was to be happy and around people I loved and who loved me. That was it. There was no grand plan of having more than life allotted. There were no millionaire dreams.

  But there were dreams. My dreams. Ones that I’d thought I’d had under my control. Until that night.

  Dwelling on it didn’t help anyone, and I needed a life free of all the shit.

  I cleared off the clay and cleaned my area.

  With a wave to Cora, I walked down the way to the small coffee shop. Their coffees were great, but I didn’t splurge often, rath
er wanting to save my money instead of having frivolous things.

  But today was a coffee day. Something hot, sweet, and full of shit I probably shouldn’t put in my body was necessary. The coffee part was fine, it was the caramel, milk, and double shot of expresso, that probably wasn’t the best. It tasted oh so good. Divine Hell in a cup.

  The clerk behind the counter called out a welcome. It was something that took me a beat to get used to. Back in Philly, when we went into a place, you didn’t get spoken to until you were up at the counter with your money held out and ready to go. Efficient, busy, and getting the job done without going beyond the necessity. It was life in the city.

  In a small town, it was different. Everyone greeted you. From the coffee shop to the people at the convenient store down the way, it was a normal everyday thing. Now, I smiled and usually waved my hand just a touch. Every passing day I was finding myself more comfortable.

  It wasn’t like they really knew me or could look in my eyes to find out I was really Aspen Kimmel and wasn’t supposed to be in their quaint town. I liked it. A lot. Here, I was Hannah who made pottery. Here I was their neighbor; to some like Cora, I was their friend.

  I was going to miss this when the time came to leave.

  The somberness washed over me, and I hoped that wouldn’t be any time soon.

  After ordering and waiting for my coffee to be made, I found a seat by the windows. It wasn’t directly in front, but off to the side where some people would be able to see me and others not. It also had a view of the front door.

  While I knew I needed to let some of the paranoia go, it was hard and I always kept watching. Waiting.

  In my life, the other shoe always dropped; I just didn’t know when that would happen. It was why I kept my things in my bags as much as possible and kept the rest within close reach. Never knew if I’d have to take off quickly.

  The small bell over the door jingled just as I sipped my coffee. The drink got lodged in my throat, burning me, and I coughed rapidly hitting my chest. He saw me right away and darted my way, concern in his eyes.

  It had been two days since I’d seen those eyes, and I couldn’t look now because I was choking on my damn coffee.