Page 58 of Top Shelf

“Not anymore, I’m afraid. Security is waiting at the front of the restaurant. They’ll escort you to your room to get your belongings.”

Hayden looks back at me, then to Demi, waving her phone in the air. Then he looks back at me and slowly steps out from behind the table, following the manager out through the restaurant.

Demi turns to me, holding my hand.

“You okay?” she asks. I nod slowly.

“Yeah,” I say. “Thank you for coming with me. And thank you for recording.”

“Of course,” she says. “There was no way in hell I’d let you do this on your own.” I smile. “How did you know I should record?”

I shrug as we walk back through the restaurant.

“Just a hunch,” I say. I didn’t go into the meeting conspiring to get him so riled up that he’d act out. But I also know that if you cage a monster, they’re sure to have a breaking point. As we’re walking out of the hotel, we hear someone calling after us.

“Ma’am!” I turn around to see the manager running after us, carrying a white towel. “Here’s some ice for that cheek. And if you need security footage, please let us know. Here’s my card.”

I take it and look up at him. He smiles a sad smile, then pats my shoulder.

“Thank you,” I say as we turn away.

I get in the front seat of Demi’s car a few minutes later, and we head back in the direction of Tyson’s.

I pull my phone out of my pocket. Three missed calls and five texts from him. Shit.

“He’s freaking out,” I say, staring down at my phone.

“I know,” she says. “He already texted us to ask if anyone has seen or heard from her.”

“What did you say?” I ask.

“Nothing yet.”

I nod.

“Thank you, Demi,” I say. She turns to me and smiles before she pulls off in the direction

of his house. It’s a quiet drive, but it’s the same comfortable silence with Demi that I have with Tyson. And it’s funny now that I ever found her intimidating. She’s not mean or scary. She just loves really hard.

Finally, we pull into his development, and when we turn into the driveway, we see him standing in the front yard on his phone. He hangs up slowly when he sees us pull in, his eyes zooming with worry. He looks at me, then to her, then to me as he makes his way in my direction. He pulls me in and kisses my forehead, and I’m reminded of how he loves me. Me first, before anything else. Before any shortcoming I ever had, before any scolding or anger.Me.Before anything else, he wants me to be taken care of.

“What’s going on?” he asks, probably the most confused as to why I am with the one sister who didn’t want me back in the picture. Demi looks to me, unsure if she should answer or not.

“I went and saw Hayden,” I say quickly before she can cover for me in any way. His eyes widen as they jump to Demi.

“Youwhat?”he asks. I try to keep my head turned, but I feel his eyes searching me. He

reaches up gently and puts his hand on my face, brushing my hair off of it. “What…what happened? Where were you? What is this?” His thumb traces gently underneath the mark on my cheek that the bottle made. I sigh.

“Let’s go inside,” I say, taking his hand. I look up into his eyes. “I’m okay, Ty. I’m okay.”

He nods, staring at me blankly as we walk up the steps and into the house. I see Demi pause, and I wave for her to follow us.

CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO

tyson

Easy,I tell myself as I try to be as patient as possible while I wait for her to get settled on the couch. She kicks off her shoes and pulls the big throw over top of her as I sit down on the ottoman in front of her. I put my elbows on my knees and clasp my hands together, waiting to see where this is going. My mind is spiraling off in a million different directions, thousands of possibilities, all of them gruesome.

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