Page 50 of The Echo of Forever

The presence I felt wasted no time pressing the barrel of their…hergun to my head.

“You don’t have to put a gun to my head to get me to do whatever you want, baby…” I met Forever’s eyes in the rearview mirror and smiled, even though she looked distressed. “Ride shotgun, I want to take you somewhere.”

CHAPTER 13

FOREVER

I still didn’t trusthim, but slid into the passenger seat anyway.

The way he simply asked, not demanded that I go with him, made it easy to lower my defenses enough to let my curiosity slip through the cracks forming around and beneath me.

But in case I hadn’tjustlost memories but my sense of danger too, I kept my gun visible.

“Did I have migraines before?” I found myself asking.

I watched his hand on the steering wheel, noting how natural this felt despite my mind telling me to stay clear and not to let him convince us of anything we couldn’t verify.

However, my body responded differently.

“No,” he replied. “I can count on one hand how many times you’ve been sick in or out of my presence since meeting.”

I shifted to look out the window.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere you’re loved,” he said. “Trust me, alright?”

The irony wasn’t lost on me: trust the man I thought I was supposed to kill. Trust the man who claimed to love me when I couldn’t even trust my own memories.

I felt sick thinking about it.

We drove through the heart of Everwood, past the towers where society members conducted their business, the neutral zones where both factions pretended to coexist. The city lights blurred together as my head began its familiar throb, but something about Demetrius’s presence kept the pain manageable.

I couldn’t tell him I’d sought him out because my head hurt so bad I wanted to end it all, and the only thing that dulled the ache was him. Not the smell of vanilla alone, but him wearing it.

The pain had been unbearable until I tracked him down and broke into his truck.

I bit my lip to stop myself from sighing.

We rolled into the red-light district thirty minutes later, and I sat up as neon signs reflected off the windows of different businesses. This was an area I didn’t frequent but knew well.

Knowing eyes were on his truck as we drove deeper into the scene and parked where sex workers lingered.

He rolled his window down, and one of them approached.

“What’s up, D,” she said, pushing a curl from her face. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

There was an easy smile on his face as he replied, “Been a little tied up, KK. Y’all good out here? Tell the girls to grab what they need from me.”

She nodded.

“Better now that you’re here…” her eyes flicked to me with…curiosity?“Is she the one the other girls talk about?”

The other girls?

“One and the same,” he told her, smiling over at me like I meant the fucking world to him. “Step out with me.”

I pointed to myself, and he nodded, tapping a button on the ceiling of the truck and pushing his door open.