Page 239 of Heart So Hollow

BOWEN (12:46AM): For your eyes only. Savor it. She’s mine. And if you or any other asshole looks her way I’ll bury you in my back 40.

Thanks…I guess?

I’m not sure whether to be grateful or totally creeped out. Not only because he sent me the video, but because his response catches me off-guard.

It’s threatening and overprotective. And also totally unlike Bowen.

Bowen doesn’t like girls. He likes fucking them, but he doesn’t care about them. He’s a chameleon who reels them in with a nice smile and the right words, but it always ends the same way. I think the only one he has any shred of respect for is Hildy because they have the whole twin thing going on. But he’d probably fuck her, too, if he could get away with it.

And the more I think about it, the more unsettling it becomes. Because I don’t know which is worse—Bowen fucking with Evie just to stick it to me, or Bowen setting his sights on her for the long haul.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

Brett

Present

“I told you about how I tried to kill him, right?” I glance up from my cuticle, already starting to bleed from the assault by my burgundy fingernail.

“Your boyfriend?” Judy replies with a smile that says she already knows, “Yes, you did.”

“After what he did to me…” I still don’t like thinking about it. The dark room, the gun, his eyes, and the way his voice didn’t even sound like his own… “I wanted to kill that part of him—just the part that’s broken and filled with blind hatred. I know he wasn’t himself that night.”

“You can blame him for a lot of things that you didn’t deserve to be a part of,” Judy points out.

“But I have to accept it, right? I have to accept every part of him, even the parts that scared me, the parts he can’t control, and all the broken pieces that cut everyone they touch. I mean…” I pinch my eyebrows together, “who puts up with that?”

“Someone who’s invested,” Judy emphasizes the last word, “I know both of you have been doing the work. You see beyond your own wants, you see a future, and you make a decision. It’s not logical, it just is.”

See beyond our own wants…

My own selfish wants nearly got me killed and, oddly, his depraved wants are what ultimately kept me safe.

“What was your turning point?” Judy wonders, “You could’ve walked away. There were opportunities. What made you decide to stay?”

Could I have walked away? I did decide to stay. But there was more to it…

“It was when he told me,” I remember it vividly, “this is the part of our story where you trust me, I take care of you, and you accept it.”

“You decided to trust him then,” she tilts her head with curiosity, “do you still trust him now?”

“I’ve always trusted him,” my muscles relax and a crooked smile seeps across my face, “even when I haven’t.”

???

I stand in front of my sliding glass door for a good five minutes, just staring across the grass toward the tree line. Scanning, searching…

He was here, I know it. I saw him right in front of me. I felt his body heat through the glass, against my own skin. He could’ve come right through the door if he wanted to. Why didn’t he? Not that I’m complaining…He’s gone now, but not really gone. I just don’t see him.

But did I really see him?

It’s happening again, and I have to use every shred of mental fortitude to keep it in check. If this is my reality, I have to keep my wits and keep a lid on it, at least for now. I’ll freak out later. Right now, I can’t afford to.

I haven’t checked my email since the guys left on their quads, loaded down with rifles, scopes, cameras, blinds, and enough camo to disguise a tank. Sometimes it feels like I’m in some redneck version of Moby Dick.

The legendary whitetail. The king of the forest. The ghost in the pines….

But we all know they didn’t leave to find the buck wreaking havoc on my garden. They have their sights set on something bigger.

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