Page 34 of Newton

"I can ask him if you can come along," I offer. She's quick to shake her head at that.

No one knows she's here, not even Victoria, the director of the shelter.

"I think I'll have breakfast back in the room," she says as she stands. "Is that alright?"

"Of course it is," I tell her.

I let her walk past me, and I follow her all the way back to the room.

"I don't know how long I'll be," I explain, but she doesn't say a word to me. It breaks my heart to see her carry her plate back into the closet.

Kincaid is exactly where Shadow said he was going to be. I have to wonder if he's out here for anything other than his need to speak with me because I find him sitting in one of the chairs facing the door as if he's been expecting me for a while.

"I wanted to touch base with you about Brielle," he says the second I close the door behind me, not wasting a second getting to the point. "Has she said anything about Nathan or his criminal activity?"

I shake my head.

"We found a notebook at that house she met him at. The police believe it's Xan's. Although most of it is just ramblings of an insane man, he mentions that she talks in her sleep. Has she said anything?"

"She mumbles, but I haven't heard distinguishable words," I tell him honestly.

"It's been over a week, Newton. You're sharing a bed with—"

"She's been sleeping in the closet until last night," I say, correcting whatever thought he might've had about what's going on in that room. " I'm not so certain that she won't go right back in there again tonight."

I don't confess my connection to Brielle. It doesn't seem like the right time.

"I'd like you to see if you can get more information out of her."

"You think she's lying about what she knows?"

"I think she's terrified that the monster that hurt her since she was a little girl isn't done with her yet. I think any lies she tells are a defense mechanism. Xan wasn't always insane. Nathan did that to him. I can't even imagine what he was capable of doing to a little girl."

Chapter 18

Brielle

Maybe he regrets bringing me into his room at all.

Maybe he's disgusted with the way I came on to him last night.

Maybe he hates himself for getting hard because deep down he truly finds me repulsive.

There has to be a reason as to why he said one thing, that he'd sit with me today, and then not a few minutes later, he suddenly had an excuse that put distance between the two of us.

I know it shouldn't feel like a betrayal, but I can't stop my mind from going there. I got too comfortable. I let the routine we had shadow everything else.

I can only be tolerated for so long before people grow frustrated and cast me aside.

I squeeze my eyes shut when my mind tries to convince me that any attention is better than no attention. Nathan would isolate me, and I don't mean away from the public. I'd be in a sort of solitary confinement situation. I wouldn't be able to hear or see anything, and it was maddening. There were times that I'd pray for attention even if it was the bad kind. Humans aren't meant to spend so much time alone. It's unnatural.

I know his offer to let me come along with him was just a tease. He knows I can't leave this place. I'm in enough danger as it is. Going out in the open where one of Nathan's men could get to me would be foolish, but apparently, he likes to torture me with the idea of it. It was like dangling a raw steak in front of a hungry lion only to snatch it away.

I want nothing more than to be able to jump in the car and go for a ride or simply walk the aisles of a grocery store. It was what I envisioned when I left Ohio over a year ago, but it’s never happened.

I've been locked away in the women's shelter the entire time.

I should've listened to my gut instead of trying to help Beth.

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