Page 79 of Taken Off Camera
“Micah?” Sleep roughens Sebastian’s voice.
I can’t answer, past my tight throat, air whistling through a passage too narrow to form words.
Sebastian sits up, the sheets rustling as he moves. The moonlight catches the raised edges of his scars, mapping half his face in silver while the other half remains in shadow.
Without speaking, he pulls me into his arms. I go without resistance, my body limp and pliant as he gathers me to his chest. His skin radiates heat through the thin T-shirt he wears to bed, the steady thump of his heart beneath my ear soothing my panic.
“I’ve got you.” His lips brush my temple. “You’re safe here.”
Safe. What does that even mean when nowhere has proven safe? Not my own apartment. Not my own bathroom. Not my own bed. I’ve been spied on, stalked, and hunted in the spaces I thought were mine alone.
“He was in my home.” The words escape in a ragged whisper. “He touched my stuff. He saw everything.”
Sebastian’s arms tighten around me, one hand cradling the back of my head, fingers threading through my hair. “Not everything. He didn’t see the real you.”
I shake my head. “He saw me naked. He saw mesleeping. He—” I sniffle back the tears. “He saw me crying over you.”
Sebastian’s body tenses beneath mine. “I’m so sorry.” He kisses my hair. “For leaving you alone. For all of it.”
“I’m so angry.” The words scrape my throat raw. “At him. At you. At myself for not protecting myself better.”
“You have every right to be.” Sebastian rubs slow circles on my back, each pass loosening the tension wound too tight inside me. “But this isn’t your fault, Micah. None of it.”
His calm certainty cracks the dam inside me that I’ve been building since the first package arrived. Since I first sensed someone watching. Since long before that, maybe, when I first learned the world wasn’t safe for Omegas.
The first sob surprises me, punched from my chest with such force that it leaves me gasping. The second follows, and then there’s no stopping the flood. I press my face into Sebastian’s chest as my body shakes with the force of it, tears soaking into his shirt.
Sebastian holds me through it all, his arms a fortress around my trembling form. He doesn’t shush me or tell me it’s okay. He just holds on, his scarredcheek resting on the top of my head, his breath warm puffs on my hair.
“I hate being helpless,” I choke out between sobs. “I hate that he took my home from me.”
“You’re not helpless.” Sebastian clears the thickness from his throat. “And you’re not alone. We’ll catch him.”
“What then? What if he refuses to stop?” The question slips out, revealing the fear that’s been gnawing at me since we found the tiny cameras. “What if after everything we do, he still refuses to be scared off?”
Sebastian doesn’t point out the obvious solution—the onlyrealsolution for a multiple offender like Travis—as his hand sweeps up my spine, palm flat between my shoulder blades.
“I feel so stupid,” I whisper.
“You’re the furthest thing from stupid.” Sebastian’s hand cups my cheek, tilting my face up. “You’re brilliant, resourceful, and resilient.”
His thumb brushes away a tear tracking down my cheek, and my chest aches in a different way at the tenderness in his touch. “I don’t feel strong right now.”
“You don’t have to be. Not every minute.” His forehead touches mine, our breath mingling. “That’swhy you have me. That’s why you have Saint. We can be strong for you when you need to rest.”
My lids grow heavy, the emotional toll of the day catching up with me. Sebastian shifts, lowering us both back to the pillows without releasing me from his embrace.
He pulls the covers up around our shoulders, cocooning us in warmth. “Sleep. I’ll be right here.”
“Promise?” The word comes out small and childlike, but I’m too exhausted to be embarrassed.
“I promise.” His lips press against my forehead. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I let my eyes fall closed, Sebastian’s steady heartbeat beneath my palm lulling me toward unconsciousness.
As sleep pulls me under, I think how strange it is that, in a room filled with luxury, the rarest treasure is the simple safety of someone’s arms around me.
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