Total pages in book: 186
Estimated words: 176552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 883(@200wpm)___ 706(@250wpm)___ 589(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 176552 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 883(@200wpm)___ 706(@250wpm)___ 589(@300wpm)
Cade looked up, chewing more slowly. “What other guy?”
I jolted back. “What do you mean? Dennis wasn’t alone.”
They shared another look, and my stomach twisted.
Ryder leaned in slightly. “Are you sure?”
I stared at him. “Are you kidding me right now? Yes, I’m sure.”
Cade straightened, brow creasing. “What did they look like?”
“They were wearing all black,” I revealed, heart rate picking up as I thought about it again. “Had one of those LED face masks. Some kind of voice distorter, too. Whoever it was talked the same way the person texting us does. You didn’t see the new messages I got?” I looked at Ryder. “You didn’t check?”
He rubbed his jaw and gave me a bemused look. “I answered your phone when it rang, so you didn’t get woken up, Sass. Your thread with D-W was already pulled up. I wouldn’t randomly go through your text messages.”
That...did nothing to ease the pressure building behind my eyes. I grabbed my cell from the table, unlocked it, scrolled to the thread from 1031, and slid it across to him. “Look.”
He took it, reading in silence.
“You guys don’t get private texts?”
“Oh, we do,” Cade said, taking the phone from Ryder. His brow furrowed. “But this is…” He trailed off, eyes still on the screen.
“Is…?”
Again, neither of them answered right away.
“So you didn’t know there was someone else?” I questioned when the silence stretched, my voice sharper than I meant it to be. “That’s who backhanded Britt.”
Ryder tilted his head. “She said Dennis did that.”
“What? No, he didn’t.”
Why would Britt lie?
There was no way she was in on what happened. She wasn’t that good of an actress. She barely managed to show up to class on time without getting lost, and we’d been attending college for two years now.
Cade’s voice cut through my spiraling thoughts, voicing my inner doubts. “Could she be in on it?”
“I don’t understand. She had the shits and then got backhanded and dragged by her hair. Who signs up for that?”
Cade blinked. “She had the what?”
I threw up my hands. “I don’t know, that’s what she said. She was only in the locker room because her stomach was having issues or something.”
“Jesus Christ,” he muttered, like he regretted asking.
Ryder was watching me, silent and calculating, like he was cataloging every word, every crack in the story she told.
What did it mean if she was in on what happened?
Why would she be?
I refused to believe it. I already had Layla acting suspiciously and slinking around behind my back. I’d known Britt even longer. She wasn’t like that. She couldn’t be. I glared at the table, so I didn’t embarrass myself and cry.
“Let her out, Cade,” Ryder instructed, voice low.
Without hesitation, Cade slid from the booth. Ryder was there in the next instant, gently easing me across the seat.
“Get the tab,” he tossed over his shoulder, guiding me toward the door.
The chilled fall air hit like a reset button, sharp in my lungs, cold on my flushed cheeks, making it a little easier to breathe.
Ryder didn’t speak as we crossed the parking lot. He walked me to the passenger side of his truck and pulled the door open for me. I climbed in and settled onto the seat.
“Look at me, Sass,” he said softly.
I didn’t. My eyes stayed on my lap, on my hands gripping the edge of his jacket like they might keep me from coming apart. “I don’t understand,” I whispered. “And if she is in on something… why? Do my friends secretly hate me?”
He stepped closer, gripped my waist, and turned me until my legs were hanging over the side of the seat, and he was between them. “We don’t know what’s going on. Just breathe a little for me, okay? I’ll figure it all out for you.”
“I feel like I sound crazy.”
That made him laugh, the sound low and warm against my skin. “Remember what I said?”
I raised my gaze to his and instantly got lost in his eyes.
“I know what crazy looks like, and it could never be you.”
I nodded, my voice barely there. “I don’t want you getting hurt because of me, Rye. You saw those texts.”
“That’s someone trying to get in your head, and that makes it even more of my problem. I’m supposed to be the only one in there.”
I released a watery laugh.
“No one’s fucked with me remotely,” he continued. “A few of the same type of messages, yeah. That’s all. I promise I’ll make this right without a single hair on my head being touched.”
“That doesn’t make me any less worried about you,” I pushed back.
“It’s you we need to be worried about, Sass. I’m doing my fucking best to keep myself in check right now and not lock you away somewhere where nothing and no one could ever touch you again. Knowing he put his hands on you…” He trailed off, exhaling hard.