I shake my head. “If I leave and nothing happens, then great. If I stay and something does, that’s on me.”
Ryder’s jaw flexes. “No. It’s on me.”
There it is again. That weight he carries like it’s welded to his spine.
“I don’t want to be your responsibility,” I say.
“You’re not,” he replies instantly.
I stare at him.
Ryder’s voice shifts slightly. “Zane told me about your plans.”
I blink. “My what?”
“The event ideas. Founders Day. Community partnerships. The Hollow becoming something the town stands behind.”
Heat creeps up my neck. “I was just talking.”
“You were building,” Zane corrects quietly.
Ryder keeps his eyes on me. “You don’t want to be a liability? Then don’t be.”
I frown. “That’s not how?—”
“Stay,” he says. “Work. Help us turn this place into something bigger than three men with a past. The more rooted we are here, the harder it is to isolate us.”
I stare at him.
“You’re offering me a job.”
“Yes.”
“This is manipulation.”
“This is strategy.”
Finn tilts his head slightly. “It can be both.”
I ignore him.
“You want me visible,” I say slowly. “Public. Integrated.”
“Yes.”
“That makes me more of a target.”
“It makes you harder to touch,” Ryder counters. “You become part of the town. Not a secret. Not a weakness. A fixture.”
I hadn’t thought about it that way.
“You stay,” he continues, “and we protect you. You leave, and I can’t.”
“I don’t need protection,” I say, but it sounds weaker now.
“Everyone does,” Zane replies quietly. “At some point.”
I think about driving out of town alone. About rest stops and empty highways and no one at my back.
