Tattoo gasped, struggling.

“I said tell me you like it, you fucking bastard.”

“I like it,” croaked Tattoo.

And the boy crushed the masked man’s throat, squashing the life out of him.

He liked it.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Jade

Talon was kissing me. His lips softly grazed my cheeks, my neck, my throat.

The kiss became harder, little bites, harsh suction around my throat, around my larynx.

Still good. I sighed.

I inhaled and—

Air. I could breathe, but…restriction. Had to work a little harder.

My eyes shot open.

A jagged scream ripped from my throat.

“Stop!” I yelled, but it came out as a haggard gasp.

Talon was on top of me, straddling me, his fingers around my neck.

His eyes were glazed over. He didn’t look right. He didn’t look like…him.

“Talon!” I could still speak in rasps, but I feared where this might go. He wasn’t responding to sound. My heart beat against my chest, my nerves racing. What was he doing? Why? Why was this happening?

I punched his arms. No response. My legs were of no use to me—from my position lying on my back, Talon straddling me around my hips, I couldn’t get enough leverage to kick him with my knee or my foot.

No, I would have to depend on my arms. I hit him again and again, and still no response.

Needles danced across my skin. Panic. Sheer panic. Something was wrong. Very wrong. This wasn’t Talon.

I drew short breaths as best I could, attempting to gather my will. My fingernails were short, but they were thin and sharp…and the only weapon I had. It had to work. It had to, because I didn’t know what I’d do if it didn’t. I reached as far as I could up his arms, sank my fingernails into his flesh, and clawed them downward, scratching him so hard I drew blood.

His eyebrows launched upward. “What? Oh my God, Jade!” He pulled his hands from my throat and stared at them, horror flowing over his features.

Quickly I inhaled, gasping. “Talon!” I shouted, my voice slightly hoarse. “What the hell were you doing?”

“Damn it!” He flew from the bed, visibly shivering. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

I inhaled again and then again. Then I rose, scooted to the side of the bed, and sat up.

“No. You can’t go. Not until you tell me what the hell that was.”

He turned to me, his dark eyes sunken. “Blue eyes, I am so, so sorry.”

Sorry. He’d said he was sorry, and he hadn’t choked out the words. Something had changed inside him, for the better. I hoped what had just occurred wouldn’t negate that.

I sat in silence as he dressed, his body moving as if separate from his mind. Short jerky movements, his features laced with fear.

I was scared, yes, but he needed me. I went to him, not touching him. “I know you would never hurt me,” I said.

“How would you know that?” His eyes smoked, turning nearly black. “I just tried to choke the life out of you.”

The urge to comfort him overwhelmed me, despite what I’d just been through. “No, you didn’t. Of course you didn’t. I was breathing. I could speak. You just weren’t hearing me. Something was going on. Tell me, Talon. Tell me what it was.”

“You really want to sit here and talk to me after I just nearly killed you?”

The strained look in his eyes nearly fractured my heart. “You’re not hearing me. I’m fine. You would never hurt me. I was never unable to breathe or speak. Something else was going on. I know you’d never hurt me.”

“You keep saying that. But look at what I did.”

“I know what you did. And you didn’t hurt me.”

“Are you kidding me? Of course I hurt you. Listen to your voice.”

I cleared my throat. “My voice is fine. My neck doesn’t hurt. I won’t have any bruising. You weren’t holding me that hard.”

“Are you listening to yourself, Jade? I shouldn’t have had my hands anywhere near your neck.”

“I know that. But Talon, I’m fine. Please. We just need to figure out what was going on.”

“What if you hadn’t been able to stop me?” He combed his fingers through his tousled hair and then clasped his head in his hands, unable to meet my gaze.

I wrapped my arms around him, aching to console him.

“You weren’t hurting me, and I did stop you.”

His eyes were rimmed with red. “What if next time you can’t?”

I had been so busy trying to calm Talon down, I hadn’t thought about what would’ve happened if he’d truly been choking me and I hadn’t been able to stop him. The thought made my skin chill. Still, in the innermost chambers of my soul, I was positive he would never do me harm.

He fisted both hands in his mass of black hair. “I can’t be around you anymore, Jade.”

My insides bled a little. The look in his eyes was so tortured. “Has this ever happened to you before?”

He shook his head. “No, but I’ve never slept with anyone…before.”

I jolted forward. “Really? You’ve never spent the night with a woman?”

He shook his head again.

“Why not?”

“I’ve never wanted to before.”

Emotion swirled through me. This man was such a conundrum. In the span of five minutes, he could scare the hell out of me and then make me melt into a big puddle of honey.

“We can’t see each other anymore,” he said again.

Nope. Not an option. “Do you remember anything?” I asked. “Do you remember why you wanted to put your hands on my throat?”

He rubbed at his forehead. “I never wanted to put my hands around your throat, Jade. Please believe that.”

“I do believe that. But do you have any idea why this happened?”

He sighed. “I dream sometimes.”

“About when you were in the Marines?”

He scoffed, shaking his head. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Please, I want to understand. I’ve always wanted to. Let me help you.”

“I can’t let you anywhere near me, blue eyes. If I ever did anything to hurt you…” Remorse and fear were etched into his features.