Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
F or a moment, no one in the room answered her question. The weight of the silence pressed down on her chest until she could hardly breathe.
Finally, Zoey cleared her throat. “We don’t let him dictate your life.
That’s what he wants. We keep moving forward.
” She glanced around the room. “If Beth and Aaron go back to work at the camp, they’ll be surrounded all day by staff and guests.
There is safety in numbers. It’s worked wonders so far whenever one of us was in a pickle. ”
“She’s right,” Brett said. “There’s always people coming and going. Eyes everywhere. If Ian tries something again, he won’t get far.”
Beth chewed her lip. Part of her wanted to protest, to say that the thought of stepping foot outside made her stomach twist, but deep down she knew Zoey and Brett were right.
She couldn’t hide forever. Ian had already stolen too many pieces of her life—her apartment, her things, her sense of peace.
She wouldn’t let him take away her work as well.
Not the place that had given her so much. The place she loved.
“All right,” she said softly. “Tomorrow, I’ll go back.”
Aaron’s hand brushed hers, steady, warm. “We’ll go back,” he corrected, and she felt the faintest easing of the knot in her chest.
The group stayed for another hour, clustered around the muted news, tossing out strategies, legal moves, increased security at the camp, even Zoey’s idea of hiring a private investigator, possibly the same one Brett had hired earlier.
Then Owen stepped in and said he knew a better one, and that his lawyer was working on his own ideas.
By the time the sun had slipped lower in the sky, Beth’s mind buzzed with too many words and too much fear.
When the last of her friends filtered out, offering hugs and promises, the house finally quieted.
She climbed the stairs when Aaron suggested she head up and take a bath.
Somehow, each step she took was heavier than the last. She needed a release, something to wash away the grime of panic clinging to her skin.
Upstairs, she ran a bath hotter than usual and slid in, added some jasmine and lemon bath salts that were on the shelf, then sank until the water lapped at her collarbone.
Her muscles loosened, but her mind refused to stop spinning.
Ian’s face, the slip of the mask, the officers’ dismissive tones, they all chased her.
The door creaked, and she glanced up to see Aaron standing there with a tray holding a glass of milk and a few chocolate chip cookies on a plate. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes softened when they found her.
“I made some cookies and thought you’d like some.”
She waved him in and sat up a little.
“I honestly didn’t mean to intrude,” he said quietly as he set the tray down.
She was surprised when he pulled a bath tray out of the linen closet and set it over the water.
After he put the cookies and milk on it, he sat on the edge of the tub and said.
“I was worried and just wanted to check on you.”
She took a bite of the still-warm cookie and exhaled a long, shaky breath. “I needed this.” She took another bite. “And your company. Today scraped me raw.”
He nodded as he took a cookie and bit into it. She could see the tension still in his jaw as he chewed.
“They’ll drag their feet,” he muttered. “But this time… he slipped up. Sooner or later, it’ll catch up to him. There’s no way the chief can ignore him now.”
Beth studied him, the way his shoulders carried not just his own burden but hers too. She’d had so many nights alone with nothing but her fear. Tonight, she didn’t want that anymore.
“Aaron?” she asked softly.
“Yeah?”
“Would you…” She hesitated and sat the rest of her cookie down, then forced the words out before she lost her courage. “Stay with me tonight? I don’t, I don’t want any more bad dreams.”
His eyes flicked to hers, startled at first, then resolute. “Beth,” he said, setting his own cookie down and taking her hand in his. His voice was low and firm. “You don’t ever have to ask me twice.”
For the first time that day, warmth flickered through the cold in her chest. She leaned her head back against the tub’s edge and let the smallest smile ghost across her lips.
Maybe she wouldn’t sleep without dreams. But with Aaron close, at least she wouldn’t face the darkness alone.
Once the water had turned lukewarm, Aaron left, and she climbed out, dried off, and pulled on a pair of soft sleeping shorts and a tank top.
Her movements were sluggish, as though her body was twice its weight.
Every muscle ached from holding herself so tightly all day, from guarding her tone, her expression, her very breath.
She brushed her teeth, then tossed her hair into a loose braid to keep it from tangling, each small act feeling strangely foreign, as if these simple rituals belonged to another version of herself, a woman who used to move through her days without fear.
By the time she slipped under the covers next to Aaron, exhaustion settled over her like a heavy quilt. He pulled her close and she listened to his steady heartbeat and breathing.
“Do you feel better?” he asked softly, his fingertips brushing her shoulders.
“Yes.” She shifted until she could look at him. “Chocolate always makes it better.”
He smiled at her. Then she brushed a kiss across his lips. “Sex makes it even more so.” She sighed against his lips as she shifted over him.
Their clothes hit the floor. Their movements were slow and lazy as they explored one another. As if they had all the time in the world.
Only when they had built one another up did their movements speed up. When he slipped inside her, his name escaped her lips. She didn’t know if it was begging or making a promise, but she realized she didn’t want to live without him.
She let out a long breath as their bodies cooled, tangled together, and closed her eyes, willing her mind to go blank.
For the first time in what felt like forever, she didn’t double-check the locks or leave the lamp on.
Aaron was here. That thought alone lulled her into sleep faster than she expected.
But, again, peace didn’t last.
The dream came in fragments, disjointed and sharp-edged. A hallway stretching longer and longer as she ran down it until the shadows swallowed it. A door slamming shut behind her. And then Ian’s voice, low, mocking, sliding through the dark straight into her soul.
“You didn’t think you were free, did you?”
Her pulse roared in her ears. She tried to run, but her legs felt cemented, heavy, unyielding.
Her breath hitched as his silhouette stepped from the shadows, square, strong, bulky, all too familiar.
The smell of his cologne wrapped around her, the memory of his hand at her throat, his fingers bruising her arm.
“Beth,” he hissed, soft and cold. “You’re mine. You’ll always be mine.”
Her body betrayed her even in the dream.
She wanted to scream, but no sound came.
She wanted to shove him away, but her arms hung limp at her sides.
The old terror locked her in place, the same helplessness that had once defined her every waking hour.
It was as though she’d never left him at all, as if River Camps and Aaron’s steady presence were all just illusions waiting to be ripped away.
The thought of Aaron somehow broke through the fear.
Suddenly, she could feel him beside her as Ian got close enough that his breath slid down her neck.
The shadows closed tighter, and she braced for his grip.
Only, this time Ian wasn’t reaching out for her.
This time, his hands wrapped around Aaron’s neck, squeezing until Aaron’s body went limp.
Then Ian’s shadow turned as flames burst through the camp, burning everything in its path.
All of the cabins, the main building, the dining hall, the pool house and boathouse, they all went up in smoke.
She heard her friends screaming for help.
Each one calling her name, begging her, blaming her.
This was all her fault. She’d led Ian to them.
She was the reason her friends, the people she loved, were going to die.
“No,” she whispered, a single fragile sound cracking through the nightmare.
The darkness shifted, unraveling with the force of that word. She jolted upright in bed, chest heaving, the room dim with moonlight leaking past the blinds. Sweat clung to her skin, her hands trembling where they clutched the sheet.
“Beth?” Aaron jolted upright, fumbling for the lights.
For a disoriented second, she expected Ian to be there, leaning in the corner, waiting to remind her who was in control. Her eyes scanned every shadow as Aaron wrapped his arms around her.
“Just a dream,” he said into her hair as he held her. “I’m here.”
The memory of Ian’s hands wrapped around Aaron’s neck caused her to shiver.
Fear clung to her like smoke.
She pressed her palms against her face, forcing a shaky breath. Tomorrow… tomorrow she’d figure out how to breathe again.
For now, she let him lay her back down, heart still pounding, whispering to her that everything was okay, that he’d keep her safe. But the truth was, she needed action. She had to keep the man she’d come to love—everyone she loved—safe.
“I’m not his anymore,” she said into the darkness.
“No,” Aaron agreed. “Now you’re mine and I’m yours,” he said into her hair.
He kept talking to her in soft tones, reminding her how he felt about her, coming very close to saying those three words she had been thinking about for days now, but each time growing quiet instead of saying them.
Finally, she turned and faced him.
“Aaron.” He quieted and ran his eyes over her.
The room was dark, but there was enough moonlight coming in through the windows that they could see one another.
“I don’t think I can hide how I feel about you.
I think you feel the same.” She took a deep breath and opened her mouth, but he beat her to it.
“Beth, I’ve been trying to tell you that I love you,” he blurted out.
She smiled and brushed a soft kiss across his lips, then she whispered, “I love you too.”
He moved swiftly, pinning her to the bed, hovering over her. She felt the urgency in his kiss, felt just how much those words meant to him.
Unlike before, this time she needed speed. She needed him to understand that she’d never said those three simple words to anyone else, not even Ian.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and held on, responding to his every touch.
His hand found her, slipped under her shorts He removed them, then his fingers slid inside her.
His mouth moved over her heated skin, lower, covering each nipple one at a time, taking his time.
He trailed his tongue over her flat belly, dipped lower until he settled between her thighs.
He lapped, sucked, licked, used his tongue and fingers on her until she was crying out his name.
“Tell me again,” he growled against her heated skin.
“I love you,” she cried out as he shifted over her.
“Again,” he said, locking eyes with her.
“Aaron.” She reached for him. “I love—” He plunged into her and she laughed with sheer delight at the feeling of him filling her.
“I love you,” he said softly next to her ear as he started moving.
He had built her up several times, and she’d shaken with each release. This time, they fell together and it was more powerful than anything she’d ever experienced in her life. Stronger than any volcano or tsunami. More powerful than any earthquake she’d ever read about.
This, this was true love.
When their skin cooled and their breathing leveled out, he whispered against her skin. “I love you.” She smiled. “Move in with me.”
She laughed. “I already live here.”
“No, I mean, for real, officially.”
She thought about it. “Since I haven’t really been looking for a place to live, I suppose I can continue not looking.”
He kissed her. “Good. Does that mean you’ll move your things in here to my room?”
She glanced around the larger room. “What’s the closet situation?”
He laughed. “There’s plenty of room. One of the first things my parents did was create two master closets. You’ll have your very own walk-in closet. Once I get a few things out of it, first thing tomorrow.”
“We’re going to work first thing tomorrow,” she reminded him.
“Right, then second thing tomorrow,” he joked, and kissed her again. “I’ll help you move everything over.”
“You’re sure about this?” she asked, as he shifted their bodies until he was spooning her from behind.
“Very. This is what I want to fall asleep to every night.” He kissed the dip in her shoulder.
She was smiling as she listened to his breathing settle and slow. The smile fell away as she thought about what she was going to have to do to protect him and everyone else that she loved.