Page 5 of Deceiver

The door creaks, and footsteps can be heard as Leo crosses the room and then flicks the covers back, climbing in behind me. His big arm wraps around my body, and he pulls me close. The moment he does, I feel my lip tremble with more unwanted emotions. I bite down on it, trying desperately to stop the tears that are threatening to come forward once more.

“You’re strong,” he whispers, “you’re brave, and you’re incredible. It’s bad now, but I promise you, it won’t be forever. You will get through this.”

He’s wrong, though.

I don’t think I can.

“I’ve never felt this kind of hurt before,” I say, my voice scratchy and weak. “It’s like my heart is on fire, and no matter what I do, the flames just keep getting hotter and hotter. I want to reach into my chest and rip it out just to make it stop.”

“It’ll get better. I know that sounds like a cop-out right now, but I promise you it will. Time heals everything. You need to focus on staying safe.”

“I can’t let it end like this. Not with him. Not with any of it. I have to fix this. He is in danger now, and so am I. I opened a can of worms, and I can’t just pretend I didn’t.”

“Risking yourself isn’t going to fix that. For now, you need to sleep and get yourself together. Then you can decide what comes next.”

I don’t answer him, because I know Leo well enough to know that whatever I say to him will only be given back with equal amounts of protest. I understand that. He loves me and he doesn’t want to see me hurt, but this goes far deeper than he could ever imagine. Not only that, but Western deserves me to fix this for him, even if I don’t know how I’m going to do that right now. My article made a lot of people angry, and I basically put the club at war with people that are quite possibly more powerful than them.

I also need to know who did it.

Who released that article and why.

Pete was the only one who had it, and...

Wait a second.Jerimiah.

He made a comment about the article the day I walked out of there after agreeing with Pete that we weren’t going to release it. He is quite possibly the only other person who saw it. Would he do something like that? Release a story he was instructed not to? I mean, he has the skills and opportunity to do it, that’s part of his job, but why would he do something like that? I don’t even know him.

Still, I’m going to be asking him questions.

I will find out who did this.

But for now, I’m going to close my eyes and wish the pain away.

For just one second.

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