Page 30 of Too Safe

Until her.

I blow out a long breath, glaring at Decker with as much disdain as I can muster. He meets my gaze and holds it. As much as I want to keep fighting him on this, I won’t. He knows it. I know it. So after several tense seconds, I drop my head in defeat.

“Look, if we could find some fucking information on her, it’d be different.” His tone isn’t as hard as before, his words an olive branch.

We all turn to Kylian, but he just shrugs.

“I’ll keep digging. If you all get to know her better while she’s here, maybe you’ll uncover information that’ll help.”

Decker nods but side-eyes me again. As much as he likes to be a bossy asshole, he tries to lead by consensus. I know he wants my agreement.

I still don’t like what we’re doing. But I understand his reasoning.

With a subtle dip of my chin, I relent.

He sighs, crossing one arm in front of the other in a stretch, obviously itching to get into the gym and work through some of this tension. We all are after the fucking night we’ve had.

“That’s what this is about when it comes down to it. Kylian can’t find anything about Josephine Meyer from Blakely, Ohio. No records. Nothing on social. Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe we’ve stumbled upon the last remaining twenty-one-year-old without any sort of online presence. But something about her doesn’t add up. I don’t trust it.”

That’s the heart of what has Decker so paranoid.

Out of thin air, a new girl shows up in Lake Chapel. She’s a nontraditional student and the recipient of the Crusade Scholarship. She’s already been to the house. She and I have texted every night this week. Then we just randomly run in to her after our treatments? Even I can see how unlikely the coincidence is.

Decker determined she’s a threat. It’s the only logical conclusion, even if it doesn’t track with what my gut’s telling me.

I can’t even fault him for it. He’s always been our protector, and he’s a damn good leader. Between his dad’s celebrity status, what happened to his mom, and what he’s destined to be, Decker has every reason not to trust people.

Everyone has an angle. Everyone wants something from him. Everyone except the guys in this room.

There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Decker, Kylian, or Kendrick. And I know without a doubt the feeling is mutual.

My hands are tied.

I don’t agree with him. In fact, I’m fucking pissed at how over-the-top this whole thing is.

But Decker is my brother. I owe him for so much. I trust him. I love him.

If this is what he deems necessary, then I won’t fight him on it.

Even if it means losing Joey’s trust and blowing up the sizzling connection between us I wasn’t anywhere near done exploring.

Fuck.

Every time I start thinking about her as a threat, I forget that she’s just a girl.

No, not just a girl. A woman. A woman I was fucking lucky to be intimately acquainted with last weekend. A woman I desperately wanted to get to know even more.

She’s got to be so pissed, and there’s no doubt a lot of her rage will be aimed at me. At least I’ll have plenty of opportunities to make it up to her now that she’s staying at the house.

I’m not giving up. If she’s living here, we’re bound to be forced to spend time together. I’ll find my way back into her good graces. Even if we don’t pick back up where we left off in the pantry last weekend, I’m sure she could use a friend.

Pushing off the island, I turn toward the windows, searching for the woman who’s held my attention for the last week. Guilt clogs my throat when I spot her slender frame huddled at the end of the dock.

“I’m going to check on her,” I announce.

“She’s gonna push your ass in the lake.”

I glare at Kendrick, but he’s not wrong.

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