Page 111 of Hide Little Traitor

It was bad enough when I woke up with my face pressed to Ryker’s chest the other morning when Chloe snuck out of bed from between us. I don’t need a repeat of that.

Running a restless hand through my hair, I glance out into the quiet night. This town has less traffic than anywhere I’ve ever been in my life, and you would think that would make me feel more secure, but if anything, the quiet feeds my anxiety.

Knowing Chloe is in danger eats at me in a way I don’t know how to deal with, because I know exactly what it’s like to live without her, and I refuse to ever live through that again.

I glance at the door that separates the two rooms, my need to make sure she’s okay eating away at me.

After years of not knowing where she was or if she was okay, it’s almost unbearable to not have eyes on her, even if she’s safe with Kingston.

I’m almost certain they’re asleep now because any time they’re awake, her moans are like a symphony through the paper-thin walls.

It was only a matter of time before Kingston broke, especially seeing as Ryker has made it his own personal mission to assemble all the pieces of Chloe’s heart.

Looking over at the bed closest to me, I find Damon wide awake and staring at the ceiling. He’s been hot and cold about her for almost as long as I can remember, and I can’t see him caving as easily as me and Kingston have.

But stranger things have happened, and we have managed to survive a week without anyone killing each other, so all hope is not lost just yet.

He must feel my eyes on him because he meets my gaze. “You want to try to get some sleep? This bed is shit.”

I shake my head, but he sits up anyway, running a hand through his messy black hair. “I’m too wired,” I admit.

He pushes himself to his feet and pads across the room to take the seat across from me, but he doesn’t look at me. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d think he was going out of his way to avoid meeting my eye.

“What’s going on, D? You know you can talk to me.”

He shakes his head. “Not about this.”

“Is it about Chloe?”

He doesn’t reply immediately. Instead, he stares at the door she and Kingston are on the other side of. His silence drags on for so long I wonder if he’s going to reply at all, but then he sighs, dropping his head into his hands.

“I fucked up, Ro.”

“What did you do?”

“I lied to you. When I left the compound, it wasn’t because I was running for my life. It was because Dad sent me. He told me if I didn’t come back with you and Chloe, he would hunt us down himself and that he would—” He shakes his head, his hand covering his mouth before he can finish. “He told me in great detail how painful he would make her death. I didn’t know what to do. I thought being around the bodyguard and Kingston would make the decision easy.”

“But it didn’t?” I force my voice to remain even despite the anger simmering beneath the surface. He should have told us as soon as he boarded the jet, or at any other time over the last week, and yet he didn’t. He kept it to himself. He lied to us. And every second he’s stayed with us under false pretenses has put her in more danger.

But what good will it do? The fact he’s telling me at all is proof enough of how shitty he feels about it.

As close as we are, Damon has always been a closed book, and that’s only become truer the older he’s gotten.

He shakes his head. “It feels like I’m betraying her no matter what I choose. Because I either condemn her to an easy death, or she lives the rest of her life on the run, hoping she never gets caught and forced to live out her days as a toy for our father’s men to chew up and spit out.”

The burrito I had for dinner rolls in my stomach, the visual he’s painting causing a lump to form in my throat.

Silence falls over us, but I don’t push him. He’s already opened up so much that I don’t want him to clam up again by asking more questions than I should.

“They gave me two weeks.”

I glance at the calendar on the laptop, counting out the days since he joined us. So much has happened in the last week that I’ve barely noticed the time passing, but my brother has been all too aware as every minute ticked by.

“What are you going to do?” I finally ask, but it doesn’t matter what he says. I have no choice but to tell Kingston and Ryker the truth because it’s Chloe’s life that’s in danger just as much as it is mine, and she’s not just mine anymore.

She’s ours, and there’s nothing we won’t do to protect her.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “I’ve worked my whole life to take his place, Ro. I sacrificed everything for it.” His eyes flick to the door that connects the two rooms. He’s not talking about college and a social life. He’s talking about the best friend he pushed away all those years ago. “But I’ve caused Chloe so much pain already, I don’t think I could live with myself if I was responsible for another moment of it.”