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“Bear with me, please. Another few days and I should have a better handle on things. Then I’ll leave. You have my word on it.”

That’s all I can tell them for the moment. The others fall into murmured conversation the second I leave the kitchen. Their voices are a low baritone that follows me as I walk down the hallway into my room.

I might want to be out of here in a few days, but something tells me that’s wishful thinking.

I haven’t made any progress on figuring out what to do with my situation. Maybe if I head into the police station and show the cops the message threads I’ve found online, they’ll take me seriously. Although I highly doubt I’ll be able to get the level of protection necessary against the guy, if what everyone says is true.

I could move to another state. Make up a fake identity. Be an entirely different person.With what money?Yeah, that would be expensive.

A smaller voice whispersLet them help.

It’s a pipe dream to think Tase, Aiden, and Soren would be able to do anything, no matter how assured Tase sounds.

Maybe their concern isn’t the worst thing in the world, no matter how uncomfortable I am with it. A girl could get used to being cared about, to having people at her back.

That’s what scares me the most. If I let myself lean intotheir concern and offers of protection, then I’ll come to rely on it, and what will happen when I leave?

Or when they disappear?

Then I’ll be back to the old way of doing things and it will be that much harder because I’ll know how it feels to have the help.

It’s like falling in love. Once you find your person, if things don’t work out, how can you ever go back to the way it was before?

Nothing else is going to compare, and I’ve been through so much already.

I’ve got to keep looking out for number one. Which means getting this handled and disappearing. At least Soren will be happy.

My brain feels overtaxed with all the secrecy, the lies, the tension. I just want to curl up in bed and lick my wounds in private. But first a shower.

They’re still talking as I head to the bathroom. Let them. The situation could hardly get much worse, right?

I take a quick shower, then wrap myself in a towel and hustle back across the hallway to my room, shutting the door tightly behind me.

I glance at myself in the mirror above the dresser, my hair dripping and the towel clenched in frozen fingers. My legs are shapely but my thighs are too big, my hips too wide, and my ass?—

The bedroom door suddenly slams open hard enough to hit the opposite wall as Soren storms into the room.

“What the hell, Soren? Don’t you fucking knock?” Christ, my heart’s jackrabbiting in my damn throat.

I scramble for clothes but they're in a pile near the door and Soren is blocking them with his body. Uh oh.

Soren looks like he’s about to explode. Something is wrong. What happened?

He says nothing. Only holds out his phone and flicks a finger across it so the screenlights.

My throat seizes. There on the screen is one of my earliest cam girl uploads. I’m naked, on my back, playing with my nipples. My legs are clamped shut but it’s only a matter of time before I open them.

“Care to explain?” he asks, his tone deadly neutral.

No. No, this can’t be happening.

Soren isn’t watching the video. He’s watching me, but I can’t look away from the glowing screen.

My heart plummets. They found me out.

Chapter 21

Soren