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“Did you ever see Rush again?” I asked

Caleb shook his head

I clasped his face in my hands and forced hi et ahat he did, and so help me God, neither will those other two fuckers You’re safe now, Caleb No one will ever touch you again Not while there’s blood still running through my veins”

“Don’t an to clirabbed him by the waist to stop him

I straightened, which forced Caleb to loop his arms around my neck so he could maintain his balance The need to kiss him was profound and ed to catch ht fully on top of hilad when he didn’t react with fear

“If I could give this to anyone, it would be you,” I murmured

Caleb’s sapphire eyes held est tielse and I ended up just holding hiest time It wasn’t until he fell asleep that I forced myself to lever off hi into ainst my neck His hand cahts off, then just lay there for a while, willing sleep to claim me

But it didn’t

And part of lad, because I had no doubt I would have dreamed of Caleb

Alone in those woods with his abusers, waiting for help to co it never would

I was restless as I waited for the line to ht lots of boats out, so the general store on Hooper’s Island was busy I’d already bought and paid for gas for the boat, so I just hadin a quieter part of the ht and that wasme nervous Caleb had pro able to have eyes on hi minute

I scanned the store as I waited, then noticed the television over the clerk’s shoulder It was turned to one of the earlyDalton had a television on the boat and while Caleb and I hadn’t made use of it in the first few days of our trip, we’d started to watch it more recently, but mostly just to watch some of the DVDs Dalton had I’d watched the news a few tione to sleep to , but I’d been reliant on Dalton to keep me in the loop the rest of the time