Page 41 of Finish Line

She sniffs, scrubs her hands on her shorts, then wipes her hand under her eyes and nose. “There was a seed of doubt about something. It doesn’t matter how small it might be.

She rises and walks closer to the water, watching it wash over her toes.

I stretch out my legs. I wish there was something I could do or say to make this all go away, but I understand that she needs to think this all through at her own pace.

She turns back around and looks at me. “He will find that little doubt.” She makes the little sign with her two fingers. “And twist it until you feel what he wants, and that’s how he slips in and twists what you feel to suit him. Those things they did, those things they said… They didn’t come from nothing. Roger just made them bigger.”

She falls silent, her chest rising and falling in rhythm with the ocean’s waves.

I narrow my eyes and look at her. “So, you had no doubts about your relationship with them?”

Her head turns, her gaze locking me in place with her conviction. “No, I had no doubts. Not about any of you.”

She needs a break from this topic, so I tell her the rest. “Louis said the guys would remember what happened. Since you’ve been through this before, I’m sure you understand what they are going through. Once the guys realized how they fucked up, they figured you were mad at them, which is why you’re here.”

Shelby lets out the smallest of snorts.

“So, we told them the rest. They didn’t know you and I were taken. They never believed us when they were under hypnosis. Dom refused to hear your name, running away at just the mention of it.”

As I get up and dust off my butt, I let out a huff. “Mav behaved like everything we said was just a practical joke. Luke was the only one who seemed to realize something wasn’t right.”

She wiggles her toes in the water. “That’s because I took his iPod away from him.”

“Because you did, he started remembering on his own. There were still a lot of blank spots, so when Louis did his thing, Luke didn’t have such a drastic reaction. Hannah and I filled in the details of what happened in the basement.”

I swallow some bile at what I’m about to say. “Nick told them how he found you, and the condition you were in.”

What I’m about to tell her could trigger her fight-or-flight response. “Frank and Nick also told us about Evan, how they found him at an abandoned house nearby.”

Shelby’s body freezes briefly before returning to matching her breaths to the waves again. “And?”

“Well, Cin was pissed at Nick that he withheld that bit of information from her. Nick, Cin, and Hannah told the rest of us how you’ve acted since you were found. Everything that happened at home that led to your leaving.”

Hopefully, I don’t piss her off with this next part. “I lit into Cin for how she treated you. Once I was done tearing her a new one, she truly understood how she fucked up. And if your mother comes anywhere near you before you’re ready…” I leave the threat hanging in the air for her to decide whether I’m serious.

“The guys want to find you. Hell, I thought Dom would beat the information out of Frank before Cin stepped in, telling Frank not to reveal where you are.”

Her breath kicks up, and she twists her hands together.

Everything in me wants to hold her and tell her she’s safe and secure. Instead of doing that, I curse Evan and Roger, vowing that when we get ahold of Roger, I’ll make him pay for what he did to her.

“Hey, Shelby, you don’t need to worry. No one is coming. The guys only backed off when I told them I was coming here to be with you. Nick also pointed out how easy it would be for someone to find you if we disappeared, and they looked into our movements.”

That caused her to stiffen.

“Don’t worry, I flew commercial under a different name. It was an interesting adventure. One I will gladly not repeat.”

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“Nick also knows where you are. He’s the one that showed me the picture.” I tap the table.

She throws her head back and sighs. “I should never have sent that photo. He didn’t tell anyone else, did he?”

“No, and he won’t. He won’t even show them the photo, going as far as deleting it from his phone. No one besides me knows where you are.”

Shelby nods, her body relaxing a fraction more.

I only have one last little thing to say to her. But I also want to cheer her up a bit, so I smirk to myself. “Listen, Shelby.”

---