Page 66 of Torin

The video ends.

She locks her phone, then looks at me.

“How convincing was he?”

There’s no point lying to her.

“If I hadn’t met you, I’d have believed him.”

She nods, like that’s exactly what she expected. “He’s good at this.”

“At lying?”

“At making everyone else look like they are.”

She slips the phone into her pocket. “He always gets his story out first. Then anything you say afterward sounds like an excuse.”

I think of the man on the television. That calm voice, his sheriff’s uniform. Everybody in that diner listening to him and seeing a worried father.

“But I have met you.”

Her expression hardens. “My dad is a monster, Torin.”

“I believe you.”

“He gave me to Cade because he wanted me quiet. He was going to let him keep me up there for the rest of my life.”

The words land harder now that I’ve seen Hayes. Heard him call her sweetheart while telling half the county not to trust a word out of her mouth.

Hannah looks back at the phone in her hand.

“He’s not going to stop, is he?”

I shake my head. “Not after what I saw this morning.”

Her mouth tightens. “And now he’ll know I’m trying to get the evidence out. All he has to do is find me.”

“He’s not getting to you.”

“You don’t have to do this on your own anymore.”

She blinks hard. “Nobody’s ever said that to me before.”

Fuck.

“Well, somebody should have.”

She looks down. “You barely know me.”

I almost laugh. Barely know her. My bear knew her before I knew the sound of her laugh. Before I knew how stubborn she was, or how her eyes lit up when she beat me at something.

I’m the one catching up.

“Give me time,” I say.

12

Hannah