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“Sadly, no.”
He reached down to take her hand in his. “That’s all right. I’ll keep you safe.”
“I know you will.” She cleared her throat. “I didn’t have the most normal childhood either.”
“When I had my guy look into you, he said that it looked like your past before you turned sixteen had been faked.”
She winced. “Shoot. Isaiah will be mad. He created that past for me.”
“My guy is good. He also mentioned something about your stepfather.”
She glanced at him sharply. “He did? What?”
“That cop mentioned him too. Jesse didn’t tell me the details, I didn’t have time for them. Will you tell me?”
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I just . . . let me send a text to the others. I trust you, but this isn’t all my story to tell.”
She sent a text off.
“I’m glad you have them in your life,” he told her.
“You are?” she said with surprise.
“Well, even though I’d like to have you all to myself, if something were to happen to me, I know they’d take care of you.”
“But nothing will happen to you, right?” Panic filled her. “You’re not sick, are you? You don’t look sick.”
“Baby, calm down. Shh. Deep breaths. Come on, just breathe for me or I’m going to have to pull over. That’s it. I’m fine. I’m healthy. Nothing will happen to me.”
She whacked his chest. “Then don’t say things like that. You scared me half to death.”
“I apologize.”
“All right then. So you don’t know about what happened with my stepdad?”
“No. Tell me.”
She breathed out a sigh. “I have to start from the beginning. With how I met the others. Oh, wait. Let me check my phone.” She checked all the replies to the message she’d sent to the group chat. “Okay, you’ve been voted in so I can tell you this next part.”
“Voted in?”
“To the family,” she explained. “That means our secrets are now your secrets. It’s a big privilege you’re being given. There’s also a ceremony.”
“Ceremony?”
“Yeah, it involves blood and swearing away your first born.”
“What?”
“Joking.” She managed a faint smile.
“Girl,” he grumbled. “This is not the time for joking.”
“Sorry. We actually grew up together. In a . . . well, we used to call it the camp. I think the adults called it that to make it sound fun. But it wasn’t fun. No, that’s not true. Parts of it were fun. Being with my friends, having them around. But other parts of it were truly awful. Terrifying.”
“Where did you live?” he asked.
“We were part of a cult.”
