Chameleon Soul (Chequered Flag #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

acknowledge him. I kept my gaze downcast as I pulled away so I could whisper in Nadine’s ear.
    “Let me go, Nadine. I need to leave.”
    Sensing the panic rising in my voice once more, she dropped her grip. The second she no longer held onto me, I sprinted towards the exit I could now see. Shouts came from behind me, though unlike before no footsteps followed them.
    Within minutes I was back in my car. Slamming the door shut behind me, I engaged the locks then tilted my head back against the threadbare seat. Screwing my eyes shut, I willed away the jumble of thoughts that were on a loop. Pictures of Teo’s face, the dark alley, and the group of men hunting me were the only images I could see. No matter how many distractions I threw at myself, they always broke through.
    I didn’t know how much time had passed when a gentle knock on the window brought me out of my thoughts with a start. Glancing across to the passenger’s side, I saw Nadine crouched down and looking through the window, pointing at the lock.
    Grudgingly, I opened the door for her and she slid into the seat.
    “He wasn’t supposed to be here,” I whispered.
    “I know, Raine. It surprised me to see him too.” She paused for a second. “You know he wasn’t going to hurt you, right?”
    I nodded. “Everything was just too much. The people, the chasing, touching me, and his anger. Geez, he sounded so angry.”
    “I’m not making excuses for him, or taking his side, but he kind of has the right to be angry.”
    “That’s why I was never meant to see him again.”
    “Did you really believe that would work? He’s Dustin’s brother, for crying out loud. You were bound to run into each other eventually.”
    “Not before I said so, and he wasn’t meant to see me like that.” I leaned forward to rest my head on the steering wheel. “He probably thinks I’m crazy.”
    Nadine placed her hand on my back, rubbing soothing circles over it. “It’ll all work out.”
    I let out a groan and turned the key in the ignition. All I wanted was to get out of there. I needed the safety of my flat.
    “Raine, are you okay to drive?”
    “Of course,” I snapped, going on the defensive to prevent any more questions. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
    Teo
     
    I was furious when I first saw her standing in the doorway—at least once the shock wore off. At my workplace, no less! She couldn’t have picked a worse fucking time than when I was in front of the press trying to quell the bad publicity Hattersey managed to get the team on the first day of summer break. We didn’t need another scandal coming out, and the way I’d torn off after her had basically given the press all of the information they needed to tell them there was a bigger story there.
    I hadn’t been thinking when I ran out of the conference room.
    Well, that’s not strictly true. I had been thinking; they just weren’t very cohesive thoughts. It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my gut when my eyes locked with hers. The piercing brown eyes that used to be full of teasing had stared at me with such fear and sorrow while her ruby lips were parted to allow her rapid breaths in and out of her lungs. Even with that expression she looked gorgeous, and I hated the slither of longing that mixed in with the anger and surged through me.
    After a whole year spent trying to forget her, it was all for nothing. As soon as I arrived home she was thrown in my face, first by Dustin and then there she was, at my work.
    It was a fucking joke.
    She’d left me with no answers, no explanations, and no closure. I shouldn’t have desired her still. Then again, the heart wants what the heart wants. Seeing her only made me realise not one person I’d been with since lived up to Raine.
    It had always been her.
    An explanation seemed like a reasonable request after everything she’d put me through. If not so I could understand, so