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“Sit,” I said as I pointed to the kitchen table He immediately stiffened at the order, but he did what I told him Part of me hated that he did because I knehat it meant

He was scared of me

Not that I could bla what had just happened, but I’d tried not to hurt him despite what he’d done

I sat down across the kitchen table from him He refused to make eye contact with me so I took a moment just to study hiry purple-blue color, but where his skin wasn’t bruised, he looked less pale than he had that first day And while hiswith any nausea or dizziness like he had the first couple of days

“So your big plan is to run again?” I asked “Because that’s been working so well for you up until now,” I added

No response No stiffening of his body, no uptick in his breathing, no flash of anger in his eyes It was like all his effort was centered on not reacting in any kind of way I couldn’t help but wonder if that was how he’d learned to cope Maybe staying silent and being invisible had saved him in the past

But I doubted it It hadn’t ever worked for my mother

Even the brief thought had a renewed level of rage going through me But this time it wasn’t directed at the man across from me

When he rehed and said, “Go back to bed, Ethan Starting tomorrow, you’re Ronan Grisham’s problem See if you can convince him you don’t need help”

I started to get up so I could go back to the couch

“You don’t know a thing about lanced over my shoulder at him and was pleased to finally see some fire in his eyes I slowly lowered myself back into the chair

“What I know is that you’re scared shitless and I suspect you have every reason to be I think you’re too afraid to ask for help because getting itI think scares you almost as badly as the motherfucker who stole it from you in the first place” I didn’t expect him to respond so I answered his unspoken question “Hope,” I said softly