Page 106 of Bared Betrayal

“Stop, please,” I whisper. They are crowding in tighter around me. It’s so hard to breathe; I’m suffocating.

“Is it true that you were high the night you got abducted?”

“Did you push Maya when she hit her head against the sidewalk?”

I open my mouth to scream when a hand locks on my arm and pulls me out of the crowd. A jacket is pulled over my head and shoulders, shielding me from the cameras as I’m dragged, my feet barely able to touch the ground.

I’m shoved into the passenger-side seat of a car, and I’m barely able to breathe when the driver-side door is flung open, and my rescuer gets in behind the wheel.

As I stare at him, I wipe away strands of hair clinging to my face. “You came for me.”

Twenty-Nine

KALLIE

“Why are we here?”

“This has kind of become our damage control headquarters.”

I watch as he half-smiles without looking at me, turning off the car’s ignition.

“How did you find me…Sebastian?”

“Um.” He scratches his temple then finally looks at me. “My father, he has connections. I didn’t want to ask for his help, but—” he reaches out, placing his hand on mine “—I had to find you.”

I appreciate how hard it had to be for him to ask Gabriel for help. Sebastian is a proud man, especially when it comes to his father.

I breathe in deep, my stomach still knotted. “Thank you,” I say softly. “For finding me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? You know, who you really are?”

I rub my palm down my jeans, the nerves making me restless. “I, uh…I just…I wanted to start over. I thought that if I had a clean slate, I could forget about everything and maybe have a chance at a normal life.”

“I get that, but you could have told me.”

“There were so many times I wanted to, but I couldn’t get myself to say the words. And then, you became this huge star, and I…” I let out a sigh. “I was afraid if the world found out about me, you’d be dragged into it, and it would become this huge fucking mess just like it is now.”

Sebastian’s eyes soften. “I don’t care about that. You know that, right? This doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

I cast my gaze down, my fingers toying with the hem of my shirt.

“I’m sorry, Kallie,” he starts and weaves his fingers through mine. “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I never should have acted the way I did.”

“You were hurt. I get it.”

“There’s no excuse.” He reaches and touches the back of his hand to my cheek. “I love you, Kallie. I really do.”

“I know.” Part of me wishes that things were simpler. That I could just tell him I love him back, let him take me in his arms and all would be well again. But it’s not that simple. Because the truth is, I don’t love him the way he wants me to.

I can feel his eyes searching mine, silently pleading for something, anything from me. But all I can offer is a tight-lipped smile and an awkward squeeze of his hand.

I pull away and open my door, glancing back at him. “We should probably go inside,” I say.

He nods but doesn’t move to get out of the car just yet. Instead, he takes a deep breath and seems lost in thought for a moment before finally speaking up again.