Page 7 of Liam James
But then a noise outside made me jump—a car door slamming down the street. Liam’s head snapped toward the window, his entire body going tense.
“You expecting anyone?” he asked.
I shook my head, my mouth dry.
He crossed the room in three strides, moving like a man who’d done this a thousand times before. One glance through the curtain, and he relaxed—but only slightly.
“Teenagers,” he muttered. “Cutting through the alley.”
I let out a shaky breath. My nerves were strung so tight I could feel my pulse hammering behind my eyes.
When he turned back, his expression softened just a little. “You’re safe, Jenny. I promise you that.”
And the thing was… I believed him. My thoughts drifted to where I hadn’t let them go in a long time.
Sometimes, when the nights stretched too long and the house fell silent, the memories came back sharper than I wanted them to.
I could still hear the creak of the old farmhouse stairs, the slow drag of boots across the floorboards when he came looking for me. My brother. The monster I shared a last name with.
People always assumed monsters came with snarling faces and warning signs. They didn’t. Sometimes they smiled at the neighbors. Sometimes they sat across from you at the dinner table. Sometimes they were your own blood.
I learned early to stay small. Stay quiet. Don’t laugh too loud. Don’t cry where he can hear you. Don’t ever think you’re safe just because the sun is shining. Because the one thing Jarod loved most was scaring me. Once, he choked me until I passed out. The whole time he was laughing.
Mama tried to protect me. I remembered the way she’d slide herself between us when his temper flared, the way her hands shook after, but she still told me everything was fine. That was the thing about fear—you learned to live with it, tuck it under your skin until it became part of you.
By the time I was old enough to leave, it felt like the world beyond our house couldn’t possibly be worse than the one I was escaping.
But fear like that doesn’t disappear just because you pack a bag and walk away. It follows you. It waits in the corners. It makes you dye your hair, change your name, and build walls so high no one can climb them.
And sometimes, like tonight, it makes you wonder if you’ll ever really be free.
Liam
I hadn’t planned on this. Onher.
Jenny Kennedy was trouble in all the ways a man didn’t need, with danger stalking her and a mouth that ran just fast enough to drive me crazy.
But then she looked at me with those green eyes, holding herself together by a thread, and I knew I was already in too deep.
I kept my voice steady. “I’m staying close tonight. We’ll set up shifts. Forest, and the others will help until we know how far this goes.”
Her lips parted as if she wanted to argue, but thought better of it. “I don’t want anyone else getting hurt because of us,” she murmured.
I stepped closer, close enough to smell the faint scent of wildflowers in her hair under the sharp tang of red dye. “That’s not your call to make. You and Poppy come first.”
She blinked up at me. “Why are you helping us?”
Because the thought of her brother finding them made my blood run cold, and I couldn’t bear the look in Poppy’s eyes when she told me what she saw.
But I only said, “Because it’s what I do.”
She swallowed hard, like she wasn’t sure if she should thank me or run.
“Get some rest tonight,” I told her. “Tomorrow, we start making plans.”
But deep down, I knew sleep wasn’t in the cards. Not with danger closing in. And not with Jenny Kennedy standing so close, looking at me like maybe—just maybe—I was the only thing keeping her world from falling apart.
6
