Page 45 of Psycho

I didn’t think she had noticed her dad at all. Her gaze focused entirely on me, and I wasn’t sure if the way my skin hummed from her eyes was good or not.

It didn’t really matter.

Her eyes made a slow perusal up and down my body before she brought them back up to my face, stopping there, her skin taking on a slightly pink tone, her lips parted, and the greens in her eyes getting smaller in place of her dilated pupils.

She licked her lips, and my eyes honed in on the movement, wondering why such a simple action affected me so badly.

She blinked, finally coming back into her awareness, her eyes moving over to her dad before she took a small step back.

I took that in, wondering if I would have to do what I did with her dad and chase her around.

I shifted subtly on my feet.

“What’s going on?” she asked her dad, her eyes moving briefly to him before turning to me.

Good girl.

Even when she didn’t know me, she knew to focus on me.

That was the way it would be for her from now on.

I would be the entire focal point of her existence—the way she had been for me.

“Lainey,” her dad said. “This is, uh, this is Micah Stone. He’s going to take you with him.”

9

LAINEY

I blinked,trying to get the words to penetrate through the small fog I had in my brain as I took in the huge man.

And he was that.

So fucking huge.

He was easily the largest man I had ever come in contact with, a beast compared to my dad’s five-foot-eleven stature.

At least a foot taller than me, if I was brave enough to come close to such a—cold-looking man, he would make me feel like nothing more than a child.

I swallowed as I took him in.

Everything about him was cold and emotionless.

Cool silver eyes that seemed to not miss anything, a brutal-looking scar on his left cheek that ran all the way down to his neck, peeking out from beneath the neatly trimmed beard he sported, broad shoulders encased in a black leather jacket, despite the heat outside. Dark brown hair that was only a few inches past his scalp.

I couldn’t tell how old he was, but he was obviously older than me by at least a decade, if not more.

His eyes had been laser-focused on me since the moment I stepped inside the trailer, and if I thought the man from two days before was dangerous, it was nothing compared to the vibe this guy was giving off.

My heart had been spluttering inside my chest wildly at the sight of him, and though there was a heap of fear that had caused the reaction, there was also something else.

Something I was unsure about. Something I had never felt before, and something that just felt so…

Dangerous.

I tried to swallow, but the lump stuck in my throat made that impossible.

Dad’s words finally came through.

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