Leslie Parrish - Pitch Black

“I hadn’t wanted it to end this way.”

One .

“But you’re leaving me no choice.”

Two .

“Good-bye, my dear.”

Three .

Sam’s hands jerked so quickly, Connolly was caught completely off guard. She punched her fists up, hard, aiming directly at the suspect’s face and making contact.

He screamed, letting go of her neck as blood gushed from his wound. Sam dropped to the ground, the gun swinging wildly just above her.

“You’re dead, bitch!” the Professor raged.

But he didn’t make good on his threat. Because Alec pulled the trigger and put the man down.

“A pen? Jesus, you stabbed him in the eye with a pen?”

Sam didn’t know why Alec kept saying that-had been saying it for several hours, since right after he’d shot Connolly to the ground and raced to her side. He’d been there; he’d seen it; he knew exactly what had happened.

“It worked, didn’t it?” she said.

And nobody had been more shocked by that than Sam.

She had hoped to, at most, jab the bastard with the sharp tip of his own engraved writing utensil so he’d let her go and she could run. She’d never imagined actually hitting a serious target, plunging the thin rod directly into Warden Connolly’s eyeball.

He’d be blind on one side. At least, he would be if he recovered from the shot Alec had centered right in the man’s chest.

She still couldn’t believe it had all happened. Her head hadn’t stopped spinning all day, not during those insane minutes when she’d seen her own death seconds away. Not afterward, when Alec had wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Or when the two of them had dragged a somehow still-breathing Myers from the trunk. When they’d wondered if they should seek refuge in the maintenance shack, waiting for backup against what could be an army of angry prison guards whose boss lay bleeding on the ground.

Thank God that stubborn guard from the front gate had followed Alec all the way out onto the maintenance road. He’d witnessed everything and had helped defuse the situation when more responders started showing up.

It had all seemed crazy, the kind of nightmare scenario that happened to other people. Not to Sam the Spaminator, who didn’t even leave her house unless there was an ice-cream emergency.

“It feels like I’ve been gone for a month,” she said as she entered her apartment that evening. Alec had brought her here after a long day of interviews, police reports, and questioning.

And sadness-when she’d learned about the death of Lily Fletcher, she had cried long and hard, though she’d known the woman only a few days. It was just so damned senseless. All of it, everything that had happened in the past few weeks, from the minute Ryan had IM’d her… insane and senseless.

“I know. I’m sure you’re ready to get back to your normal life.”

Alec didn’t look at her as he said the words, and his face was set in stern, serious lines. It had been all day, since the moment he’d come charging to her rescue, against all odds getting there before Connolly had made her disappear off the face of the earth.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him as she tossed her coat on the back of a chair and kicked off her shoes, wanting to feel normal, safe, and at home.

He shook his head briefly. “Nothing. Just glad it’s over.”

“Me, too.”

She stared at him, finally realizing he hadn’t taken off his coat as well. And certainly not his shoes. In fact, he looked stiff, poised to turn and walk out of here again. That was crazy, of course. After everything they’d been through, surely he wouldn’t…

“I should go.”

Her jaw dropped.

“It’s been a hell of a day.”

“Hell of a week,” she said slowly, trying to figure out what was going on here. She and Alec had just shared the most intense day of her life, after what had been one of the craziest nights of her life. From frightening to sensual to terrifying, all in a matter of hours, and all with this man right by her side. And now he thought he was going to just walk away?

Uh-uh. No way. Not happening. “Where do you think you’re going?”

One brow shot up in surprise at her aggressive tone. “I, uh, figured I’d head home.”

“And then what?”

He knew she wasn’t asking something mundane, like whether he was going to go right to bed or stop for a shower first. She didn’t have to put it into words; they both knew what she really meant.

“And then I’m staying there,” he finally admitted.

Alone. Never to come back .

Sam swallowed away a stab of hurt, knowing there was more to this. Alec wasn’t the type to walk away having gotten what he wanted. He wasn’t that guy; she knew it down to her very soul.

More, he felt something for her. She knew that, too, just as she knew she had developed feelings for him as well.

“No, you’re not,” she finally said, remaining calm and resolute.

He finally met her stare directly, and she saw the genuine emotion in that handsome, weary face. “Sam, you told me last night how glad you were for life.”

“I am.”

“So I want you to go start living it.”

That was exactly what she wanted to do. “I intend to. No more locking myself away here; there’s a lot going on in the world and I plan to be a part of it.”

A faint smile widened his mouth. “I’m glad.”

She wasn’t finished. “I plan to be a part of yours, too.”

Though a spark appeared in his eyes, the smile faded. “I don’t expect that.”

She pounced on his words. “You don’t expect it? Or you don’t want it?”

“Semantics.”

“No, it’s not,” she snapped. “One implies that you’re about to walk out of here for some noble, it’s-for-your-own-good reason. The other says you got what you wanted last night and don’t care to repeat the experience now that I’m not in any danger and you’re not stuck babysitting me.”

Anger tightened his features as he stalked over, grabbing her shoulders. “Don’t you say that. Don’t even think it.”

“Then take off your coat, stay here, and prove me wrong, damn it.”

His hands dropped. The coat remained on. An invisible veil of determination separated him from her as fi nitely as one of the fences from that hellish prison.

She stared up at him, searching for the truth, needing to understand why he was trying so hard to walk away when he sounded as though he wanted to do anything but.

God knew Sam had a lot of reasons not to trust men after what her loving husband had done. But she trusted him. She trusted them-what they could have together, if only he’d let them. Lifting a hand to his face, she cupped his cheek. “I’m falling for you, Alec.”

His eyes closed.

“I’m not some inexperienced kid who confuses lust with love. I’ve had relationships; I’ve been in love. I’ve been married; I’ve been divorced. And I’ve never felt for anyone-even after years-what I feel for you now, after less than a week.”

He finally looked at her again, but that emptiness remained. “In that time you’ve seen someone you love brutalized, your own mother targeted. You’ve been kidnapped. You’ve had to stand by and watch an injured man bleeding at your feet. And you’ve learned about the death of a woman you were coming to like. All in less than one week. So where’s this newfound gladness for life gotten you so far?”

The truth dawned. She finally began to see. Alec wasn’t intending to walk out on her because he didn’t care, but because he did. He’d decided she should be happy and had the crazy idea that his job, his life-the way he lived it-meant she wouldn’t be.

“Alec…”