Page 97 of Before Eve

He takes in my blue hair and my clothes. He’s disgusted by my punk look, but he hides it well behind his gentle expression.

“Laura,” he breathes in relief.

A trembling breath stutters from my lungs. “Wh-what do you want?”

“All I’ve ever wanted is you, my sweet daughter. I love you.”

A shiver crawls down my neck, and I make myself stay still.

West shifts closer to me, and Grayson rolls him a slow, threatening look before turning back to me. “You know the right thing to do. You need to come back home. You’re not on a good path right now. Let’s get you home and get you straightened out.”

He glances at his two guys, silently telling me he’ll makeme go if I don’t willingly.

“If I do, you’ll leave Brynn alone, that press release gets shredded, and you’ll drop the rape charges against West?” Terror lodges in me, knowing the direction my whole life is about to take.

West steps forward. “Wait—”

“Of course,” Grayson answers my question.

“Can I have just a few seconds with West?”

Grayson hardens. He hates the request, but he won’t deny it with West standing right here.

He nods, and I turn to West. My soul splits open as I take in his confused and lost expression. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

“Eve…” he reaches for my hand. “Don’t do this. You don’t have to go with him. Screw the rape charges.”

Grayson moves in, as do his two men. “Yes, she does, and if you come anywhere near her, I’ll file a restraining order. I am a very powerful man, Mr. Wolf. Don’t cross me.”

West grips my hand, and it takes everything in me to disengage our fingers. Statutory rape, restraining order. West is only nineteen, and Grayson will make his life a living hell.

I turn away.

“Eve,” West’s voice breaks.

I ignore him, letting Grayson lead me down the hall. Back to the hell I know all too well.

CHAPTER 47

Grayson’sprivate jet flies us back to the West Coast. He remains eerily silent the entire time. Unnervingly so.

A choking feeling settles over me with each mile in the sky. If only I could rewind the clock, I would. How naive of me to think my life was in some sort of upswing. My life’s never been in an upswing. Didn’t I learn long ago not to have hopes? That hopes only get shot out from beneath me?

But hopes are what I most definitely developed in my time with West.

He put all his trust in me, and all I did was step on it. If I had just come clean earlier, we’d both be in such a different place right now. I don’t know where exactly, but it wouldn’t be here.

The thing is, I’ve spent my entire life nottrusting. Nottalking. Notbeing open. I’ve spent my entire life being scared. It’s hard to be anything else. It really is.

For sixteen years, I’ve been driven by fear. I finally did something about it and ran, and look where it’s gotten me? Right back where I started. I thought I was brave. A fighter. I’m not a fighter. I’m a coward. I’ve simply been existing. Playing at a normal life.

Tears blur my vision, and I turn my head. I don’t want Grayson to see me crying. I’m so upset at myself for handling this the way I did. I swallow the overwhelming desire to scream.

I’d give anything for West’s voice right now.

I turn to see Grayson staring at me in his infamous passive-aggressive way. He’s an expert at subterfuge. People are hypnotized by him. They blindly follow his every word. His dynamic, authoritative personality. None of them would ever guess his true malevolent self.

Hours later, the plane touches down, and his private car picks us up at the airport and drives us back to the prison I was raised in. As we pull through the gate and down the long driveway, I stare at the woods around us. The same woods I had ripped and clawed my way through in my run for freedom.