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“Okay,” she said reluctantly. “I’ll do it.”

We sat there quietly for a few minutes while she smoked. Then she stubbed out her cigarette and put her chin on her knees.

“What about your family?” I asked. “Do they know?”

She laughed dryly. “They wouldn’t even believe it if I told them. They love him. Every time we go home, he brings my mom flowers. Fixes the hot rod with my dad.” She paused for a moment and wiped her cheek. “I wasn’t always like this, you know. I didn’t grow up seeing this. I know they say if you see abuse it makes you more likely to accept it, but my parents were in love. My dad didn’t even spank us. All my sisters are in good marriages. My brother doesn’t do this. It’s so embarrassing. I feel like such a failure.” She choked on the last word. “Like if they knew, they’d think I brought it on myself or something, because why else would Jake lose it on me?”

“Yeah, well. I know about that,” I said quietly.

She looked over at me. “Your boyfriend hit you?”

“He was emotionally abusive. He still is.”

She shook her head. “But…but you’re so smart…”

I scoffed. As if smart has anything to do with it.

I dragged a loose hair on my cheek with a finger and stared out into the street. “I saw this documentary on a tsunami once,” I said. “When it’s coming, it pulls the water away from the beach. Pulls it lower than sea level so the ocean floor is exposed. You can see all the sand and shells and coral, so people go in to look at it. And then the tidal wave comes, and it’s too late to run. It already has you.”

I looked her in the eye. “They lure you in. They make you feel like you’re the best thing to ever happen to them, like you’re the most special woman in the world—like you’re seeing something rare. But that’s the trap. It’s how they get you close enough to drown you. And Liz? Nobody can save you until you’re ready to save yourself.”

Chapter 28

Daniel

I waited for her on the porch. When her headlights turned in to the driveway, I jogged down the steps to meet her.

She looked exhausted as she climbed out of the car in the light of the flood lamp.

“She’s home,” she said, standing with me in front of her car. The engine ticked and heat came off the grille, radiating into my legs. “We sat on the curb until she was calm enough to go back inside. She let me take some pictures of the injuries, but she still won’t let me call the police.”

I reached out and put a hand on her arm. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She hugged her arms around herself. “Daniel, we need to talk.”

My stomach dropped.

“Okay. About what?”

“Let’s go inside. Talk in your room.”

I followed her up the spiral staircase to my loft, my heart pounding. This wasn’t good. I knew it wasn’t good. Nothing good ever comes out of “we need to talk.”

When we got inside, she sat on the bed, and I took the spot next to her. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

It took her a moment to begin. “Daniel, when we started this, it was just a sex thing for me.”

I waited. It looked like she was struggling.

“That’s not what this is for me anymore.”

I would have smiled at this except she looked so serious.

She licked her lips. “Is this still just a sex thing for you?”

I shook my head. “No. Definitely not.”

She held my eyes, but she didn’t smile. My mouth was dry. I didn’t like where this was going.