Free Darkness Torn Asunder by Alexis Morgan Page A

one side as she studied him. “So you did.”
    “I won’t apologize for taking him down and not being all that gentle about it.”
    Her chin came up as her eyes narrowed. “Funny, I don’t recall asking you to apologize. If you hadn’t intervened, Tanya would have been hurt a lot worse.”
    Might as well lay it all out there. “Fine, but part of me actually enjoyed punching both of those guys. Yeah, maybe they deserved it, but that was only an excuse. I’m telling you straight up: I’ve been itching for a fight ever since I got up this morning. If it hadn’t been the two of them that set me off, something else would have.”
    Now she looked shocked. “Emmett Sloan, don’t talk that way! I know you better than that.”
    He snorted. “No you don’t, Jana. I told you how I ended up in prison. The fact that I didn’t actually kill that gangster doesn’t change the fact that I waded into that fight with a grin on my face. Hell, when I was in prison, even the guards thought twice about crowding me.”
    “Why are you acting this way, Emmett? Are you trying to make me scared of you?”
    Obviously she didn’t get it. He hated—HATED—this feeling of being out of control, as if some outside power was driving him somewhere he didn’t want to go. At least in prison he could take refuge in his cell, safe behind bars where no one could get to him. “Yes, lady, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. Hell, I scare myself.”
    When she started toward him with a look of concern on her face, he backed away and held up his hands. “Stay back, Jana. I’m not in control. I’ve been this way all day, and it’s not getting any better.”
    She froze midstep. “It’s like that night when you had to go walking, isn’t it?”
    “Yeah, it is.” Only worse. He ran his hands over his buzz cut, wishing he could make sense of what he was feeling. “It comes and goes, sometimes not for days and days and maybe even then only for a short time. Other days it hangs around for hours and hours. All I know for sure is that it’s getting worse, and right now my control is shot.”
    “I think we should schedule you for a complete physical and then go from there.”
    Damn, Jana looked intrigued, not afraid. Emmett suspected she would wear that same expression whenever a patient presented her with a confusing set of symptoms. Well, he didn’t want to be some kind of interesting lab specimen. He wanted to be normal. He wanted to know he could trust himself around people. And most of all, he wanted her. For her sake, that couldn’t happen, not again, not now.
    What more could he say to make her understand?
    It was getting harder to talk around the lump of shame wedged in his throat. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your car, and then I’ve got stuff to do here.”
    “I can wait.”
    “No, you should go home, Jana.”
    He started walking toward the door and hoped she’d follow without arguing. When he held out her coat, she dutifully let him help put it on, but she was clearly not ready to raise the white flag. She turned to face him and put her hand on his chest. He didn’t have the strength to deny himself that one last touch.
    “Listen, Emmett, it’s been one heck of a night, and neither of us got dinner. Why don’t I pick something up on the way home while you finish up here? We can eat at my place.”
    Emmett told himself it was best to treat the situation like ripping off a bandage fast. It would hurt like hell but get the pain over with quicker. “Jana, I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
    Her gasp cut straight through him. She jerked her hand away, her dark eyes brimming with tears. “Why? Because I saw you punch that guy? You can’t be serious.”
    “Serious as death, Jana. Now, let me see you to your car.”
    She gave him a pitying look that curdled his blood. “That’s just priceless, Emmett. You’ll walk me across the street to make sure no one else hurts me, yet you’ll stand there and tear