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.Sure, useful to the sales of Xanax and alcohol, not to the improvementof sanity.She took a deep breath and let her nerves fill her ears withpounding so she couldn't latch on to the odd swish of the grass behindher.Vacationing on a farm growing up, she knew the sound a farmcat made lurking in the grass, but she wasn't on the farm nor werethere farm cats here.Pounding blood was the better alternative, and Gillian was gratefulher heart fluttered.The extra warmth from palpitations provided abarrier against the dankness creeping up her legs with every step onthe mildewed planks.She broke into a run when the shaky planksended, dashing the few hundred feet necessary to the warehouse'sfusion lights.Watering eyes served no handicap in thrusting her hand into herpocket in extracting the key she had at the ready.Blinking, shejiggled the key into the lock and ratcheted the door open, slamming itbehind her in a solid, gratifying thud and throwing the bolt in place.The warehouse lights were already on.55This time the throbbing in her temples did nothing to conceal thesteady thump of approaching feet.Her nerves must have turned upthe amplitude of hearing, because the creature coming around thebend sounded ten feet tall and made of molten steel solidified intobipedal form.She pressed her back into the door, trying to merge with the paperthin metal.Gillian wanted to curl into a little ball with her arms andlegs clutched into her torso, but she was afraid to take her eyes off thedoorway opposite her that lead into the main warehouse.It was 9:30ish.Who the heck was here at this unholy hour? Forthat matter why in the world did she feel a need to be here? Maybe hersister was right about being overly committed, or was thatcommittable? Any more time in this place after dark and she wasgoing to commit herself for the padded cell protection against thedark.The lights of the warehouse weren't doing much for her sense ofsafety.Garish on the outside, the lights gave shadows too muchleniency in being seductively evil in looking like places to hide.No one stayed late even on pickup nights.The drivers had thecombination to the delivery bays and all the boxes were clearlydelineated by destination, day staff was unnecessary.It didn't matterthat she was here against her own reasoning.No one else should behere and drivers didn't go this far into the building.Drivers came in pairs and only one set of feet approached.Oh,God, this was a burglary and one of the drivers was coming to findand get rid of her before she could call the police; which meant, thenoises outside had been a henchman on patrol.This was a trap.Gillian stuffed her heart back into her chest and wet her throatenough to formulate a scream.Her chest labored to get enoughoxygen pent up for a riotous explosion of sound when her throatseized midway into creating raucous noise.The doorway was blotted out or was that filled to capacity with aman-like form?Gillian's throat overcame the shock and went for a full blast ofscreams that left her huffing and panting for breath.Even bent over,56she couldn't take her eyes off the thing moving into the room, past thedoorway, coming closer, and closer to her.A door behind the monster slammed, making them both leap intoeach other."No one's outside.Drivers long gone, we're safe toleave," a deep voice reverberated that could have done bass in theopera.Gillian raised her head as she'd seen people on TV do, and headbutted the thing's chin as she jumped up, but its humongous handsgrabbed her by the collar and held her, almost dangling her, in the air."Ooph." The hands around her collar shook her like a fish from aseagull's mouth."Who are you and why are you playing with me?"Gillian looked up into golden eyes with her huge, Disney-like eyes.It took a second for them standing under the same light source forGillian to realize the large mass of muscles holding her was a guy, avery large and towering guy, with long two-toned brown and amberhair bristling up against the back of his neck.Her mouth fell openautomatically to taste the air around him, no cologne or aftershavemasked the raw identity that he filled the air with.Her tongue wavered, but no sound came out this time through gulpsof air."You aren't that brittle.No one who screams that loud breakseasily." He set her down, his arms bracing her shoulders until sheproved capable of standing."Patryk where are you?"The voice filled Gillian's ears and made her ears ache from overworking to pick up every vibration."Just checking on the office area and making sure everything'slocked up, Sebastian.I'll be right in."The man blocked Gillian from seeing around him, bending towardsher to obliterate any sight.She tried to crane her head around him, buther efforts ended in a nose and mouthful of his shirt, the fabricsticking to the end of her tongue, making her breath stutter from theimpact of his aroma.Gillian squeezed her eyes and closed her lips, prying them backfrom his musk that seemed to invade her nostrils with tendrils snaking57up her nose and wrapping around her brain with an overridingsupremacy that gave him control of her body.She gulped back her tongue and forced it to work at somethingbesides choking her.Those names were familiar.She rammed a palminto the side of her head to jumpstart thinking.Patryk and Sebastian."Wait, Patryk and Sebastian.as in the warehouse owners?"Patryk gave her a stare that made her feel naked, devoid of so muchas nail polish.She pulled her coat closer against her body to seal in asmuch air as she could to act as a buffer.He pulled his hands away from her."You'd be the new girl."His voice lowered to below deep, to a sound that she felt more thanheard, a sound that both made her want to flee to and from him.It was an oddly perplexing clash of survival and something more.This was ludicrous.She shook her head up and down not sure ofherself to do much else."You owe me an explanation." He turned around, giving her a longlook over his shoulder, leaving the light with her so that the last thingshe saw was his wide shoulders fading into shadows, leaving only thetell-tale sound of his heavy boots."What were you doing in there? I heard you talking?"Gillian waited for Patryk's answer, causing her breath to stutter to ahalt."Drivers called to confirm what time the plane leaves for Africawith the supplies."They had to be back in the inner warehouse now, but her earspicked up every word they spoke.The only thing she was sure of wasthat Sebastian's voice made her want to open the door and take thecreaking wood and darkness over the chance of meeting him.Herskin prickled as if touched by a flame that could easily consume herand spit her out as ashes for a burial at sea.The sea was only a fewhundred feet away once the measly door was out of the equation.The reaction to Sebastian was about survival, but Patryk? It had tobe adrenaline coursing through her system making her go loopy.Agrown woman imagining monsters and wanting to know if the58monster's lips were coarse or soft had to be a definition of instability [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]