“Nope.”
I cross my legs, lean back, let my robe slip just far enough off one shoulder to blur the line between documentary and foreplay. “Then ask your first question, documentary boy.”
He clicks record. “Tell me what it feels like to be free.”
God.Free.A word people use like it fixes things.
I tilt my head and give the camera my best thoughtful-heroine expression. “Freedom is just another kind of performance. I’m still acting. The script just changed.”
Blake nods slowly, but I can see it—the hunger behind his eyes. He likes it when I talk like this. When I lift the edge of the curtain and let the dark breathe. Not all the way. Just enough to make him lean in.
“And what about the messages?” he asks, quieter now.
My jaw ticks.
Because that part isn’t for camera.
They started two weeks after I got out. First, an email—no subject, no signature. One line.
I know what you did to Brianna.
Then a package. No return address. Inside: a child’s necklace. Pink. Plastic. The claw-machine kind.
Like the one Sophie wore when she was little.
I lean forward and trace the rim of my mug, buying myself a second. “People get jealous,” I say lightly. “They don’t like it when you survive the fire and come out looking prettier.”
“That necklace,” Blake says. “It was hers, wasn’t it?”
I still.
Not for long.
“Whose?” I ask, smiling like I’m amused.
“Sophie’s.”
A soft laugh slips out. I shake my head. “You watch the show too much.”
He doesn’t smile back.
The silence stretches—thin, sharp.
“I’ll find out who sent it,” he says. “I promise.”
Something in his voice is different. Not concern. Not curiosity.
Fierce. Protective. Possessive.
And fuck if that doesn’t feel better than safety ever has.
“You don’t have to,” I say quickly. “I have enemies—” Dean, Isaac, Kelly, dear old Dad. I wouldn’t even put it past Bishop to circle back for an encore.
“I want to.” His eyes hold mine. For once, I don’t look away first. Then, like he’s asking what I want for lunch, he says, “Let me take care of you.”
I blink.
Because no one’s ever said that and meant it.
