Dateless and Deadly

Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

The silence was killing me.

I kept glancing over at James wanting to start a conversation but not knowing where to begin. His knuckles were white from holding onto the steering wheel so hard and the speedometer was almost maxed out. Which for this car was only like 90 km/hr but still, it was a 60 zone.

“James,” I managed to choke out, feeling my heart rate speed up as his knuckles got even whiter. “I’m sorry.”

He snorted.

“I’m trying to apologize,” I said, upset that he hadn’t even looked at me since we got into the car. “I know what I did was not smart but Calypso checked for us! She said it was safe!” I crossed my arms over my chest trying to convince myself that I hadn’t done anything terribly wrong. “I added a bunch of my power to the shield so that the base would be safe. What are you so pissed about?”

He growled.

I glared at his angry profile. “You’re not going to say anything to me?” I practically yelled.

He clenched his jaw and through gritted teeth said, “I don’t think I could say anything without throttling you at the moment.”

I snorted. “Don’t you think you’re taking this a little too far, James?”

He looked over at me for a second, his eyes were unreadable as they met mine and a muscle in his cheek was ticking. When he looked back at the road, he slammed his foot on the break and swerved off to the shoulder, making us fishtail.

I sucked in a breath as the back end of the car slid sideways on the gravel. I gripped the door and closed my eyes hoping that we weren’t about to die. Finally, we came to a stop. “Jesus!” I yelled, punching him on the arm. “What the hell was that?”

He turned in his seat and moved closer to me. He grabbed my head, one hand on either side and looked me dead in the eyes. His dark blue gaze was cloudy and I couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Hell, with him this close to me, I couldn’t even tell what I was thinking.

“You could have died tonight,” he said, his eyes getting darker.

“Well, no kidding, you swerved us off the road like a maniac!”

“Not,” he growled, “my driving.” He closed his eyes and took a calming breath. When he opened them again, they weren’t quite as dark. “You left the base with no protection and you didn’t tell anyone. What if Caine had found you?”

“I told you about Calypso,” I said sheepishly.

“And I told you that just knowing about the future changes it.” He shook his head and looked over the top of my head. “You do know how important this is, don’t you?” His eyes met mine again. “We need you Cass.”

I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of disappointment at his words. For some reason I wanted to hear him say something else. I wanted that ‘we’ to be an ‘I’.

I shook my head causing his hands to fall to my shoulders. “I know.” I took a breath and suddenly felt totally exhausted. I had been stupid. I knew it as soon as I walked out the door but I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t want to. I wanted to be normal. Or at least, as normal as a girl who just found out that she had a long lost brother could be. I wanted to get to know Harper without having to worry about saving the world. “I’m sorry, James. I really am. It’s just that sometimes it gets to be a little much, you know?”

He nodded and some of the dark shadows that had been in his eyes receded. “I know.” He brushed a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Just tell me next time you want to visit Harper and I’ll go with you, okay?”