Chapter 5 Jenny
Jenny
Iclosed the door behind Poppy, my hand trembling just slightly. She was in the living room now, chatting away with Tessa as if nothing had happened, but I knew better. She was hiding how shaken she really was.
And then there was Liam James—sitting across the room, broad-shouldered, arms crossed, eyes following every move like he was already planning the next step.
The problem? He made my heart race in a way that had nothing to do with fear. Most of my life has been spent terrified. I had a few friends and one serious boyfriend. Finally, I broke up with him because he tried to control me.
I leaned against the counter, arms wrapped around myself, trying to keep my voice steady. “So, you’re really planning on helping us?”
He looked over, and those gray-blue eyes pinned me like a butterfly on a board. Calm. Focused. Deadly serious.
“I’m not planning on it,” he said. “I’m doing it.”
I hated how my pulse jumped at his tone—low, even, like there wasn’t a force on earth that could make him back down.
“Jenny.” He said my name like a promise. “I need you to tell me everything. What your brother’s capable of. What he might try next.”
I flinched. Just hearing about my brother made my skin crawl.
“You heard what Poppy said, he was… always cruel. I left home the day I turned eighteen and never went back. My parents wouldn’t stand up to him.
They were terrified. We all were. He used to go crazy and tear the house apart.
My parents left while I was in college, and never told me where they were going. ”
Liam didn’t move, didn’t speak. Just watched me, waiting. It was unnerving… and oddly comforting at the same time.
I forced myself to keep going. “When Poppy saw what he did… I knew he wouldn’t stop killing. He doesn’t leave witnesses, and Poppy is his only one. He’s a serial killer—I have no doubt about that. I didn’t doubt Poppy for a second when she told me what she saw.”
Liam nodded once. “Then we make sure he doesn’t find either of you. Not before we’re ready.”
Something about the way he said we made my throat tighten. Like I wasn’t alone anymore.
But then a noise outside made me jump—a car door slamming down the street. Liam’s head snapped toward the window, his entire body going tense.
“You expecting anyone?” he asked.
I shook my head, my mouth dry.
He crossed the room in three strides, moving like a man who’d done this a thousand times before. One glance through the curtain, and he relaxed—but only slightly.
“Teenagers,” he muttered. “Cutting through the alley.”
I let out a shaky breath. My nerves were strung so tight I could feel my pulse hammering behind my eyes.
When he turned back, his expression softened just a little. “You’re safe, Jenny. I promise you that.”
And the thing was… I believed him. My thoughts drifted to where I hadn’t let them go in a long time.
Sometimes, when the nights stretched too long and the house fell silent, the memories came back sharper than I wanted them to.
I could still hear the creak of the old farmhouse stairs, the slow drag of boots across the floorboards when he came looking for me. My brother. The monster I shared a last name with.
People always assumed monsters came with snarling faces and warning signs. They didn’t. Sometimes they smiled at the neighbors. Sometimes they sat across from you at the dinner table. Sometimes they were your own blood.
I learned early to stay small. Stay quiet. Don’t laugh too loud. Don’t cry where he can hear you. Don’t ever think you’re safe just because the sun is shining. Because the one thing Jarod loved most was scaring me. Once, he choked me until I passed out. The whole time he was laughing.
Mama tried to protect me. I remembered the way she’d slide herself between us when his temper flared, the way her hands shook after, but she still told me everything was fine. That was the thing about fear—you learned to live with it, tuck it under your skin until it became part of you.
By the time I was old enough to leave, it felt like the world beyond our house couldn’t possibly be worse than the one I was escaping.
But fear like that doesn’t disappear just because you pack a bag and walk away. It follows you. It waits in the corners. It makes you dye your hair, change your name, and build walls so high no one can climb them.
And sometimes, like tonight, it makes you wonder if you’ll ever really be free.