“Um… no. No thanks.” She pushed her hair behind her ear, only for it to fall back. And that was when I saw it — a faint shadow on her cheekbone.
A bruise.
My chest tightened. “What happened to your face?”
Her cheeks flushed. She immediately let her hair fall forward like a curtain. “Nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing.”
“Well I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Is it from the monster?”
“Um. Yeah. Most likely.”
She was lying.
I knew she was lying.
Something about the way her eyes darted — the way herfingers curled in her sleeves — told me she was hiding something.
“Seph?” I asked quietly. “If someone is hurting you I need to know. Tell me.”
“Kieran.” Her voice was quiet, warning. “Please don’t.”
“Don’t what?” I stepped closer, heat crawling up my spine. “Don’t notice when you walk into my room looking like someone took a swing at you? Don’t ask who the fuck touched you?”
Her breath hitched, but she didn’t look at me.
I forced myself to exhale slowly.
Not to scare her.
Not to shake her more than she already was.
“Seph,” I said again, softer but still rough around the edges. “I’m not trying to interrogate you. I just—”
I bit the inside of my cheek, jaw clenching.
“—I need the truth. Not because I want to control you. Because I really do give a damn.”
She still didn’t answer.
Instead:
“So… have you been here? The whole time?” she asked abruptly, like she needed to change the subject. Hard.
Suspicion prickled the back of my neck.
“No. I came here about a year and a half ago.”
“Oh.” She nodded, eyes tracing the edge of the coffee table. “And before?”
“I was… I was in the city. In Edgewater.”
Her voice lowered. Careful. Too careful.
“With Sable?”
