Page 58 of Keep You Close

And now, of course, to Atlas.

For better or worse.

“Can I ask you something?” Atlas asked when I finally stopped talking.

“Sure,” I invited, reaching for my orange juice.

“That night, after we went out to get dinner, when you got a phone call, was that him?”

Sucking in a deep breath, I exhaled it slowly.

“Yes.”

“How did he find your number?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I looked into it, and I blocked him, but I have no idea how he figured it out in the first place.”

“It was a new number?” he asked.

“New since I came to Navesink Bank,” I said.

“Hm,” Atlas said, sitting back.

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been racking my brain ever since.”

“Just to be safe, how about I order you a new burner?” he asked. “You can just tell your work that you switched providers. No one has to know.”

“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea,” I agreed.

Atlas reached across the table, taking my hand, and giving it a squeeze.

“Thanks for telling me.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Atlas

I knew I’d been right about her having an abusive ex.

There were just too many signs for it to be anything else. Her timidity. Her fear about displeasing me over even the smallest of things. The way she felt like she wasn’t allowed to have an opinion.

I hadn’t anticipated the stalker angle, though.

But I guess that made sense.

Guys who were that controlling didn’t want to let their victims go.

I imagine it went double-so for AJ’s situation, since she’d been groomed by a much older man.

He’d likely seen a young, insecure, impressionable, girl and thought he could pluck her, unripe, off the vine, then mold her into the shape he wanted.

The problem was, men like that were never actually satisfied. Nothing she ever did would be good enough.

And then he decided to beat her over his own sky-high, impossible expectations.

It was no wonder she jumped on the opportunity to take this house. It didn’t sound like Kingston had filed any sort of official paperwork. And all the bills were included. I even kept the cable and streaming services running because I could use the logins abroad too.

There was no paperwork that would point back to where she was here.

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