FORTY-NINE
STEPHANIE
Being someone’s safe place means knowing when to follow them into the dark.
My physical pain recedes day by day, but my yearning grows. It’s quiet in my brother’s apartment, but that allows the nightmares to come once more, and the fear that the man who stole my heart will never see me again.
When he’s here, Hunter watches me with an intensity that makes me itch, like I’m a ticking time bomb he’s going to have to disarm at any given moment.
I flick through the news channels, finding scattered reports of men in high places being taken in for questioning, but the prevailing headline is the FBI Assistant Director who has been arrested for undisclosed crimes.
The press is having a field day with different theories, and social media is going wild.
Camryn appears every so often, the poised woman who represents all that the justice system should be.
If we had more of her, the world would be an infinitely better place.
My body contained a snapshot of what Christopher Burnside was capable of, and it was used as a justification for his death.
But the injuries and testimonies of the other girls are enough.
No one can refute it, and no one will miss one less evil man.
Given time, I’m sure more survivors will come forward.
As for the organization that James led? It’s done.
Gone. His work with the FBI was exposed, and they moved in quickly to all the settlements to collect the women and children living in terror.
Now the real work begins. The healing, the months—maybe even years—of therapy to understand that what happened to them wasn’t okay.
Honor and Fox are using their foundation to help, along with the money Burnside pledged.
“Do you fancy Thai or Italian for dinner?” Eleanor asks, pursing her lips at the takeout menus.
My brother is at a meeting with the MC tonight, leaving two women who burn toast to their own devices.
“Thai,” I reply. The spice might break through the numbness that I can feel descending.
I’ve heard her speaking to James, but he never asks about me.
I appear to have disappeared from his world while he consumes mine.
Did I imagine it all? Did I conjure up a fantasy where we’d been tangled in his sheets?
Did I imagine the way his skin smelled at the crook of his neck?
Was it someone else who risked their life to come and save me from a monster?
A warm, wet tongue licks my fingers. I glance down at the spaniel who steals the heart of all who cross the threshold.
I scratch his ears and stare into his soulful eyes that seem to understand everything emotional while having elevator music playing the rest of the time.
“Hey, Charlie,” I breathe. He hops up on the sofa and flops dramatically onto my lap, like he fits there.
He doesn’t, and that makes it all the more adorable.
Eleanor doesn’t ask what I want, just orders for us before grabbing her laptop and plopping down beside me. “You know you’re welcome to stay for as long as you need.”
I raise a brow. “I’m not sure my brother views that as optional.”
She sighs. “He’s protective to the point of suffocation.”
“Agreed.”
“But you are free to make your own choices, Stephanie, and with those choices comes the very real reality that mistakes can be and will be made. Risks will be taken, but life is nothing without someone to share it with.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My brother is a complicated man.”
My shoulders stiffen, and my belly flips. “I’m all too aware of that.”
“But he does feel. In fact, he feels very fucking deeply.”
“Could have fooled me with the way he’s ghosted me these last few weeks.”
Her lips curve at the mention of her hacker handle. “You’re focusing too much on what he’s doing and not enough on what he’s not doing.” Her fingertips drum on her laptop.
“And what exactly is he not doing that I should be enraptured with?”
She turns the laptop, revealing a set of live camera feeds that show me the familiar lodge. My breath catches as James comes into view, shirtless, sweaty, and carrying another log to the chopping block.
“Hiding,” she says with a wink. “He’s already rescued you, Stephanie. The big question now is whether you’re prepared to repay the favor.”