The cabin was also very tidy. Which she supposed might not mean much, but the fact that he wasn’t a slob and could clean up after himself indicated he didn’t need a woman to do such things. She thought back to Tommy yet again and shook her head. He didn’t like to do anything around the house, insisting that, since she worked from home, she should clean the place and have dinner waiting when he got off work.
Not wanting to think about her ex, Carlise sighed and ran a hand over her face. At the moment, she was safe from whoever was stalking her. Even though she was exhausted, she wasn’t worried about what she might find when she opened the door or what messages she might wake up to.
She hadn’t turned her phone on once in the last two days, and it felt oddly freeing. There wasn’t any electricity to charge it, and she had a feeling she wouldn’t get a signal up here in the middle of nowhere anyway. She hadn’t realized exactly how stressful it had been to read the harassing emails and text messages on a daily basis until she literally couldn’t.
“No! Leave him alone! Cal! Are you all right?”
Carlise padded over to the bed where Riggs was thrashing jerkily, obviously having some sort of nightmare. She didn’t know who Cal was or the Bob person he’d mentioned earlier, but she guessed they were people he cared about, otherwise he wouldn’t sound so concerned.
“It’s okay,” she soothed, feeling a little awkward. It was weird trying to calm someone she didn’t even know. Her appreciation for nurses all over the world skyrocketed.
“JJ! Where the hell is JJ?” Riggs asked, bolting upright in bed and staring sightlessly into nothing.
“He’s fine. Lie back down, Riggs,” she begged quietly.
But instead, the man turned his gaze on her, and his amber eyes seemed to see straight into her soul. “Who’re you?” he barked.
They’d been through this a few times since yesterday, so Carlise didn’t take offense. “I’m Carlise. Carlise Edwards. I’m a friend. Lie down, Riggs.”
“Where’re the others? JJ? Bob? Cal? What’d you do to them?” he demanded.
His brown hair liberally sprinkled with blondish streaks was sticking up in disarray on his head. He had creases on his cheek where his face had been pressed into the pillow, and he was wearing nothing more than a T-shirt and a pair of boxers. The day before, Carlise had wrestled his sweats off him before leading him into the bathroom, and it was too much of a chore to try to get them back on him when he fell back into bed.
“We’re in your cabin. In Maine,” she reminded him. “There’s a storm outside, but we’re safe here. Your friends are at their houses. They’re okay.”
Of course, she didn’t know if that was true or not, but she had to assume the men were safe wherever they were.
“They’re hurting Cal,” he cried in a tortured tone. “We have to find him!”
Carlise’s heart hurt for Riggs. She had no idea who Cal was or what he’d been through, but it was obvious Riggs was extremely worried for his safety. She put her hand on his arm. “He’ll be okay. Please lie down, Riggs.”
She wasn’t prepared for how fast he moved.
One second she was leaning over him slightly and the next she was on the bed, lying under him. He stared down at her with fever-glazed eyes. “It hurts!” he moaned. “When will the torture stop? Why are they doing this?”
Her heart beating a hundred miles a minute, Carlise reached up and put her palm on his heated cheek. She should be terrified. But even though Riggs was looming over her—and clearly much stronger than her, even in his weakened state—he wasn’t hurting her at all. He had his weight propped on his elbows as he caged her beneath him.
“You’re safe now. You’re here in Maine. In your cabin. You aren’t there . . . they can’t hurt you anymore.” She had no idea what she was saying, just knew that she wanted to soothe his obvious pain and fear.
“You have a nice voice . . . soothing. I’ll keep you safe. I swear I won’t let them hurt you!”
Carlise’s heart turned over. Riggs sounded so earnest. “We’re safe here,” she told him.
But it was as if he didn’t hear her. “When they come back, stay still. Maybe they won’t see you. I’ll distract them, turn their attention on me. You can have my rations. We’re gonna get out of here. We just have to wait for someone to rescue us. In the meantime, I’ll kill anyone who tries to touch you!”