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Her little eyes widen as she uses her free hand to wipe away the tears. Though it’s Evan that spoke to her, her gaze is fixed on Dec. “You aren’t going to hurt me?”

My heart aches for her as her bottom lip wobbles, like she’s trying her hardest not to cry even more. Dec looks like a deer in headlights, his eyes comically flicking from me to Ev, before landing back on the little girl. “No, I’m not.”

“But I’m coming to live with you?” she asks, her sweet voice going high at the end, unable to hide the hope that drips off every word.

Declan freezes, like he hadn’t really thought about what he would do with Esme when he bought her. She looks at him like he might be her saviour, but he stays silent.

I can’t help but question his motives. “Why did you buy her?” My words sound a lot more accusatory than I intended.

Before he can reply, Evan indicates we’ve reached the car. Declan climbs in behind the wheel, and Ev holds the back door open for me. Since Esme makes it clear she’s not letting go of my hand, I climb in and shuffle over to the other side, pulling her in with me. Evan leans in and helps her get her seatbelt fastened.

I watch with morbid curiosity as he smiles at her, tucking the seatbelt under her chin to make sure she’s comfortable, all the while he tries to avoid the way the little girl stares at him.

He flicks his eyes to me, and as soon as he catches me looking at him, he quickly averts his gaze, a blush spreading across his cheeks. In that moment, he looks so much like my Evan used to, that I feel butterflies in my stomach. I push them away, reminding myself again that he’s not my Evan, and hasn’t been for a long time.

Once me and Esme are settled, Evan rounds the car and climbs into the passenger side. As Dec starts the car, I notice he’s watching Esme through the rear-view mirror.

“I bought her to save her,” Dec mutters, his voice barely audible over the hum of the car engine.

I wait for him to say more, but when he doesn’t, Evan takes over. “We wish we could have helped more of them, but…it wasn’t feasible. We have a plan, but nothing that would get immediate results. Dec worried that our plan would take too long, and by the time we were able to rescue her, Esme would have lost something she can never get back.”

He talks in riddles, so as to not scare the girl, but we all know what he’s referring to—her virginity. She was worth so much because her innocence was still intact. But if someone had paid for it, they’d likely have taken her virginity at the first chance they got.

“That was good of you,” I say, looking at Declan in the mirror.

He shrugs his shoulders like it was nothing. “It wasn’t exactly planned. I just couldn’t sit there and do nothing. So when you ask what the plan is, or what will happen next with Esme, I can’t answer that, as I don’t know. I’m literally making this up as I go along.”

Esme’s eyes widen, her face turning pale once more. “I’m staying with you.” Her voice leaves no room for arguments, though it’s clear by the way she quivers slightly that she’s scared he might say no.

Declan looks startled, like he can’t quite believe what she just said. Esme lets go of my hand and leans forward, placing her hand on Dec’s shoulder. “Please,” she says, batting her eyelids at him.

He looks over at Evan, who has lifted his hand to his face to cover his smile. Declan looks terrified, and Evan has to point to the road to get him to focus. When he speaks, the shakiness in his voice doesn’t at all fit with the hard, brooding, stern man I’ve seen so far.

“Erm… I-I…well… We should, maybe, take you to Evan’s house… Bree…she will…know what to do,” he stutters, his eyes wide as he tries to focus on driving.

I can’t help but chuckle at how terrified he sounds. As soon as the noise leaves my lips, Evan’s eyes flick to me, and the piercinglook he gives me makes me feel exposed all of a sudden. My heart stutters, and it’s as though the temperature in the car has just skyrocketed.

For a fraction of a second, the whole world falls away, and all I can see is his emerald-green eyes latching onto mine, looking at me like I’m the only girl in the world. It’s been forever since he’s looked at me like this, and if I’m honest, I never thought I’d see it again. Not after everything I’ve been through. How can he look at me and not see the scars and broken pieces?

When he blinks, breaking eye contact, the bubble bursts and the world floods back in. As a blush spreads across my cheeks, I look away, not wanting him to see how vulnerable his stare made me.

“I don’t want to go with anyone else. If you say you won’t hurt me, then I want to stay with you,” Esme snaps, stomping her foot on the floor of the car.

As we all turn to look at her outburst, she freezes, her face turning paler as she scrunches her eyes shut. Her body begins to tremble, and fresh tears slide down her cheeks as she tries to hold in a sob.

She’s clearly just remembered what The Sheriff would do to her if she spoke back to him like that, and now she’s terrified.

I take hold of her hand, and she jerks back from the contact. I shush her reassuringly. “Hey, Esme. It’s only me, honey. Take some nice deep breaths, okay? It’s me, Teigan. You don’t have to be scared. Nobody here is going to hurt you for standing up for yourself.”

“No, we aren’t. Actually, I think it’s really brave of you,” Declan adds, and her eyes fly wide open as she looks at him with a small shy smile.

“You do?” She sounds so hopeful, looking at him like he might have just said the best thing in the world.

“I do. After everything you and the other girls have been through, it takes a lot of courage to still be able to stand up for yourself and tell us what you want,” he says, reassuringly.

Her smile widens as she squeezes my hand tighter. “So that means I can stay with you?”

Evan lets out a chuckle as he mutters quietly under his breath. “You walked straight into that one.”