Conceal

Chapter Twelve

Willow

The sound of the cameras makes my body freeze.

Ice spreads through my veins.

I’m stuck in a trance, and I don’t know what to do.

Move.

Goddammit, why can’t I get my legs to move?

Fear knots inside me as my heart thumps, beating frantically behind my breastbone. It beats so hard I’m sure it will explode. The ringing in my ears starts next, making the room sway beneath my feet.

I’m sure I will pass out.

I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.

Panic like I’ve never known before wells in my throat.

My picture is being taken.

He will find me.

And when he finds me . . . the thought of what he’ll do tears at my insides until I’m sure I’m going to fall down underneath the weight of my fears, but as my knees buckle under the weight of my panic, I feel two hands grab me.

I’m so lost in my thoughts that I barely recognize the movement of my body as I’m ushered out of the room and brought down a hallway. Only when we push through the doors of the kitchen, can I finally breathe.

That’s when I see who’s holding me. It’s him. It’s Jaxson Price who’s not letting me fall. He pulls me farther to where the door exits to the outside of the house and opens it.

The cold air slaps across my face. The smells of nature infiltrate me, the burning leaves filtering through my nostrils. It helps to calm me. It helps to bring me back to the here and now.

It takes a minute of inhaling to understand where I am and how I got here. I’m now sitting on the back stoop of the kitchen.

“You’re okay,” I hear him say.

My eyes blink rapidly. I open my mouth, but it’s hard to get the words out. It feels like I’m choking on my breath. I reach my hand up to my throat, trying to clear it.

“Let me get you water.” Jaxson stands, leaving me alone here in the dark, lonely night. Here in Connecticut, where the stars are brightly illuminating the sky.

There isn’t much light out here, but the stars are so bright I can see them. I wait for him to return and wonder what’s wrong with me. It must have been the sound of the cameras because when I heard them, the all-encompassing fear I had was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.

That’s not true.

I felt that fear before . . .

The night I left.

My brain hurts from trying to understand what happened, and the only thing I can come up with is that I was afraid someone would take a picture of me.

Images had paraded through my head of my picture being seen by him.

My imagination ran wild. I was sure someone would find me, and that I would be in danger.

On a large exhale, my head drops. The sounds around me calm me as I wait for him to return with my water.

It doesn’t take much longer before he does, but this time as he makes his approach, I can hear clicking heels behind him. I look up over my shoulder, and I see Maggie is with him. Her eyes are wide, and her jaw is tight as she looks down at me.

“Are you okay?” Maggie asks.

I stare blankly at her. I’m not sure what to say. How to explain that I was so scared of my picture being taken. Of being found.

My pulse speeds up again. My breathing comes out in strangled bursts as I fight for oxygen. I feel as though I’m a balloon, floating up with nothing tethering me to the ground.

“Are you okay?” It’s his voice now, and even though he’s a complete stranger, I float back down to earth. He is the rope that tethers me. “I got you,” he whispers as I breathe normally. “Welcome back.”

“Why are you here? Why are you helping me?”

“Why shouldn’t I be?”

“You’re supposed to be like every other asshole,” I whisper more to myself than to him.

“I’m not like anyone. I’m me.” With that said, an unwelcome tension stretches between us. It’s as if it’s just him and me in this world, it’s unnerving. The silence now looming around us like a heavy mist.

Making myself look around, I’m now aware of my surroundings and feel my cheeks warm. Maggie is still there, and I had forgotten her. I try to stand, but the movement is too fast, and I fall forward. Yet again, he catches me.

Warm. Protected. Safe. This stranger makes me safe, which makes no sense.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He pulls me in tighter to his body to support my weight.

“Back to work?” I say in question, and then I look up at Maggie, who is shaking her head. “You need me,” I tell her.

“I don’t.”

“But who will—” I say before Maggie lifts her hand to silence me.