Page 3 of Too Far

“Decker,”Iwhisper.Thetears I refused to let surface while Nicky was in the room finally well in my eyes.

“Come here,” he urges, opening his arms for me. “You did so well, Josephine. You did so well standing up to Misty, then keeping it together for Nicky.”

I fall against him and hold him tight, but his embrace isn’t enough to calm me. “Kendrick. What’s going to happen now?” As good as it feels to sink into his hold, how I feel is the least of my concerns.

“We’ll get him out. Soon. I meant what I said. I’d be shocked if he wasn’t home by dinnertime.”

“How do you know that?”

He smirks, but when he pulls back and really gets a look at me, his expression softens. Like he’s just now realizing how intensely I’m distressing.

“K played his part knowing that Kyl and I would play ours, too. We’ll get him back to you, Siren. I swear it. I won’t stop until he’s home. But first, I need to know… Who touched you?”

I exhale a swell of trepidation. Decker will go ballistic when he hears the details.

“It happened so fast,” I hedge. “I was running down the stairs toward the beach, which was stupid, really—”

“Josephine.”

I steel my spine and swallow my excuses.

“The guy with the red baseball hat. He sort of two-stepped so he was in my path, then ducked out of the way at the last second. I lost my balance when I tried to dodge him, but he shot his arm out and grabbed me here.” I brush my fingertips along the underside of my upper arm and wince when I find the tender skin where the asshole manhandled me.

“It happened quickly, but I’m almost positive he intended to make me trip so he could grab me. Maybe I’m reading too much into—”

“No,” he cuts me off, definitive and sure. “Don’t make excuses for them. We need to know exactly who we’re dealing with. If you say that’s what happened, then I believe you.”

I swallow past the emotion inspired by the way Decker accepts me at my word, trusts me so implicitly.

“Locke saw it happen, saw him cause me to stumble in the first place. That’s why he hit him. He knew the guy wasn’t helping me get my balance.”

“Do you want him gone?”

My stomach knots as I search Decker’s face. Is he offering to take care of the photographer the same way he and K and Greedy handled the South Chapel football players who took me captive during Shore Week?

“Josephine,” he scolds mildly, like he can read my mind. “Not like that.” Two fingers tip my chin up so I’m forced to meet his gaze. “I can’t get us out of this feature, but I can control who’s allowed in our home.”

I bite down on my bottom lip, considering. “Would it be better to just let him stick around? I highly doubt he’ll come after me again now that he knows the consequences.”

If it were me, I wouldn’t want to even breathe too loudly after being on the receiving end of that kind of reaction from the boys.

Decker blows out a breath and rolls his shoulders. “You’re right. He stays. He’ll be one less person to worry about now that he knows the lengths we’ll go to protect you.”

We’llis the problem, though.

I throw my arms around him and nuzzle into his chest, hoping like hell my affection is obvious before I speak my truth.

I don’t know if I can do this.

It’s not him. It’s not them. It’s me. It’s everything I’ve survived.

“Decker… I don’t want to be included in the feature. At all. I don’t want to be photographed or have to worry about who’s watching and when.”

“I’m sorry. I wish it wasn’t like this.” His jaw ticks, and a bolt of pain flashes in his eyes, but he leaves it at that.

“That’s it?” I push back. “You have no problem working around the law and paying off local judges, but Misty says jump, and you jump?”

He peers down at me, his cool, detached mask slipping back into place.