Page 103 of Sage Haven

Sage didn’t fit that mold.

Which meant Klay had kept her a secret.

A woman he couldn’t show off but wouldn’t let go.

Was that why she ran?

All of it gnawed at me, stealing what little chance I had at sleep.

So, I decided, tomorrow, I’d get my answers.

She had to talk.

For her sake—and mine.

23

SAGE

Ijolted awake again.My heart pounded, frantic and hollow, as though it were trying to escape the cage of my ribs. Cold sweat beaded at my temple, dampening the strands of hair clinging to my skin. My breaths came in shallow gasps, each one stinging my lungs like I’d just surfaced from deep waters.

The moonlight poured in through the window and I blinked hard, struggling to slow my breathing, grounding myself in the reality of where I was.

But this wasn’t safety.

This wasn’t peace.

I wasn’t home.

I stared at the ceiling, the ache in my chest building as the memories clawed their way back up, relentless and cruel. Klay’s voice echoed in the hollow space of my skull, a brutal soundtrack on repeat.

“Pathetic.”

“You did this to yourself.”

“You’re nothing but a whore.”

Each word reopened wounds I thought had already scarred over. But it seemed there was no end to how deep he could cut me, even when he wasn’t here to do it himself.

Each time I woke, I found a moment—a heartbeat—of relief. The disoriented belief that I was free of it all. That I had escaped the hell I’d lived through. But as the fog cleared, the reality settled like lead in my bones.

I was still trapped.

Maybe not by Klay this time.

But by Reich.

By something just as dark. Just as impossible to escape.

I pushed myself up slowly, wincing as the soreness in my shoulders and ribs flared hot and sharp. Swallowing thickly, I forced my legs over the edge of the bed and stood, grounding myself in the task of moving and breathing.

It was all I could do.

I drifted to the bookshelf, fingers trailing along the worn spines of novels I’d once loved. I wanted them to save me again. To pull me out of this place and into another world, one where I wasn’t owned by anyone.

But the words blurred on the pages. I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t outrun the question that had burned in the back of my mind since the moment Reich took me.

What was this job he said we had?