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I mmy ended her call with Maeve. She glanced around her hotel room, feeling antsy. Tobias had gone to his room for a moment, then he was coming back to get her so they could meet up with Jenner and Sampson.

She wasn’t sure why she’d even come with Jenner on this trip. It wasn’t like he seemed to need her for anything.

She sent him another text about the interview he had this afternoon.

Nothing.

With a groan, she messaged Sampson instead. No way was she messaging Lauren.

Immy: Hey, where am I supposed to meet up with you guys for the interviews this afternoon?

Sampson: Going straight there from here.

Well. At least someone was answering her messages.

Immy: Okay, I’ll meet you there.

Sampson: No. Stay at the hotel. We don’t need you.

Ouch.

She sucked in a breath, blinking back ridiculous tears. She knew that Sampson didn’t mean that the way it sounded. He was always a bit blunt, but especially when he was worried.

He was concerned about Maeve. Sampson had always taken it personally when one of them was in danger or threatened.

Not that any of them had ever had a stalker before.

Immy didn’t really want to stay in the hotel for the whole day.

Grabbing a light jacket and handbag, she headed toward the door.

Then she came to a stop with a groan. Tobias.

She could try to sneak out, but she knew that would just upset everyone. And it wasn’t the mature thing to do.

Even though, sometimes, she just wanted to do the immature thing. To stomp her foot, hide under the covers from everything and eat Twizzlers and drink diet soda until she exploded. To binge watch movies and pretend that she didn’t have responsibilities. That she didn’t have to adult today.

And maybe for the afternoon she didn’t have to. Perhaps she could just be Immy, the girl without worries or fears. Someone whose best friends weren’t acting strange or didn’t have stalkers threatening them.

But she would do it safely, because Immy never wanted anyone to worry about her.

So she messaged Tobias and there was a knock on her door a few minutes later. She opened it, smiling up at Tobias. “Want to go have some fun?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Am I going to like this?”

“Debatable. But you can come with me or I’m going on my own. Either way, I’m going.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorway. “Nope.”

“Nope? Nope, what? Nope, you’re not coming with me?”

“Nope, this isn’t the way this works.”

“This?” she questioned.

He brushed a finger through the air pointing at her, then at himself. “Us.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

Down, Immy .

He doesn’t mean ‘us.’

“I don’t know what you’re saying,” she said huffily.

He stepped forward, leaning over her. “I mean that I’m in charge, Little girl. And you do what I say. Not the other way around.”

“Is this because I climbed you like a tree this morning?” she whispered.

Little girl?

She wasn’t a Little. At least . . . that’s what she told herself.

Only, she was starting to believe that less and less.

Idiot.

The way she’d acted around him earlier this morning . . . yeah, it had been embarrassing. It had also shown her how much she actually trusted him. Because even though she couldn’t help being zombie-like, she’d also never tried to climb her father like a tree.

Just Jenner.

And now Tobias.

And she wasn’t going to read too much into that. Because she didn’t really have the headspace for it right now.

“Nope.”

Again with the nope. She huffed out a breath. “Are you going to elaborate?”

“This isn’t due to anything you did this morning. But you don’t get to just tell me where we’re going. You ask. Where do you want to go?”

“You’re just going to say no.” Her shoulders slumped. “It’s fine. Let’s just go down and get coffee or something.”

Shit.

Tobias immediately felt like an asshole.

It wasn’t that he wanted to tell her no. He didn’t want to disappoint her. But he also couldn’t commit to taking her somewhere when he didn’t know where they were supposed to be going.

Stepping further into the room, he let the door shut behind him and leaned back against it.

Then he watched her for a moment. She looked so . . . dejected.

“What’s going on, Immy?”

“Nothing.”

“Immy,” he said in a low, warning voice. “Think we’re beyond lies, aren’t we?”

She turned to look at him and there was such sadness in those big blue eyes that it killed him.

“What’s going on, sweetness?” he asked gently.

“I don’t know . . . everything just feels weird. Like I have no idea what’s going on. Everyone else has something they need to do, except me.”

What did she mean? “Aren’t you here to help Jenner?”

“With what?” she cried, throwing her arms up into the air. “Jenner isn’t replying to my messages. Sampson literally just told me to stay here because they don’t need me. I can’t get hold of Abe. Isaiah said he’s barely seen him and I’m so worried about him. What am I doing here?”

“You want to go home?” he asked her immediately.

“I don’t . . . I can’t. What if Jenner does need me?”

“Do you always spend your time worrying about what other people need?” he asked.

“Yeah. Pretty much. Isn’t that how everyone is?”

He snorted, shaking his head. “Nope. Not in my experience. Most people are selfish assholes.”

“That’s not true.”

“Sweetness, it is.”

“You’ve obviously just been around the wrong people. It’s good you’re around us now.”

“Is it?” he asked.

“Uh-huh. We’ll show you how good people can be.”

He stared at her intently. “Yeah. I’m seeing just how good people can be right now.”

Immy wasn’t sure where to look. His gaze was so intense. Was he speaking about her? Did he think she was good?

“I’m not that good,” she whispered.

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh no? And what have you done that’s so naughty, Immy-girl?”

“Um. Well. When we lived at the cult, I once stole some chocolate cake from the Deity’s house. It was Jenner’s birthday and we didn’t have anything to celebrate it with. And I’d seen the Deity eating chocolate cake that morning. So I snuck in and stole a piece.”

“What would have happened if you’d been caught?”

“Oh, if the Deity punished me, then I’d likely have been forced to write lines or put in the naughty room.”

“Naughty room?”

“Hmm. It was really a cupboard under the stairs. It was dark in there . . .” She swallowed heavily, not wanting to think about that.

She pushed those memories away, but she knew that the naughty room was likely related to her fear of the dark.

“Anyway, I didn’t get caught and Jenner got to have some chocolate cake for his birthday.

He gave us all a bite. It was the best thing I’d ever eaten. ”

“You didn’t get cake for your birthday?” he asked in a surprisingly soft voice.

“I got nothing for my birthday. None of us did so it wasn’t like we knew any different. Actually, no, that’s not true. The others remember having birthdays before the cult.”

“Not you?”

“I think I have a vague memory, but it’s hard to know if it’s a true memory or if I just made it up. I came to live at the cult when I was five. So no, I couldn’t really remember much before then.”

“That was a long fucking time to live there.”

“Yeah. Ten years. A long time.” She stared off into the distance as the memories threatened to overwhelm her. “The weird thing is that there have been times I’ve wanted to go back.”

“What? Why?”

“Not because I wanted to be with the Deity or anything. It’s just .

. . it was simpler. It was us against the rest of them, you know?

There, we knew the enemies. We knew what to expect.

Here, sometimes it feels like I’m stumbling around trying to play by the rules when I don’t have access to the rulebooks.

Everyone seems to know what to do but me. ”

“Think we’ve all felt like that at some point, Cherry.”

She shook her head. “Maybe a little bit. But I seem to feel it a lot. So much so that I’m too scared to live apart from my friends. I should be out there, doing things, exploring the world.”

“Is that what you want?” he asked.

“Not really. But I think it’s what I’m supposed to want.”

“Who gives a fuck what you’re supposed to want?” He stepped forward and cupped her chin in his hand, tilting her head back.

Her heart skipped a beat. That was hot. She liked being touched by him.

Too much.

“Do what you want, Immy. Screw the rest of the world.”

“All right,” she said. “Then I want to go to Universal Studios to the Harry Potter area. Will you take me?”

He blinked down at her, then he smiled. “Yeah, Cherry, I’ll take you.”