Samuel punches the mute button. “He doesn’t have eyes on the house right now, or he would have mentioned me. Don’t bow to his fear tactics. We have time.”
I nod and click unmute. “You’ll have to catch me first, husband. Happy hunting.” I disconnect the call. Helen grabs the phone, pulls out the battery, and tosses it on the floor. She grabs another plank of wood and uses it as a battering ram to destroy it.
“That’s the piece of shit you’ve been running from?” she snaps. “You should have confided in me. I could have helped.”
“I don’t understand,” I mutter. She’s worked out who I am from that call? How?
“You are Honor Lowell, the missing wife of Gideon Lowell, the dirty New York District Attorney who is currently trying to put away my grandson for rape. He thinks I don’t know, butlike with you, I bided my time. I didn’t pry, I waited until you found the confidence to come to me.”
My mouth falls open. Rape? That’s Fox’s big secret? The reason he’s hiding here?
Rape.
My breathing comes in short pants as the panic I’d kept locked down threatens to overtake me. Samuel answers his phone, but I barely take notice as my head spins, trying to make sense of everything.
Rape.
Samuel trains his gaze on me, his brows lowering as he witnesses me falling apart. I can’t have fallen for another snake, for someone who hides their demons beneath their beautiful. I’m not that stupid.
Rape.
I clutch at my hair. Fox, a rapist? My heart can’t take it, and my body shuts down. Don’t let it be true. Please, please, don’t let it be true. The world sways, and black spots edge my vision. The darkness rises up, and I let it take me.
CHAPTER 42
FOX
It’s time to flip the narrative. The hunter is about to become the hunted.
The sun is beginning to breach the sky when I climb out of the taxi and race to Samuel’s house. I burst through the front door and drop my bag on the floor with a thud. Honor is curled up on his corner sofa, wrapped in a thick blanket.
Her gaze finds me, but it’s blank like nobody is home. She blinks slowly and a tear escapes down her cheek. I approach slowly just as Samuel appears from the kitchen with a steaming mug. His shoulders sag before he puts the cup down on a table next to Honor.
I kneel in front of her and swipe a damp piece of hair from her forehead. “Hey, firecracker.” No response. I’d gotten the rundown from my grandmother and Samuel as I raced across the country to get back to her. She’s killed a man. No matter that it was self defense—it leaves a mark on your soul. Plushearing her husband’s voice for the first time in months, and his apparent threat. It’s a lot to unpack.
“She’s in shock,” Samuel states. “She blacked out for a bit. But we got her out of the house before the police were called. Honor has been taken out of the equation.”
My gaze snaps to him as he folds his arms and leans against the door frame. “She told you her name?”
“No, her husband did that.”
Her world is falling apart, and I wasn’t here to protect her. Instead, I was answering more bullshit questions.
Samuel jerks his head to follow him into the kitchen. I do, reluctantly. He leans against the sink as I take position against the door frame so I can keep one eye on Honor.
“She knows about the charges,” he says with a grimace.
“Mine?”
“Yeah, the rape.”
My eyes close and I swallow. I’d planned on telling her when I got back. “Who told her?”
“Your grandmother let the cat out of the bag.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. How the hell does she know? “Fox, her husband, Gideon Lowell, he’s the one prosecuting you?”
“He is.”
“Small fucking world, don’t you think? Have you considered that she was planted here by him?”
