Hearts in Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page A

I put it on my arm to remind myself I've tamed it. We, uh, we were driving home from a vacation at the beach. It was a little two-lane country road, and it was late at night because me and Sean had bugged our parents to let us have all day Sunday on the beach."
    Makenna sucked in a breath at the gravity of what he was sharing with her. Her hand paused against his head as she wondered if she should say something, or if she should just let him talk. She was surprised to feel his big warm palm press her hand against his head, and took that as a sign he wanted her to keep rubbing him. So she did.
    "My father was a stickler for going the speed limit. He never cared if twenty cars lined up behind him, blowing their horns and flashing their lights. You could pass on these back roads on the straightaways. People did it all the time. By the time we were about an hour away from the beach, it was all the way dark. I didn't see what happened at the time, but I found out later that a tractor trailer passed us, but moved back in his lane too soon. My father swerved to avoid getting hit."
    Makenna's eyes welled with tears in anticipation of where the story was headed.
    "The next thing I knew, the car was upside down. Wedged in a big irrigation ditch at the edge of a field. The passenger side took the worst damage when the car rolled, the side Sean and my mom were sitting on. I was the only one still conscious after the accident. But I couldn't move because a lot of our stuff from the back of the car—it was a station wagon, of all things—had tumbled forward into the back seat and buried me. My shoulder was dislocated, and I couldn't manage the leverage to dig myself out. I kept calling their names. But none of them would wake up. I passed in and out of consciousness a few times. Every time I woke up, it was dark and I was still trapped. We were there for about four hours before another passing tractor trailer finally spotted the car top-down in the ditch and called for help. By the time they got us out, Mom and Sean were gone."
    "Oh, my God, Caden.” Makenna willed him to feel the comfort and peace she so badly wanted him to have. From what he'd said earlier, she hadn't realized he'd lost his mother, too. She truly wished that wasn't something else they had in common. “I'm so sorry. No wonder..."
    He gently grabbed her hand and slid it around to his cheek.
    Makenna whimpered when she felt him press his face into her palm.
    To her, his gesture seemed brave. She admired his ability to ask for what he needed. His cheekbone felt prominent under her fingers and a light stubble pricked against her palm. She rubbed her thumb gently back and forth.
    "When I finally got over the worst of the claustrophobia, I got the dragon. I wanted to be strong for Sean. And I wanted him to know I wasn't going to live my life in fear, when he couldn't live his at all."
    Makenna was swimming in emotion. The grief she felt for him was palpable; it ran down her temples into her hairline and constricted her throat. Her desire to protect him—to make sure nothing hurt him, scared him, took from him, ever again—came out of nowhere, but she felt the kind of kinship with Caden she'd always felt with her brothers. It didn't matter that she could still count the amount of time she'd known him in minutes.
    And, God, she wanted him.
    She wanted to pull him down on top of her. She longed to feel his weight settle on her body, his lips on hers, his hands in her hair and gliding over her skin. It had been eleven months since she'd last been with someone, and never had she felt this kind of a connection.
    Makenna wanted her hands on him too. Now that she was touching him, she worried she wouldn't be able to stop.
    "Don't stop talking to me, Makenna. I need your words. Your voice."
    "I don't know what to say is all. I want to take away your hurt."
    His cheek lifted into a smile under her hand. “Thank you. But sometimes I think I need it. It reminds me I'm alive. And it