Page 37 of The Ruthless Guardian

I kiss her forehead, then move my lips over her cheek and across her mouth. “I’ve got you. I always will. And we’re going to do this together, baby. I’ll walk you through it, okay?”

“Okay. So let’s do it.”

Taking her hand in mine, I pull her closer to the garage. “Don’t forget, if you need to quit, you tell me. I won’t push. And I’ll kill Reaper if he tries to pressure you.”

Phoebe chuckles quietly. “I don’t think you kill the Grim Reaper. That’s not how that works.”

“You’re talking a lot of shit for someone that almost passed out just from seeing him.”

She scoffs and rolls her eyes but doesn’t drop the smile that’s been on her lips for the last few minutes, and I’m so glad that she’s not panicking. “I was not going to pass out!”

“Stay behind me when I open this door.”

Her smile falls a little as she tucks herself behind my back and clutches my shirt. I’m sure she’d rather appear unafraid, but it’s not like Tony is going to ever be able to tell anyone about it. He’s not going to leave this property alive, so if he sees her scared for a second, she’s the only one that’s going to know.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Phoebe

The door opens and my stomach clenches. Reaper is crouched behind Tony’s chair, talking directly into his ear. When they see me, Reaper extends one of his long, tattooed arms and points at me. “You dinnae speak to that woman, ya understand? Or I’ll put a nail through your tongue.”

I gasp and jolt backwards, but Josiah pulls my arms tighter around his waist and stops walking. I should have presumed this was going to be a brutal, gory torture situation, but somehow I guess I thought it wouldn’t feel so shocking when the time came. “I’m okay,” I say, when my breathing has calmed.

“What are you gonna do to me?” Tony says, turning his eyes up to Josiah. “Your sister’s been dead almost ten years. You’re not going to bring her back by torturing me.”

“Don’t talk about my sister,” Josiah growls, his muscles tensing under my fingers. “How did you find Phoebe?”

“You put Rose in that situation. You fed her right to me. She told me what you did, you know?”

Reaper gets to his feet and presses the sharp blade of his knife to Tony’s throat, grabbing a fist full of his hair to tilt his head back, forcing the bastard to make eye contact with him. “He asked you a question,” he forces out.

Tony’s eyes find me as I step out from behind Josiah, feeling braver. The reason he’s talking like this is because he’s utterly powerless. The only control he has left is the ability to run his mouth. “Ah and little Phoebe, you’ve grown up so nicely,” he says, and Josiah and Reaper both begin to move.

Reaper presses the knife harder against Tony’s skin and Josiah grips my arms, like he’s going to put me behind him again, but I hold up my hand to stop them both. “How did you find me?”

Rolling his eyes, Tony sighs, like this question is inconvenient to him while he’s tied up and being held with a knife to his throat. “It wasn’t fucking hard. My last cellmate was a kid you grew up with, until your parents fried up like bacon. We talked, your name came up, and then I promised to share you with him if he helped me scare you a little. He did good, making friends with you when you moved back, and he even gave you the little gift I sent him with.

“You’re even prettier now,” Tony continues, smiling appreciatively at me. “I don’t think I would have shared you. I would have kept you all to myself. But you’re stupider. Coming back here was never an option for you, Phoebe, if you didn’t want to be found. You walked right into a trap I was already setting up for you.”

Josiah yanks me back against his body with an arm around my waist as my heart races and my stomach lurches. “Which friend?” Josiah growls.

“Some punk-ass kid she played at the park with. I convinced him she was the one that started the fire, and told him she got me convicted on a false accusation. He’s stupid, too. I think his name was… Ryan.”

Fuck. He’s telling the truth. I sink deeper into Josiah, searching for comfort and hopefully selective amnesia. Ryan was never my best friend, but he sort of came with the group that I was used to hanging around. As a kid, he was an asshole, but apparently he only grew worse.

“Speaking of murderers, do you know the man you’re attached to killed both his parents? That’s why Rose was there in that house with us.” His eyes fly up to Reaper when a nail presses against his tongue and I look away, hiding him from vision with my hair.

Josiah’s arms tighten again until he’s crushing me. Tony screams and I groan. I lied. I can’t do this. I imagined it going differently. I thought I was strong enough, but there’s too much going on. I’m going to be sick. I fight to free myself from Josiah’s grip, but he lifts me off my feet and carries me back into the house.

“Get off me,” I grumble, pushing my palms into his abs behind me to try to create distance between our bodies as nausea bubbles in my belly and rises up the back of my throat.

“No, listen. Just listen to me,” he begs. “I was going to tell you. I didn’t think-”

“Let me go, Josiah. Now.” My chest is aching and I’m going to puke if he doesn’t loosen the arm cinched around my waist. I don’t want to puke right here, all over us, but he’s not going to let me go while he’s scared and I can’t get enough breath to force the words out of my mouth.

“Please, Phoebe. Please just listen to what I’m saying. It was ten years ago. My parents were- My dad-Fuck, you’re going to run from me no matter what I tell you. Please, promise you won’t leave me.” The pressure against my belly increases and I lean forward to keep the vomit from spewing down my body. “Shit! Phoebe!”

His fingers cup my jaw, his palm resting against my throat, as the other hand pulls my hair away from my face. “Are you okay?”

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