She told him the street name and stopped, chewing her bottom lip.
His gaze burned into her. “Is there more you’re not saying, honey?”
The lump lodged in her throat tasted like salt and acid. She nodded. “I didn’t buy a succulent…but there was one in with the plants I unloaded from my car.”
The room silenced. Crew locked eyes with her, and she swore she felt the force of a silent promise.
I’ll keep you safe.
The footage popped up on the screen and he broke their stare. Shaken by everything that was happening, she shifted herattention to the screen too. Seeing the truck again didn’t make her feel any better about the situation.
Theo stood in front of the screen, legs braced wide and his back muscles flexing as he folded his arms. He stared at the screen for a beat longer, then turned, his expression dark. “I’ll have someone run the plates. We’ll pull all the footage from the neighborhood too.”
Fern’s throat worked as she stared at the screen again—at the truck, at the angle, at the way it just…waited.
Willow’s voice gentled. “You can stay here tonight. We’ve got plenty of room.”
Crew didn’t push. He just watched her, steady as a fencepost, like he’d stand between her and the whole damn world if she asked.
Fern forced a breath into her ribs. “I appreciate that. I do.” She swallowed, then lifted her chin. “But if I hide, he wins. I didn’t leave one cage to build another.”
Crew’s jaw flexed—like he didn’t love her decision, but he respected it. “Then we don’t hide. We get smart.”
Fern’s chest tightened, anxiety clawing at her ribs.
“I should probably…tell you something.”
The room silenced, all the air sucked out. She stiffened her spine and began to talk.
“I was in a bad relationship. I…left in the middle of the night. I didn’t know where I’d land when I fled, but turns out it was Willowbrook.” She met Willow’s eyes. Crew sank to a chair beside her. Theo just waited for more, because he was trained to listen first and make plans after.
Willow’s big eyes were filled with sympathy. “He was abusive?”
“Not physically. Just everything else. He controlled what I did, who I talked to. He made me believe I was”—she pushed out a breath—“crazy.”
All the terrible things she’d escaped seemed to crash in around her.
Oh god, she couldn’t breathe. The walls were closing in, just like the old days before she was able to escape Chris.
She lifted a hand, saw how bad it was shaking and was immediately thrown back in time to other moments when she couldn’t control her tremors.
A hand wrapped gently around her wrist. Crew’s familiar fingers, warm and callused, anchored her.
Willow pushed a pen and paper toward her. “Write down his name and any other information you can. Address, phone number, place of employment.”
When she picked up the pen, she barely registered it moving over the page. But after she passed the notebook back to Willow, Theo cleared his throat, taking control again.
“Going forward, we need you to take protective measures, Fern.”
She gulped but managed to nod.
“Text your job locations to Willow before you accept them.”
“Okay.”
“Any new client, I run background checks on.”
Crew seemed to curl forward as if guarding her with the steel of his body.
