She knows, and I know. But I have to say it.
“For leaving.” And there it is. The apology I
’ve been wanting to give for six long years. I’ve imagined saying those words thousands of times, and each time I imagined I would feel a sense of great relief. Instead, all I feel is more pain as the tears begin to spill from her eyes.
“Why!?” she cries out. “Why did you leave me, Ethan!?”
“I—I had to.” Admitting this to her is like admitting a weakness. “Or they would have taken you, Bailey.”
“Who!? Who would have taken me?!”
Christ. If she only knew. “The same people who would have taken you tonight if I hadn’t found you first. I can’t explain it all now, Bailey. Right now I have to get you to a safe place.”
“And I’m supposed to trust you!?”
My hands are burning, and I’m raging inside, but Bailey’s face is tortured with pain and fright, which makes what I’m feeling even so much more terrible. There’s only so much I can do and that kills me.
“It killed me to leave you, Bailey,” I reply. “But if I had stayed, the consequences would have been disastrous. Trust me now, and I will explain everything. And if you don’t believe me, and really want to leave, I won’t stop you.”
Bailey wipes a tear from her eyes and slowly nods.
But I’m lying to her again. It doesn’t matter if she believes what I tell her next; there’s absolutely no way I can let her go. Not anymore.
4
Bailey
I should be panicked and beyond suspicious about where Ethan is taking me. But I’m not. Instead, I’m doing the complete opposite; I’m falling in love.
Hard.
Without his mask on, he’s a vision of pure masculinity. He was already handsome at eighteen, but the years have forged him into a panty-melting man whose presence is like gravity, pulling at every fiber of my being.
The things he’s saying make no sense. Dangerous people? Disastrous consequences? It was just a party – a really crazy party. Right?
I’m barely holding it together as he turns up a long, wooded drive. He slows at a gate, which opens slowly to let us pass, then pulls up to a severe-looking, modern home of concrete and glass.
“This is the safe place?”
“As safe as we can be right now,” he replies, shutting off the car. I watch as he gets out and comes around to my side, opens my door, and extends his hand. I guess I’m supposed to take it, so I do, and walk beside him up the steps to the front door.
I do feel safe as we go inside. He flicks a switch, and dim lights come alive, illuminating the living room. The house party may have been a secret affair, but I can’t help but feel as though I’m being let into something much more secret now – a part of his life not everyone gets to see.
“So you want to clue me in on what’s going on now or where you’ve been for the last six years?”
Ethan turns to me. There’s a sadness in his eyes, and I glimpse a hint of anger there, but not directed at me. It may have been years since we were last together, and tonight may have been the wildest night of my life, but if I try, I can almost make myself feel as though we’re back in a room together, hunched over my math book.
“I had to leave you, Bailey. For your own protection.”
“Protection…”
“My family is…very dangerous, Bailey. I didn’t understand until I turned eighteen and my father revealed it all to me.” His voice is pained. I want to help him, but how? I can barely help myself right now. “That party tonight was one of their parties. That’s why I was there.”
“Your family owns that place?”
“And many others like it. A place for powerful men to engage in terrible, despicable acts.” His eyes flare for a moment with rage. He clutches a fist at his side. “And you saw the women?”
How could I not? “Yes.”