“Go?” I was taken aback. “Go where?”
“Anywhere. Somewhere away from here.”
“But you can’t.”
“I have to.”
“This is your home,” I insisted.
He couldn’t leave. I couldn’t let him do that. I wouldn’t let him abandon this place because of that fucker.
“It…it was good while it lasted. But I can make a home somewhere else.”
I huffed.
“You shouldn’t have to.”
Zach smiled a sad smile that twisted at my guts just looking at it.
“I can’t stay here. He won’t let me live in peace. It’s okay. It is what it is.”
The twist in my guts wound itself tighter, making me feel sick.
Not seeing him every day would be unbearable but not even knowing where he was and if he was okay, if he was safe, that would be an inconceivable level of torture I couldn’t live with.
That I wouldn’t live with.
“Well, I haven’t,” I said.
“What?” Zach asked.
“I’m not going to let you go just because of that dickhead.”
“I have no choice. I have to go,” he stuttered.
“And what happens when he finds you again?”
“He won’t,” Zach shrugged but his expression told me how uncertain he was of his statement.
“What if he does?”
“Then I guess I’ll run again,” he said.
“And you’re going to spend your life running, looking over your shoulder, hoping he hasn’t tracked you down? That’s not a way to live.”
Zach sighed and fell back on the couch.
“And what are my options? Staying here and letting him get to me?”
“No,” I grumbled. “You let me deal with him.”
“I couldn’t. You don’t understand how dangerous he is. He…will hurt you.”
His voice broke at the word “hurt,” and I couldn’t stomach this any longer. Not when I could imagine every possible way this man had hurt Zach in the past and how much he could again if he wasn’t stopped.
“I’m not so easy to hurt,” I told him.
“I know you’re a big guy but?—”
