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“Stop, please,” he pleaded, halfheartedly.

Seeing him like this gutted me. I knew he was trying to push me away even still.

I ignored him completely. One moment he was sitting up straight, and the next I had practically pulled him into my lap. His face pressed into my shoulder, his body limp in my arms and he cried harder, saying nothing. I held him there, drenched in my own shame. I wished I could take back the last few minutes of our encounter together.

Noah didn’t have to tell me anything else. Only one person could have reduced him to this.

We stayed like that. For a long time. I wished it could have been on better terms. I wished I could have held him this way normally, not just when I was trying to keep him from falling apart.

“I have to leave,” Noah suddenly said, breaking from my hold as if he’d just woken from a night terror. He stood, and glanced around the room a few times, nervously.

“What? No way in hell,” I growled, panic flooding my veins. I rose as well, fixing my clothes as I did. “You are not going back to that house if he is still there.”

“He is always there, Silas,” Noah replied with an annoyance that didn’t mask his fear. “I can’t stop him from entering his own home.”

“Look,” I urged, my hand grabbing his. “I don’t want to force you to do anything you don’t want to do. But—”

I couldn’t let him walk back into that nightmare. Not after I’d already failed him once tonight. Not after I’d already failed him so many times before.

“Please, Raven. Don’t go back there. You can’t stay here, but I do have a place where I can take you.”

Noah was silent, but he was listening. His eyes searched me, trying to see if I was serious.

“I’m getting you out of there,” I said firmly. “Please come with me.”

Chapter forty-three

The Open Door

NOAH

Istood at the threshold of my house, my hand still sweating against the doorknob, listening. Downstairs in the main room, the television murmured. Damian was home.

Silas had driven me. But I knew better than to tell him to come inside. I had him wait in the car.

“If you aren’t back in five minutes,” he said, dimming the headlights. “I’m going in.”

I believed him, so once I let myself in the front door, I moved quickly.

I made a mad dash to my bedroom. Once inside, I yanked my duffel bag from the closet floor and threw it open on the bed. I tried not to think of the time David had me shoved inside that closet. Or how he strangled me outside of it. My hands shook as I grabbed jeans, a few shirts, underwear. Light. Everything light. I didn’t really care about what I needed, just what could get me by.

I grabbed my charger for my phone. My medication. The golden airplane. I made sure I had my wallet.

I couldn’t believe I was actually doing it. Leaving.

My eyes drifted to the hole in the wall where Damian had ripped out my mini bar.

Just one, a seductive voice whispered inside me. I shook my head violently, trying to rid myself of thoughts of how well a stiff drink could calm my nerves.

“Noah?” Damian’s voice carried up the stairs, heavy with that particular brand of concern he never seemed to shake when it came to me.

“Yeah?” I called back, my voice cracking. I cleared my throat.

“What are you doing?”

I didn’t answer. I got to my knees and looked under my bed. I didn’t know how thorough Damain had been when he went through my things. But I had to check and see. I had to do it before Damian got up here.

Had to know if that metal box was still there. The box that held the gun I should’ve used on David years ago.