Page 34 of Fade With Me

I rose to my feet, my legs shaky, trembling with the electric pulse of rage. My blood boiled with the urge to lash out. But as I moved toward him, something in my core recoiled, primal and instinctive, pushing me back.

No. I don’t trust you anymore.

The truth slammed into me. It wasn’t just his presence that unsettled me. It was everything. Reggie’s fingerprints were all over this. Zeke’s appearance in my life wasn’t a coincidence.

Reggie had planned it. To watch me. To control me. To track every move I made.Or worse…to silence me if I got too close to whatever he was hiding. He was more than capable of that.

How long? How long had he been following me? Weeks? Months?Years?

I’d suspected Zeke once, thought he was dangerous, maybe even sent after Sal. But now, seeing the full picture, that theory felt naïve. Desperate. Pathetic.

My stomach twisted as the revelation took hold. His eyes had always been on me. And I’d been blind, entangled in the illusion of friendship while the real threat stood right in front of me.

And those dreams…those dreams of him searching for me, calling my name. They weren’t just dreams; they were warnings. My subconscious had been trying to tell me that someone—he—was always watching.

“Did you know who I was that day?!” I shouted, my voice splintering the fragile silence.

The words hung in the air, suspended in tension. For a moment, just a flicker, Zeke’s eyes shifted. There was a hesitation, almost imperceptible, before his gaze fell. It was as if he were deciding whether to lie. Then, with a resigned sigh, he spoke. The single word that left his lips made my stomach drop.

“Yes.”

He’d known who I was the entire time. Every moment we’d shared, the laughter, the conversations, the touch of his hand. All of it had been a lie. I had trusted him. I had let him in, believed he was my friend. But in reality, he was the puppet master, pulling strings from behind the scenes, lurking just out of sight.

Tears welled in my eyes, but I tried to hide them. I turned away, pressing my hand to my face as if I could hold the betrayal in.

“I thought you were my friend,” I whispered, my voice cracking with the gravity of that revelation. The words felt fragile, breaking apart like glass.

Zeke’s expression faltered, shifting into something unreadable. Remorse? Maybe. But the guilt was buried, hidden behind something else. He stepped closer, his voice soft with an odd mix of sorrow and defeat.

“I’ve wanted to be honest with you, Bryn,” he murmured, his tone low. “From the moment I found you…but I couldn’t take the chance.” He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “I needed to earn your trust first—to make you feel safe with me.”

I blinked, trying to make sense of what he’d said. My thoughts tangled, a storm of anger and disbelief.

“This wasn’t how I wanted this to go,” he admitted.

The air crackled with tension as I struggled to absorb it all.

“What do you mean, ‘found’ me?” I demanded, my voice sharp, dangerous. I stepped closer, fists clenched at my sides. “Were you hired to take me out, or are you just some creep with a twisted sense of fun?” The questions spilled out, frantic and raw. “How long have you been tailing me? Watching me without my knowing?”

He met my gaze, and in that brief lapse, I saw it. Guilt. His brow twitched, lips parting like he meant to speak,but the words caught in his throat. It was barely there, a subtle shift, but it was enough.

A twisted satisfaction washed over me.Good. He should feel guilty.

But as I stared into his eyes, a gnawing thought crept in: Was that guilt for what he’d already done…or something worse he was planning?

An icy shiver raced down my spine. A vise clamped around my chest. The way he looked at me—cold, deliberate, probing—unsettled everything. But there was something else behind it, something lethal.

Could I outrun him?

The woods were silent and heavy; the trees stretched upward like mute witnesses. No one was around. No one to hear me scream.

The thought settled in like poison.

Was this his plan all along?

My body reacted before my mind could catch up. I stepped back.

He hadn’t moved, but his presence loomed, growing more intimidating by the second.

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