Page 110 of Rear View
“Hi,” I breathed, because where the heck else did I start?
His voice was rough when he replied, “Hey.”
My gaze raked over him. “I tried to call.”
“I didn’t have my phone.”
I bit my lip and swallowed around the dryness in my throat. “I’m so sorry, Xavier.”
He looked away for several agonizing seconds, then back. “Tell me somethin’, yeah.” At my nod, he asked, “What was that earlier?”
The tears broke free, a damn that’d breached its banks. My chest heaved as I sobbed.
He crouched, one hand bracing him against the ground before he rolled his shoulders. “You ashamed of me or something?”
Oh, God.My hands flew to my mouth. How could he think that? Didn’t he not know who he was? What other people saw when they looked at him? WhatIsaw? I was such an idiot. I’d been so caught in my own head, I hadn’t even considered how he might see things.
My feeble gaze found his when I uttered, “Never, Xavier.”
His brows lowered, that stare holding mine. “Then what’s going on, Ryah?”
I wrapped my arms around myself to lock my pieces together, took a steadying breath and finally,finallytold him the truth. “I—” I cleared my throat, then did it again and again and again. “I have a stalker.”
Chapter Thirty
Xavier
Stalker. She had a stalker. She had afucking stalker!
The words hit harder than the crash and almost knocked me on my ass. My hand gripped the ground, fingers digging into the ice and snow to hold me in place.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, Xavier, and I know it was selfish and wrong, but you were mine and something he hadn’t touched and you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I was afraid of the fallout if you knew and I just wanted to keep you, but you deserve the truth because you have this big life, and I don’t want to risk anything for you.”
The tread on my mind’s tires caught and torqued when realization struck like a fist. Her not having social media, or voicemail, her not going out, or datin’, or drinking, or answering unknown numbers. And her reaction when I’d posted her picture.
Because some piece of shit had been stalking her.Mygoddamn girl! Christ. It all finally fit. Every damn piece.
“Say something,” she begged.
I dropped my knee to the ice with a thud. My armsnapped around her and I dragged her to my chest. “I’ll kill the motherfucker.”
A sob tore from her as she pressed her face into my neck. I hooked my grip under her ass, and I stood, taking her with me. Turning, I eyed Miles. “I’ve got her.”
He gave a sharp nod like he’d expected it, saluted, then climbed in his car and backed out of the driveway.
I unlatched my door and carried my girl inside. Heading for the kitchen, I set her on the island and stayed between her legs. Stripping off our coats, I tossed them over the smoked oak table before my palms landed on the gray marble counter by her hips.
I kept my cool on the surface for her, but underneath, I damn well seethed. “Who is it, darlin’?”
I’d never been so ready for violence. I wanted his blood on my hands. Wanted to beat the asshole until his DNA was indecipherable. Until he was good and goddamn dead.
A name, dream girl. Just gimme a name.
She shook her head before it fell. “I don’t know.”
My brows pushed low. “You don’t know?”
Again, she shook her head and her shoulders dropped like she felt guilty.
