Captivity (Book 5)

Adam

                I read Russell's message several times, a shiver running through my body knowing that he was reading my messages. I instantly wanted to text Adam back and cancel, not wanting him to get hurt. If anything happened to him or anyone I choose to get close with, I'd lose my mind. My eyes skimmed Russell's message one last time,"Be very careful who you get close too. We wouldn't want another death to be on your hands." My mind went straight to Jarred and how I had killed him. Then Tara who I didn't literally killed but was the reason Kayden killed her.

                Tears filled my eyes thinking back to little Tara, who had her whole life before her. Then Kayden took that all away from her. I couldn't live in this constant fear my whole life. If I truly wanted to live a "normal" life I had to learn to let go of the past as best as I could. Russell was just trying to scare me into being isolated. Kayden said that I could have friends as long as they didn't get suspicious or find anything out about my past.

               I started to text Adam back to get the details. He had offered to pick me up but told him I'd meet him somewhere, not wanting him to know where I lived yet. We agreed to meet at a cute, local cafe in town. I walked up to the stop, admiring the outdoor seating with umbrellas and colorful plants surrounding the building.

               Adam was already sitting at a table, waiting on me when I arrived. A smile appeared on his face when he saw me. I sat down in the booth, across from his. He was wearing a plain gray t-shirt and jean shorts. Black sunglasses rested on top of his fluffy, sand colored hair. I watched as his dark brown eyes checked out my appearance.

              "You look lovely today." He smiled as I sat down.

                "Thank you. You don't look too bad yourself." I blushed from his comment.

                I'd mentally noted my appearance. I was wearing a bright pink tank top with jean shorts and gold flip flops. A pair of sunglasses rested on my head and my skin had a glow to it from the sunscreen that I still had apply to my skin in order to go outside without getting burned. My hair was in a side braid and little amount of makeup was applied. I may look nice now, but what he didn't know was that earlier today I tried cutting myself.

             "What do you recommend?" I asked him as I stared at the menu.

               "If you like seafood, the fish is delicious. Or the turkey club sandwich is a personal favorite." He said.

               I decided to go with the fish since I liked it and hadn't eaten in forever. Also being by the ocean it was more likely to be fresh, rather than in Colorado. Our waitress had delivered our drinks and placed our food order in. As I stared at Adam, I started to think that he was liking me more than a friend. The way his eyes would light up when I talked or when I laughed was something just a friend wouldn't do. I decided not to think about that because I was having a good time and didn't want to ruin it.

              "So have you lived in Florida for your whole life?" I asked.

                "No, I used to live in Indiana until my parents passed away from a car accident." He frowned.

              "Wow, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to bring up a hard topic." I said.

                "Don't worry about it, everyone has a something bad in their life happen. I just choose to move on from mine. This happened when I was eighteen. I was the only one who survived in the car accident. I decided after that to move down here and open up my own shop, knowing I always wanted to own my own business and I just loved Florida. My shop has really started to succeed lately." He gushed, proud of his accomplishments.