Wyatt smirked at Reid. “You think?”
“I’m not the one who ripped her shirt,” Reid grumbled.
“Are you going to tell us who did? Because you didn’t say shit on the phone,” Roe snapped.
“Her mother’s boyfriend showed up,” Reid said.
I didn’t want to sit there and listen to him tell them what he knew. I climbed off him and grabbed a new lounge set from the closet before heading into the bathroom to change.
By the time I returned to the bedroom, Bobby had shown up. At Bram’s request, he was there to see if I was all right. Physically, anyway, and I was. He took a look at my stitches while he was here and said he could take them out. It was nice that I didn’t have to wait until the next day.
Chapter Nine
I couldn’t sleepthat night. It was because I was alone. I hadn’t been all day. The guys had stayed with me until Bram returned in the evening. Vivian didn’t get home from work until minutes after Bram had returned. Mac had work at Noble’s until ten, then went to a party after to hang out with the guy she had been seeing for the past week.
Reid had asked me not to tell Mac what had happened. Bram had asked that I not tell both Mac and Vivian. With Reid, I agreed right away. Mac didn’t need the stress of this. She had already admitted she had a hard time handling it. I questioned Bram, though.
“Is it all right to hide things from your wife?” I had asked him.
“It’s never all right to do that,” he had said. “But she asked me to. She understands the lengths I will go to protect my family. When you showed up a week ago the way that you did, she knew those lengths would be tested. All she asked is that I do my best to not let her see it.”
“The violence?”
He had nodded. “She’s strong in her own way, but she’s a soft and gentle woman. Her ex-husband took advantage of that. Forme, it’s one of the reasons I fell in love with her. So if she wants me to lie to her about this to protect her peace, I will.”
It was now midnight. Mac was still out. Bram and Vivian had gone to bed. The house was quiet. Any time there was a little noise, I’d jump. Clay was gone, but I couldn’t get the moment he’d come around the corner out of my head. Who would Mother send next? Would she come herself? She knew where I was and I didn’t know how she knew.
I trusted that Bram would protect me. My dilemma right now was that he was upstairs sound asleep, and I was wide awake downstairs. If something happened, would he hear me if I screamed?
I thought about children in movies going to their parents in the middle of the night because they were scared. For a split second, I thought about going to go get Bram, but I was too embarrassed to do such a thing.
“You’re an adult now, Lottie. Be brave.” Rolling my eyes, I got up and turned on the light in the bathroom, locked my bedroom door, and double-checked the closet to make sure it was empty. Before getting back into bed, I went over to one of the armchairs and pushed it up against the door. The little knob lock wasn’t enough for me.
As I got settled back in bed for what I assumed was going to be a long night of zero sleep, I grabbed my phone Roe had bought me. I logged into my socials. I had a lot of notifications and messages. Over a week’s worth. I began going through the notifications first. I was tagged in a few photos at Brandon’s party. I was just in the background. One of them managed to capture me talking with Roe. It looked like the moment he was checking me out in the black dress I’d borrowed from Mother. I had a few comments and likes on some of my photos I had posted a while ago. One person who’d liked a bunch of my photos stood out. I tapped on Wyatt’s name and scrolledthrough his page. A lot of his photos were of Reid, Roe, and him. Some were of his old car at different stages of him fixing it up. I came across a photo I ended up hitting the heart button for. It was just him in it. He was smiling so brightly, and you could clearly see the different colors of his eyes. It was a great picture.
Not even a minute later, my phone dinged and a text showed on the top of the screen.
Wyatt: Can’t sleep, joint thief?
Me: No.
Wyatt: Because of what happened today?
Me: Yeah.
Wyatt: Would you feel better if I was there?
Me: That’s a silly question.
Wyatt: I’ll take that as a yes.
Me: It doesn’t change anything.
Me: Will you text me until you go to sleep?
Wyatt: Of course. I always enjoy our conversations.
Me: You’re just waiting to see if I bring up something inappropriate.
