Page 58 of Peripheral Vision (Tethered in Darkness Duet #1)

I kick at the rocks below me, the sharp points cutting into my bare feet.

“I feel like maybe we made a mistake in killing Connor. I mean, what if he had connections to other trafficking warehouses and factories? What if this wasn’t enough?

” Because it wasn’t. Because I know that there are other women, men, and children suffering the same as I was.

It likely wouldn’t be enough until every trafficking organization across the country was destroyed, and I knew that was impossible.

As impossible as having to sit with that knowledge.

“Do you regret killing him?” Nathan asks.

I scoff, “God, no. I just, I wonder if we could have used him to get more answers out of him, that’s all.”

“He was on death's doorstep either way, Dylan. Even if we waited, there is every chance he would’ve bled out before we got anything from him. I’m happy we got to make it up close and personal.

Besides, I imagine quite a bit of information will be yielded from the raid—from his office or otherwise.

” Fletcher holds his hand out to me, but I refuse to take it.

I cross my arms instead, the weight of his words and everything else I still don’t know pressing down on me. A raid? I didn’t understand. “Yeah, maybe.”

Nathan shifts beside me, his jaw tightening. “For what it’s worth, it doesn’t make the effort meaningless. Think about how many missing women and children were in there with you that get to go home. Every operation dismantled, every victim rescued… it matters, Dylan.”

I look at him, searching his face for some sort of reassurance but I don’t find any.

I guess it’s easy to say when you aren’t a victim yourself.

But considering I’m now another statistic, that sentiment doesn’t reach my heart.

Not when so much was taken from me while I was inside. “How long have I been gone?”

Fletcher answers immediately. “A week.”

A week. Seven days. It felt like months, like an eternity. My stomach churns and I grip the blanket that’s been draped over my lap tighter. “That’s all it took,” I murmur, mostly to myself. “To turn me inside out.”

“Time bends in situations like this. It’s part of the trauma.

But you’re here now, Dylan. You’re safe, and we’re going to help you get through this.

” Nathan’s expression is soft, and I want to believe him, that I’m safe.

But the word feels foreign, like it doesn’t belong to me anymore.

I glance at Fletcher, his stern exterior cracking just enough for me to see something I don’t expect—something like regret.

And then suddenly Connor’s words come rushing back to me about why I was here in the first place.

“Except you’re forgetting to mention the part that you were the reason I was here to begin with…

” I can’t even look at Fletcher, to show him the hurt in my eyes.

I’m not an unreasonable person, and deep down I know that he didn’t mean for this to happen to me, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.

“How am I supposed to feel safe when the two men I let into my life somehow led me here?”

“Little viper…” Fletcher stands up from the hood of the car.

“Don’t. Please… don’t.” My voice cracks.

The adrenaline from the night is wearing off and I can feel the weight of exhaustion pressing down on me.

My chest tightens and I swallow back the tears threatening to break free.

It’s as if all the emotions I’ve been suppressing—fear, betrayal, helplessness—are crashing together at once, too much for me to handle.

Fletcher’s steps falter, his posture rigid, but his face is shadowed in anguish.

Yet even with that flicker, his presence feels like it always has, a storm waiting to break.

He’s always been strong… intimidating. I’ve always looked at him through the lens of my father’s friend, someone I was supposed to trust, and that only strengthened when I let him into my body, my heart.

But now? I don’t know how to separate him from the wreckage he inadvertently helped create.

His shadow looms over me but I find no comfort in it.

“Dylan, please,” Fletcher says, his voice full of a vulnerability I would’ve never expected from him.

“I never wanted this. I never wanted any of it for you and if I could go back and change the past, if I could’ve told you what I was involved in sooner, why…

if I would’ve gone into that fucking building with you, I would change all of it instantly.

I’ll do anything now to erase the feeling of them from your body, from your mind.

I’m so fucking sorry. I can’t change the past, Dylan.

But I swear to you I’ll help fix it in whatever way you’ll let me. ”

I want to scream at him, tell him that it’s not that simple, that broken things can’t always be fixed. But the most I can manage is a shaky resolve. “Stop, please…” I beg. “I’m not asking for apologies. I just… I don’t know how to look at any of this anymore.”

Nathan takes a step closer, resting his hand on my shoulder, hesitant at first so as not to spook me. “Let’s get you somewhere safe, okay? We’ll figure this out together. I think it’s time you two have more of a conversation, but maybe after some rest and a check-in with the doc.”

“A doctor’s appointment?” I don’t know how I feel about someone else laying their hands on me so soon, perusing my body as they check my wounds, as they try to get me to speak my truth… “I don’t know?—”

“Dylan, it’s me, okay? I’m the doctor and you’ll get my story, too.” Nathan offers me a small smile.

I swallow the lump that has caught in my throat. “Oh… okay.” I wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved at that or if I had more questions. Maybe both.