Page 240 of Hide and Keep

“Neither do I.”

“Is that why you put the lock on your door?”

“I didn’t have to worry about it before. He was never in the manor overnight. Until…”

“I showed up.”

Between following orders from her abusive father to unintentionally giving Ryan direct access to her bedroom, no wonder she fucking hated me.

“It’s not your fault,” she says, trying to soothe me. Me. Like I’m the one who needs it.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Ever? Come here.” Without giving her a chance to turn me down, I climb over to her, enveloping her in my arms. I hear a sniffle and it might as well be a seismic wave from my heart splitting wide open.

“Jesus, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner. I’m sorry I treated you like shit.” Although, she did deservesomeof my treatment. Even she can admit that. “I’m sorry I doubted you. I’m so fucking sorry.”

Her arms wrap around me, her hands clasping behind my back.

“I’m sorry, too. I’m sorry your life was stolen from you.”

Was it stolen from me? It felt like that at the time. But now that I realize I’ve been looking at things wrong all along, I’m not so sure that’s what happened. I didn’t fight as hard as I could. I didn’t really fight at all. I was…in shock. From the moment Yaz and I left that dance, everything sped up. My life went from a dream to a nightmare in an instant and it just kept getting worse. I did the same thing I did when I was in the car. I froze. I let my survival instinct take the wheel and I’ve been in a constant loop of nothing ever since, never stopping but never going anywhere either.

“What if you told Arthur about Ryan trying to get into your room? What do you think he’d do?” Because that’s exactly whatthat motherfucker’s been trying to do. Thank fucking God I’m a paranoid prick and put those sensors in Ever’s room. Even faulty, they’ve kept him from getting to her.

I’ve kept him from getting to her, but the sensor helped.

I’m so grateful it didn’t fail the times he tried.

I squeeze Ever tighter in my arms, sorrier than I’ll ever be able to vocalize.

She scoffs. “Nothing.”

“What if I told him? And showed him proof?”

Pulling back, she looks at me seriously. “Don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re more likely to get fired than he is.”

We can’t have that. We definitely can’t have that.

Shit. What else can we do? He cooks food for fuck’s sake. Anybody can cook good food.

Anybody can cook bad food, too…

“Okay.” I bring her back into my arms. “It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of it.”

Even though I’m an absolute jackass for even thinking she’d fuck that loser, Ever relaxes against me.

“How?”

“Don’t worry about it, little bat. It’s my job to protect you and that’s what I’m going to do.”

It’s easier for me to choose not to be a victim. My attacker’s out of the picture, out of my life. But Ever’s is still here, terrorizing her.

That’s why I’m going to get rid of him.

“Don’t get sent to prison.”

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