Not chains.
Not walls.
Isolation.
I felt it settle into my bones like cold.
By the time I reached the truck, Trigger was there.
I hadn’t called him.
I hadn’t texted.
But he stood beside the driver’s door, jaw tight, eyes scanning the street before locking onto my face.
“You shouldn’t have come alone,” he said quietly.
That was all it took.
The composure I’d been clinging to cracked.
“I didn’t do anything,” I said. Not loudly. Not hysterically. Just broken enough that it scared me. “I didn’t bring him here. I didn’t choose this.”
He stepped closer instantly, hands warm on my arms, grounding me before my knees could give.
“I know,” he said. “I know.”
“They’re scared of me,” I whispered. “I can feel it.”
His jaw flexed. “They’re scared ofhim. They just don’t know where to put it.”
I looked up at him. “And how long before they decide I’m the problem?”
He didn’t answer right away.
That told me everything.
I swallowed hard. “This is what he wants, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Trigger said. “And we’re not giving it to him. Please don’t go anywhere without me.”
I nodded—but something inside me had already shifted.
Because now I understand the real danger.
Thomas wasn’t trying to take me.
He was trying to make meleave.
45
Rylie
We went back to stay at the cabin.
I didn’t decide it all at once.
There wasn’t a single moment where I stood up and thought,This is what I’ll do.
