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“I don’t know what’s happening to me either.” I wrap my arms around his middle and cry against his chest.
He holds me tightly across my back, tighter than he’s ever held me before, like he doesn’t ever want to imagine his life without me.
“You’re gonna be okay,” he assures me. “We’ll get them. There’ll be a reckoning, I swear it.”
“How did you find me?” I perch back, wanting so badly to see him, to look into his eyes. To know this man who’s come to mean something to me.
“I—”
“The truth, A.” I know there’s more.
I didn’t miss the fact that he said he watched me get hurt. How could he have seen it? Did they send footage to his phone?
He releases a long huff. “I have cameras installed in your home.”
A flush creeps up my cheeks. “I’m sorry,what?”
“It’s for your protection, Kayla.”
“How dare you?!” I push him off with two palms across his chest. “How could you violate me that way after what I’ve been through?”
My head, it hurts. I hate this. I don’t want to exist like this. Being watched, preyed on. I can’t trust anyone anymore.
“I needed to make sure the killer wasn’t after you, that the traffickers didn’t return for you. But I fucking failed. I know that!”
“Get out!” I snatch a fistful of his shirt. “Get the hell out!”
He grabs my wrist and brings my body flush against his, and before he knows what’s happening, I grab his mask and yank it off his face.
But once I see who’s behind it, I stumble backward, a cold rush creeping up my spine.
“No!” I trip, trying to get away, my pulse pounding in my ear. “It c-can’t be you.” I tremble out the words, unable to process the face I’m looking at.
How could I not know? How could I have been deceived this way?
“Please, Kayla. Let me explain.”
“No, g-get away from me!” My voice comes as a whispered shout, tears leaking out of the edges of my eyes.
“Please don’t run from me, baby bird. I can’t stand the thought of losing you.” His throat bobs as he draws closer while I back into the door, slamming right into it.
Two palms cage me as his lips, those lips I’ve dreamed about kissing when I could finally see his face, hover above mine.
“I won’t stay here another moment! Not after this!” My heart aches, the betrayal soaking in so deep I don’t know how I canever forget it.
His lips curl on one side and his gaze grows sad.
He reaches for my face, knuckles feathering down slowly as those eyes, those bright green eyes, pin mine. “I’m sorry, Kayla. But I can’t let you leave.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
KAYLA
I don’t wantto leave either. All I want is to make him put that mask back on and pretend. I want to return to a time when I didn’t know who he was. Didn’t know that he spent all this time lying to me.
“Get away from me,Chris.” My teeth rattle from how hard I bite down.
It can’t be him. All this time? How? How did I not even suspect it? Am I that stupid?
