The Missing

Jillian, and then he grabbed Taige’s hand, guiding her to the small room across the hall. It was outfitted with a TV, a Coke machine, and four chairs. Her bathroom at home was bigger than this, and as Cullen tugged her inside, she felt panic closing in on her. Jerking her hand away from him, she put as much distance between them as she could. It wasn’t much. She figured she could climb onto one of the chairs and get a few more inches between them, but she wasn’t willing to go that far—yet.

    “Can’t you look at me?”

    She shot him a look over her shoulder and then focused her attention on the wall in front of her with an intensity that bordered on ridiculous. She heard him coming up behind her, and everything inside her went on red alert. Cullen sighed, and she felt the warm caress of his breath just before he reached up and cupped her shoulders, slowly turning her around. She wouldn’t look at him. Instead, she focused on the faded white cotton that stretched over his chest.

    “It does matter,” he said softly. “Don’t look at me and expect me to believe that you aren’t still pissed off at me. You’ve hardly looked at me. You won’t speak to me unless you have to, and any time I come within three feet of you, you move away.”

    Her voice was hoarse as she murmured, “I’m not pissed off at you, Cullen.” Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself and looked up at his face. Damn—that face. It had haunted her dreams ever since that gray November day, and she knew it would haunt her for the rest of her life. As she stared at him, Taige realized that she’d been right. She had always suspected she’d never get over Cullen, and she’d been right. “Never have been, really.”

    His hand came up, and she braced herself, but whether she was trying to keep herself from pulling away or from leaning toward him, she didn’t know. Gently, he traced his finger along the line of her mouth. “You really are amazing,” he murmured.

    Her throat went tight. A bittersweet ache spread through her as she remembered a time when he had said that and held her in his arms and made love to her. Apparently, she wasn’t amazing enough. If she was as special as he’d always made her feel, he would have stayed with her . . . right? She would have been able to help his mom, and him.

    “I did it again,” he said, his voice tense. He cupped her chin and forced her to look at him. “What did I say this time?” he asked, his voice hollow.

    Taige lied. “Nothing.”

    “Then why do you keep looking away from me?”

    She glanced over his shoulder, through the glass wall that allowed them a full view of Jillian’s bed. The curtain was still half-open, enough that Taige could see the girl sleeping. Damn. Too much to hope for that Jillian might have woken up. She touched her tongue to her lip and tried to find some answer that would satisfy him without making her look like the hopeless idiot she knew she must be. “It’s nothing you did or said,” she finally told him. The little white lie wasn’t going to kill her, right? “This is just really—awkward.”

    He brushed his thumb over her lips, and his gaze settled on her mouth. For a second, she thought he might kiss her. He didn’t, though, and she couldn’t decide if she was grateful or disappointed. He let go of her chin, but he didn’t move away. Instead, he feathered a gentle caress over the swollen, discolored skin of her left eye. “How did this happen?”

    With a faint grin, she said, “A pissed-off jerk who didn’t like me interrupting his plans.”

    His eyes narrowed down to slits, and the force of his anger hit her like a tidal wave. Trying to lessen the impact, she moved away so that he wasn’t touching her.

    “And your hand?”

    She shot him a mischievous glance over her shoulder. “That happened because I didn’t like him hitting me. I popped him and managed to fracture a bone in my hand.” She wiggled her fingers a little and winced at the resulting pain. “Doesn’t seem fair that he pops me one but when I get him, I break a bone. You males have heads like granite.”

    Her gaze was drawn to the child sleeping on the other side of the glass. “She’s a special girl, you know.”

    Cullen stroked a hand down Taige’s hair, a familiar gesture that managed to drive another razor-sharp shard into her already broken heart. His voice was a little deeper, a little rougher than normal. “Believe me, nobody could be more