Page 40 of Reveal

When I was Sam’s age.

I stagger in the door, flushed and shaking and needing a drink, and Joey more than senses that something is wrong.

“Vaughn?”

I hold my finger up as I go to the fridge and take out my half-finished bottle of rosé and drink straight from it.

“Vaughn? You’re kind of freaking me out,” he says, his voice behind me.

I gulp in air once I swallow and shake my head, my hands braced on the counter in front of me. “I’m fine. Just fine.” And I’m not sure if I say it more to convince him or myself.

“You really should report him as a stalker,” Joey says.

“Who?” I ask, totally distracted as I attempt to calm my nerves.

“Ryker.” I jolt when he says the name, grateful my back is still to him. “Who else has been waiting out there for hours for you? He even left and came back in a different car. Does he turn into a pumpkin after—”

“It wasn’t—” him. But I stop myself from saying it. From telling him differently. First, because I don’t want Joey to know anything about the senator being here. Second, Ryker came here? He came to my house looking for me earlier while I was at his house waiting for him?

“It wasn’t what?” Joey persists as he moves to stand beside me at the counter, turning to rest his hips against it so we’re facing each other. “Ryker? Then who was it?”

“No. Yes. Just let it go, Joey.” I finally lift my eyes to meet his and force a smile. “Everything is—”

“Don’t say fine. Creepy is more like it.” Joey chuckles sarcastically, while I just want him to go so I can down the rest of this bottle in peace and then maybe even open another one.

“We needed to air some differences is all,” I lie.

“You know if you need to talk about anything . . . I’m here for you.”

When Joey puts his hand on mine and gives it a reassuring squeeze, it takes everything I have not to jerk it away in a delayed reaction to Carter doing almost the same thing just moments ago.

“I know.” Please go. “Thank you.” I just want to be alone. “It’s late. I’m sorry I lost track of time. I didn’t mean to keep you so long.”

“Totally fine. I was just figuring I’d crash on the couch.” He smiles, and there’s kindness in his eyes that makes me feel even worse for lying to him. An awkward silence passes between us where I question whether I should offer said couch to him for the night, but I don’t because I just want to be alone. Joey rocks on his heels when I don’t speak. “So you’re good, then?”

“Yes. I’m f—”

“You’re fine. So I’ve heard.” There’s a smile on his lips but a hint of frustration in his voice that I pretend not to hear.

“Thank you for watching Luce for me,” I say to prompt his departure.

We say our goodbyes, and I pay him for his time before heaving a huge sigh of relief once he’s out the door.

I’m drawn to Lucy’s soft snores. To the need to see the one thing that centers me, because after tonight, I’m not sure what in the hell I’m supposed to feel.

A part of me wants to pick up the phone and call Ryker. Tell him what the senator just did, because I’m scared and unsettled, and Ryker is the only person I’ve ever known besides Samantha who has seemed to have my back.

The other part of me knows this—the senator being here, his sense of ownership over me—is all because of Ryker and what happened in the pool house.

Ryker is the one who did this to me. I was already a target, but Ryker’s actions made me a bull’s-eye in Carter Preston’s zero-sum game that holds so much collateral damage when it comes to my life that I’m terrified.

Number one being the sleeping little girl whose arms are wrapped around a stuffed animal all while a tiara still sits perfectly straight on her head.

So many things happened tonight—bad, then good, then overwhelming, and then ugly.

What good is blackmail material when the person is undeterred by it? Do I destroy him so that we both go down in flames together?

But was he as unaffected as his words stated? Or was the sudden change in him a tell?