Page 68 of Jase

“No.” My head shook.

Jase crossed his arms over his chest, the anger evident as he stepped closer.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? But.” Again, I looked at the curtains. “Me? Not…Pictures?”

“Yeah.”

“What are they going to do with them?”

“Nothing yet. Nothing at all if I have my way. There’s more than that though, Kody. They have video of me. Of…what happened to the guy who broke in your apartment. It’s not much. With the angle from Andrew’s phone, you can’t really see me, but it’s there.”

“Wait.” My hand shot up. “Wait one fucking minute. Are you telling me the bad people are the ones who did this? This wasn’t reporters?”

“No. It’s not reporters. It’s them. Or him. I don’t know how many are involved. The main person goes by V. He reached out to let me know he was aware of what happened.”

“What’s he going to do? That’s a stupid question,” I snapped to myself. “We have to leave. We’re not safe here.”

“You’re wrong.” Jase stepped in, approaching me as if I were a wild, spooked deer. “If they could get to us, they would have already done it. We’re protected. This may be the only place we are safe. Rian and I have our work cut out for us if we’re going to put a stop to this. And we will, Kody. I promise you that. I don’t make promises I can’t keep. We’ll figure out who this person is and—”

“And what? Kill him, too? Kill them all?” My fingers pushed through my hair. “We need a better plan than that.”

“There is no better plan. It’s the only plan. We have to get rid of them.” Jase’s stare locked onto mine. “With what they have on you, we have no choice. I know what I did. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. What they have of you, I won’t allow to get out. That’s on me. I shouldn’t have taken any chances.”

“Jase, you didn’t know. You can’t blame yourself.” Rian leaned against the sofa as he continued. “The food should be here soon. Let’s worry about all this later. There’s nothing we can do about it right now. I brought beer. Who wants one?”

“God, me.”

Rian laughed, turning back to Jase. “What about you?”

“No thanks. I stopped drinking.”

“Best news I’ve heard all night.”

As he walked away, I closed the distance to Jase.

“How bad is it? I want to see the pictures.”

“You don’t.”

“I do.”

“Kody.” He closed his eyes, running his hand down his face. “Trust me, you don’t want to see them. Nothing good will come of that. I’m sorry. This is my fault.”

I cringed, imagining the worst as I lowered my voice. “Your friend didn’t…?”

“No. Just me.”

“Okay. How do we get rid of everything? Is it possible?”

“Honestly?”

It took me a second to nod. My heart was racing, and I felt sick.

“I don’t think so. Can we stop them from getting out? Doubtful, but possibly. Can we make them disappear completely? I think that’s out of the question at this point. Once it makes it to the internet, it never completely disappears. He could have sent or stored them anywhere. I’ll try my best, but it’s not looking good.”

My head lowered.