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I was wrong.
So damn wrong.
It had been four days since Rafael held me against him in the restaurant, making me feel things that I had no right to feel.
He’d taken me home, walked me to my front door, kissed me on my cheek. And then…nothing.
He hadn’t been to Romeo and Bailey’s. I hadn’t seen his car; hadn’t noticed him around.
I didn’t want to believe it, but it felt like he was ghosting me, and in turn, Bailey too.
She was like a little sister to him at this point, so if he was avoiding her, then there was no doubt he was avoiding me too.
Had I done something wrong? Had he found out who I really was?
I slowly closed my eyes, trying to convince myself that there was no way he could have found out who I actually was. No one knew what I was running from—well, maybe Raf had a bit of an idea thanks to Kian, but he didn’treallyknow, he’d never truly know.
Secrets were supposed to be just that:secrets, never to be spoken about. And I had every intention of keeping it that way.
I blinked, bringing myself back to the here and now, realizing that Bailey was silent, waiting to see what I’d say. My eyes widened as I tried to remember what the last thing she said was. Crap, I wasn’t paying attention, my mind lost somewhere else—thinking aboutsomeoneelse. Dammit.
“It’s just so unlike Raf not to come and see me, you know?”
Right, Raf. We were talking about Raf.
“Maybe he’s busy?” I shrugged, trying to act like it was a completely plausible excuse, but deep down I knew something wasn’t right. I hadn’t listened to my gut in the past and it had gotten me into trouble, so now I knew to listen to nothingbutmy gut.
“Maybe.” She huffed out a breath, tilting her head to the side as the sound of an engine outside rang out. “Romeo’s home.” She stood, panicking, as if all her surprise party plans were laid out on the table yet they were all in her mind.
“We better go,” I announced, standing and bringing Reed with me. I strolled over to Kian, rubbing the top of his head as I said, “Grab your stuff, bud.”
“Okay, Mom.”
He gathered his things up, not missing a beat, then took Bailey’s hand as I followed her out of the house. The pair of them were chatting away, meanwhile I was still trying to push everything that had happened inside her house out of my mind. I swore I could feel the bruises starting to form on my body from the hits, but that was impossible because it was just a dream…just a dream—a nightmare. A living, breathing nightmare.
“Romeo?” Bailey said, stopping all of a sudden on the path between her front door and the driveway. “What are you doing?”
“I’m looking,” he replied, but it sounded from far away. I tried to see around Bailey, but she started moving again, and when we got to the driveway, I could finally see what she was seeing.
Frowning at the sight of Romeo crouching down next to my car, I sidestepped Bailey, my hackles rising. What was he doing by my car? What was he searching for?
“Is there a reason you’re by my car?” I asked, sounding harsher than I’d meant to, but Romeo was the king of harsh, so he didn’t acknowledge me for several seconds. But after everything today, I was on edge, my hands starting to shake as he continued searching for something, walking around my car several times, staring at it with such intent that it was scary. “Romeo?”
He glanced up, his attention focusing solely on me. “You need new tires,” his deep voice said. I raised a brow, having no idea what he was talking about. I hadn’t had the car for that long, there was no way I needed new tires. Or did I? I glanced around, trying to remember the last time I’d had anything to do with cars, but I’d never really had to. My brother took care of all of that, at least, he did until Travis took over, yet another tactic to control me.
Why hadn’t I insisted on knowing these things? Why hadn’t I kicked up a fuss when he took control?
You know why,a small voice in the back of my mind reminded me. It was so easy to be hard on myself now that I was out of it, now that I wasn’t living it day in and day out, but the reality was, if I would have pushed too much, he would have knocked me back down—literally.
“I do?” My breaths picked up, my anxiety coming to the forefront as I moved Reed from my left hip to my right. “How do I get new tires? I’ve never had to get tires before, I…I don’t—”
I was panicking, and if the way his expression shuttered, showing me a different side to him, was anything to go by, he could see that I was.
“Give me your keys,” he said, standing up and strolling toward us with his hand open, palm facing up.
“My keys?” I echoed. “I need my keys to get into my house.”
He pursed his lips at me. “Take the car key off the chain and give it to me.” He reached for Reed, taking him like he weighed nothing when we all knew different. My arms were starting to go dead from holding him for so long. “Go on,” his rough tone demanded, tilting his head at me.
