Read Evan Arden 03 Otherwise Unharmed for Free Online Page A

of me wasn’t anywhere near that stupid.  Even in my current state, I wasn’t going to say anything to make her run screaming from the room.  That was what she would have done if I had told her everything.
    No doubt about it.
    Without the ability to tell her all of it, I had to go with the basic, high-level view of the situation.
    “ I can’t…I can’t sleep,” I finally said.
    “ Why not?”
    “ The dreams.”
    “ Tell me what you dream about,” she said softly.
    I turned my head to gaze up at her.  I didn’t know what I saw there, but I knew it wasn’t just morbid curiosity or nosiness.
    “I was a POW,” I told her.
    She nodded, and there was no surprise contained within her eyes.
    “I know,” she replied.  “I read about it.  Is that what you dream about?”
    “ Most of the time,” I said.  Flashes of Bridgett’s body on the ground flickered in my brain, and I bit down on my lip to stop myself from blurting it out.  “I usually dream about being tied up and shoved into a hole in the ground.  And the sand.  Just constant, fucking sand.”
    “ How long has it been since you’ve slept?”
    I shrugged and shook my head.  I had no idea.
    “I can’t sleep by myself,” I said.  “It’s been…a while.”
    “ By yourself?” Lia asked.  “But you can sleep if someone is with you?”
    Whirling nausea swirled in my stomach.  I hadn’t meant to say anything about it at all, and now she was likely to press for a better answer.  What would I even tell her?  I do my best sleeping after a little anal with a hooker?  Oh, by the way, I might have shot her when the mood struck me.
    How about a nice night on the town?
    “I guess,” I said quietly.  My heartbeat pounded in my temples as I started to sweat due to the energy it was taking not to tell her what happened.
    Lia’s fingers trailed slowly over the side of my face.
    “If I was with you, would you be able to sleep?”
    The feeling that came over me at the very idea could have easily knocked me to the floor if I hadn’t already been secured to the metal chair.  My fingers tightened on her thigh as the reality of the situation hit me.
    If I had just held out another day—maybe even another hour—I could be sleeping with her right now.  I could be in my bed with Lia in my arms and Odin making disgusting saliva trails on my arm when I overslept.
    I’d fucked it all up.
    “Shit…shit…shit…”
    “ Evan!”
    “ So fucked up…”
    “ I know,” she said with a rush of air from her lungs. “It’s as fucked up as anything ever has been.”
    “ It’s worse,” I responded.  I squeezed my eyes shut and considered biting down on my tongue.
    There’s a rush of blood into my throat just after a sharp blow to my chin causes me to bite down on my tongue.  For a moment I think I’m choking on my own blood, but once I manage to swallow, I can breathe again.  My tongue throbs in my mouth…
    “ Evan?”
    As my thoughts were interrupted, my lungs started screaming at me to fill them up with some air before I passed out face-first on the table.  I tried to inhale but couldn’t and started to panic.
    The blood in my mouth mixes with the sand as I’m thrown back to the ground, and for a moment I am choking on it…
    “Evan, stay with me.”
    “Can’t breathe.”
    “Calm, baby.”   Her fingers traced the edge of my jaw.  “Just listen to my voice, and take a slow breath.”
    I wanted to listen to her badly enough that I forced my diaphragm to flex and pull air into my lungs in a sharp gasp.
    “ It’s okay.”  Lia’s voice pulled me from the panic the same way it had managed to pull me from the memory.  “It’s all right, Evan…  You’re all right.”
    With nearly violent effort, I inhaled again.  The act itself nearly made me fall out of the chair.  I wondered if it was the restraints or Lia’s touch that was keeping me from landing on the floor.  After a few more tries and a lot of focus on her skin against