Page 81 of Prey

She smiled at me sleepily, and I felt my heart clench.

Was this more than just an obsession? I didn’t know, and I was afraid of what the answer might be.

“Hey, why aren’t you asleep?” she asked.

“Just had a few things to do. I’m sorry if I woke you.”

She frowned. “You didn’t.”

Her eyes moved to the computer. The screen had already turned black.

“Are you about done?”

I shut the laptop closed and set it on the nightstand. Lying back down, I pulled her into my arms.

“Yeah, I’m done.”

She snuggled in closer to me. “Good. You barely sleep as it is. You should really sleep when you can,” she mumbled, her eyes already drifting shut.

I reached out and turned off the light, bathing the room in complete darkness.

Her breath evened out, and I knew she had fallen asleep.

“Ryleigh?”

There was no answer.

I squeezed her to me.

“I fucking love you,” I whispered.

And the confession didn’t scare me as much as I thought it would.

What the fuck was I supposed to do with the flash drive now?

* * *

I looked downat the text I had just sent her, telling her I would be home late tonight, again.

Two days had passed, and I was nowhere near a decision about the flash drive as I had been when I first held it in my palm.

And like a fucking coward, I had been ignoring Ryleigh.

I didn’t know how to look into her eyes while simultaneously working to destroy her dad.

It had to be done.

I knew that.

But Ryleigh didn’t.

She didn’t know the kind of man her father was.

Hatred for the bastard burned in my heart. I was in this fucking dilemma because of him.

I might be a bad man, but I never tried to hide it.

I never took on a government position, vowing to protect the law like he had done, but it was still my decision that would end up hurting her, and at the end of the day, that was all that would matter to her.

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