She swallowed back her fear andtried to remind herself of the good job that she had done today. She had a newjob, a way to stay in Chicago, and a way to escape. But in this moment, shefelt the loss of her escape. She felt it all closing in on her. Why werethe streets so empty? Why was it just her and Brennan?
Her breathing hitched, and thenshe realized that she had suddenly stopped breathing altogether. Fear poisonedher blood system, starting in her chest and crawling through her veins like adisease. She felt her chest rising and falling rapidly, and her teeth werechattering as if she were freezing, but she knew these were the sure signs ofhyperventilation.
But she couldn’t hyperventilate. She had to run. She had to get away. That was the answer. Run.
Brennan touched her arm,rocketing her back to the ground, to the city, to his hand resting lightly onher, to the pads of his fingers grazing her soft skin.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked.
When she could finally see himthrough her blurred vision, she saw concern etched into every line of his face.
Devon held up her hand as if tosilence him, and that only seemed to make him more concerned. She took a deepbreath and bent her knees, crouching there in the middle of the sidewalk. Sheheld her knees to her chest and tried to let the déjà vu of her dreams sluiceoff of her. She knew where she had come from, where she was, and where she wasgoing. That was all that mattered. This wasn’t like her nightmares. No onewas chasing her. No one was grabbing her. No one was throwing her down. Shetook another breath and reminded herself of these things again and again.
When she finally stood, Brennanseemed to have a million questions on his tongue. Devon didn’t want to answerany of them, so she immediately started walking. Brennan strode to her sideand walked next to her, allowing her the silence she desired. She should thankhim for that as well.
A job and silence. What morecould I ask for? she wondered.
The ride on the L was short. Herstop came before Brennan’s, but he didn’t seem ready to let her go. He hoppedoff the train with her, and they walked in together to Marina City. At leastthis area was well-lit, and people were still milling around outside of theHouse of Blues.
“Thanks for walking me back,”Devon said, finally breaking the silence.
“Are you going to tell me whathappened back there?” he asked.
Devon looked away from him, notwanting to answer. “I think it was just exhaustion,” she murmured.
It was a lie, and he knew it. She was exhausted, but exhausted people didn’t hyperventilate in the middle ofthe street.
“Exhaustion…right,” he said indisbelief.
“Thanks for your help today. Ireally needed the job,” Devon said, changing the subject.
“If I’d known you were lookingfor one, I could have helped sooner,” he said pointedly.
The question about why she hadavoided him for three weeks was written all over his face. If he didn’tmatter and she had a boyfriend, then why did she skip past Jenn’s every day? She refused to let her mind think about it.
“Well, glad I ran into you when Idid then,” she said with the only smile she could muster.
“Devon, about that night—”Brennan began.
She held up her hand again, notwanting to talk to him about that. He had been drunk, and she had been an easytarget in his apartment. She couldn’t blame him for trying or for walking outwithout waking her up the next morning. He didn’t know about her nightmares orthat she might scream herself awake the next morning. After what had justhappened and the amount of time she was likely to spend with him at work overthe next two months, it was probably better that he didn’t know.
“I’ll see you at work tomorrow,”she whispered, desperate to get away.
He sighed and nodded. “Goodnight.”
Devon rushed to the elevator asquickly as she could. She couldn’t be under his scrutiny any longer. Hisintense gaze seemed to weigh and measure her, and she felt her insides squirmunder it all. And when she was trying to avoid it all, how did she seem tonotice more and more how attractive he was?
She shook her head, trying todispel her thoughts. The image of him stretching his hands over his head,showing off the muscles in his arms and the tightness of his stomach, rushedback to her then. When she tried not to think of something, why did italways flash back to her at that exact moment?
Her cheeks were still hot whenshe exited the elevator. She scolded herself for thinking of a boy at a timelike this. Another guy in her life right now was the last thing sheneeded. Period.
Devon flung open the apartmentdoor, forgetting that it was four in the morning. As the door knocked into thewall, she cursed and lunged for it to keep it from banging a second time. Hadley and Garrett were asleep, and she had no desire to awake them at thishour. Slowly closing the door behind her, Devon crept to her bedroom andchanged into a loose-fit tank top and her silk sleep shorts. After everythingthat had happened tonight, the last thing she wanted to do was crawl into bedand have another nightmare to match her freak-out on the street.
She padded out into the livingroom and turned on the TV. She didn’t care what she watched as long as it wassomething that would captivate her thoughts and pull her out of her funk. Whennothing caught her attention, she flipped to old Bugs Bunny cartoons and tunedin as he eluded capture over and over again.
A few minutes later, the frontdoor
