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Rosy giggles. “Those are the only stipulations, so yes, you can if you want.”

“That question’s just plain mean, but obviously I’ll pick to have a butt hole. I’m not giving up food.”

THIRTY

NATE

“I need to go, Nate. I can’t stay locked up here all the time, and I made a commitment to them.” Rosy’s voice starts strong, then cracks, taking my heart along with it. “I’m letting them down.”

She sniffs, a finger swiping at a lone tear as her shoulders slump.

I step into her space and lift her chin. “That’s what you think? You’re letting them down?”

Her lashes flutter, then fall closed. “It’s how I feel.”

Fuck.

“But you’re still not okay,” I grunt.

There’s nothing she can say to dissuade me from thinking that. She still wakes up, body rigid and trembling, every fucking night. She still flinches if any of us move suddenly and spends too much time lost in her mind.

“What if I’m never okay again?” she confesses, and it fucking cleaves me in two that she believes her world’s going to remain this dark forever.

“You will be,” I promise. I’d do whatever I need to do to make it happen. I just need to figure out how.

Her brows pinch as she watches me, then she shakes her head. “You can’t know that.”

“I can if I make it happen.”

Her eyes roll, and a slight smile graces her cheeks. She’s so fucking beautiful. “Well, if you say so, then I guess I’ll have to believe it.”

“Good,” I praise, dropping a kiss to her mouth, but not claiming her like I’m desperate to. She needs more time, and I can give her that.

“I still want to go,” she pushes, then presses a finger to my mouth, halting my reply. “Please? I, at least, need to try. It’s important to me that I’m there to help. I don’t want to keep hiding away, sitting in my thoughts, scared all the time.”

Every possible reason not to flies through my mind, especially the fact that Peter still hasn’t been fucking caught. But she doesn’t need all that from me. She needs me to be on her side. To figure out a way to make it happen.

I kiss her finger, then pull it away. I don’t bother to hold in the long exhale. “Okay. I need to make some calls first, but we’ll go. Can you give me that?”

She nods quickly, her arms wrapping around my waist. “Yes. You’ll…stay with me too?”

Rosy’s head is pressed to my chest, face hidden from me, but the vulnerable quiver in her voice is so strong I don’t need to see her.

“I wouldn’t be anywhere else,” I promise, both hating and relishing the way her body sags into mine. All I’ve wanted is for her to trust me to care for her, but fuck, not like this. Not because someone’s already hurt her.

I got what I wanted, but at what cost?

“What’s taking so long?”

Logan sighs, loud enough for me to hear it through the phone. Naturally, I don’t give a fuck. This is all just a case to him, a crime to solve.

To me, Rosy’s my everything.

“It’s not that simple,” he tells me. No shit. If it were, crime rates would be a lot lower.

“Didn’t say it was. But there’s got to be something.”

“Not as yet. He’s covered his tracks well. Considering Rosy wasn’t the first victim, he would’ve had time to prepare in case things went wrong like this and have a plan to disappear. We’ve gone through the company, and everything about it is above board so far. The devices we found are clean. But we’re still working on this. How’s Rosy doing?”