Page 216 of Always Love You More

I still. “Stop? What do you mean,stop?”

“We need to be careful,” she says.

I start pacing again. “You’re not making any sense.”

“He’s mad,” she whispers. “Reallyfucking mad.”

“Your old man?”

“Yeah,” she answers so quietly I barely hear her.

“He made you cry?” I grit out, my anger barely restrained.

“He’ll cool down,” she reasons, but the words come out shaky. “But, for now, we need to be careful, like I said.”

“What do you mean,careful?”

“He … uh …” She hesitates, and it pushes past my limit, past the restraint I was trying to hold on to.

“What?” I spit. “He what?”

“He doesn’t want me to see you anymore,” she says in a rush. “But—”

I stop in place, going rigid. “That’s not happening.”

“I know,” she says. “Obviously.”

The fear that’s gripping me eases a bit.

“You can’t come by, and I’ll have to give excuses when I leave. It shouldn’t be hard to tell him that I’m doing community service or working. It’s not like he’ll check, and he’ll forget about this soon,” she says like she’s trying to convince herself. “People in town talk, but Carson’s not really friends with any of the people we hang out with, and my dad barely talks to anybody, so we should be fine,” she rambles on. “And you’ll have to—”

“Baby,” I cut in. “Breathe. All right? Just breathe.”

She sucks in a breath, but it doesn’t do much to calm her. I hear a lighter spark as she says, “I just feel like my life is afucking cage, y-you know,” she stutters. “Like I’m always being watched, and I’ll never get out. Never be free of this bullshit.”

“You will,” I tell her, my voice firm. “This isn’t gonna be forever.”

I won’t let it be.

“I don’t know how it’s ever gonna change.”

“You’re eighteen—you can leave.”

She lets out a sad laugh like the idea is ridiculous, a delusion. “You know it’s not that easy.”

“Why not? I told you that you can come stay with me.”

“I don’t want them coming after me,” she pushes out. “You didn’t hear him today, Jamie. He’s … I can’t …”

I should have been in that fucking room with her.

I shouldn’t have let her convince me to drive away.

“I wouldn’t let them get to you,” I say, the words coming out as a threat.

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she responds.

“They can’t do shit to me.”