Free Chasing Constellations (The UGS Constellation Series) by HA Fortman Page B

believe I’m not the person responsible for your current state?” Once again thick arms moved to cross in front of his chest as he leaned back slightly, just enough to comfortably cross one ankle at the knee.
    “Yes, but you look just like him.” Her voice trembled slightly as Elisa spoke, Cha se noticed her hands shaking as she pushed the food around in the bowl while she cast quick glances up at him through her hair. “I don’t know why he attacked me, I didn’t do anything to him, why would he want to hurt me and then leave?”
    Cha se reached forward and took the bowl from her hand, twisting at the waist; he set it down on the table next to the bed. “You were too close to the truth and he’s trying to drive you away. Plus, it was a warning to me that he’s going to hurt you again and again until I can stop him or he stops me.” He said. With a lift of his shoulders, Chase shrugged before turning back to her.
    He dropped his foot back to t he floor, crossed his arms and leaned forward to pierce her with his neon blue eyes. He reached forward with his hand and tenderly brushed the tips of his fingers against her cheek. He said, “He knows about you now. I can’t let you go back or you’ll be attacked again.” His voice dropped, turned rough as he spoke ending with a soft growl.
    “Can’t let me… but… I can’t stay here!” Elisa jerked her head back out of his reach, her words a bare whisper that broke on the fear choking her.  She forced herself to go on, “I have to help them catch him. If… if he’s the one that was doing the killings then he has to be stopped! Maybe… maybe they can use me as bait. If I talk to Detective Tanner I’m sure he can come up with something. I can’t let him hurt anyone else. Please, you have to see that!”
    Chase shook his head as he leaned back slightly on the stool, once more crossing his arms across his chest as his face drew into a fierce frown. It was obviously a look he used often on the rest of the men under his command, but one that Elisa was determined to not let get to her. “I can’t risk that Elisa. I can’t risk you. I won’t risk you!”
    “ You can’t stop me.” Elisa said as she stubbornly mimicked his pose by crossing her own arms under her chest, accentuating her breasts by pushing them up and together over the sheet covering her. She had forgotten that her shirt and bra had been removed to allow the Doctor to see to her wounds.
    “I got hurt, yes. But in a few days I’ll be good enough to help. And besides, if he sees that I’m not there he’ll leave the area. Although if he sees me there , and still covered in bruises from his attack, he might be tricked into using me as bait. It’s worth a shot at least! Normally he just kills. He doesn’t just attack like this and then leave.”
    Cha se chuckled at this declaration, his head shaking back and forth slowly. “I know he usually kills. Trust me. I’ve been following him for a while, a lot longer than you. I have a personal interest vested in capturing him and making him pay for what he has done. As for using you as bait…” He tilted his head to the side and studied the young lady before him, watching her hands as they clutched her upper arms in an attempt to hide the shaking. “I don’t like you putting yourself in such a precarious and dangerous position, but it might be what we have to do. You are my Anare, my heart and my soul, it is not something I like to think of having to do, but I will do whatever I can to catch him and end his reign of terror.”
    Elisa nodded as though she understood what he had said, granted she knew most of it, but she had no idea what Anare meant or why Chase thought she was one. Dropping her hands back to her lap and working the material back and forth between her fingers, she thought of the next words she wanted to say, choosing how to tell them so she wouldn’t appear to have lost her mind.
    “Am I… am I really out in space right now? If