Page 52 of Beautiful Prey

I put my hand on the table. “I’m not trying to kill him. Funny, I hadn’t even thought of that even in the beginning. The only thing I was going to do…”

“What?” he said.

“I was just going to tell him who I was and what he did to me. That’s it.”

He took a swig of his beer and set it down. “Really, that’s it?”

“Yeah…but now I don’t think I can bring myself to do it.”

“Why?”

Like hell I was going to tell Ethan about my family's company, about what I discovered and the guilt it had brought me. Instead, I said, “He is really sick. I didn’t know until I met him. I thought he might be faking but I know he isn’t. And he might have a chance to be better. I guess I just feel sorry for him now that I know that.”

Ethan blew out a breath and shook his head. “He doesn’t deserve your help. But it makes sense. You are a strange girl like that, always were.”

He slid his hand over to cover mine. “Maybe you have changed a little. I still like what I see though. At least you're not dead or inside St. Agnes. I wondered if I would see you there in one of the rooms unlike you are now.”

I slid my hand away from his just as the waitress set my drink down.

“Hey, what’s with the pouty face?” He smiled. “Listen, I’ll be honest though, you're playing a really dangerous game. They are going to find out. He’s going to find out. And what do you think he’ll do when he does?”

“So don’t make this hard for me then,” I said.

He sighed. “Like you made it hard for me in high school?”

“Me?” I snapped. “You and your posse bulliedme, remember?”

“It was just a joke, Eve.”

I shook my head and laughed. “Yeah, right. Listen, if you say anything, it will be you who ruins it for Emery, not me. He won’t recover or talk to anyone without me. You want to put him in jail?”

Ethan took another sip as if he were thinking about it.

Suddenly, my phone vibrated, flashing a text from Jamie.

“Maybe you should just tell him,” Ethan said.

I glanced at him, expecting him to be joking, but he wasn’t.

“Maybe he won’t react badly to the news, right?” he said. “I mean, we're only assuming he’ll want to murder you, but we don’t know for sure, right? We don’t even know why he went after your family.”

I knew. And because of that, I knew what Emery’s reaction would be. “No,” I said softly.

“What was that?” he said.

“No.”

“Come on, Eve. I’ll be right there with you. Let’s just end it now. You don’t have to be scared of him. It’s not like he can get to you.”

I couldn’t speak. This was a mistake.

“Remember I could get in a lot of trouble for knowing what I do,” he said when I didn’t respond. “You expect me to put my job on the line just so you don’t hurt that guy’s feelings? They’ll expect me to say something because I’m security, and need toprotect the patients. No matter your motives, they will think you’re trying to hurt him physically, not just mentally. It doesn’t matter what you or I say. You are a security risk.”

“I know, you told me this already,” I mumbled. There was no convincing him.

He watched me for a long moment as he drank the rest of his beer. Then he set the empty bottle down. “What really happened that night? Tell me.”

I hesitated. What did it matter? But if he wanted to know so bad, then… “It was my sixteenth birthday. Just a family dinner,” I said. “I was supposed to go out with friends later because Dad wanted it to be just us. To him, it was special. My uncle and cousin were out on the front porch, while I was in the dining room. I heard someone scream. My brother went to investigate. I saw my cousin run in, his face bloody. He looked so scared he couldn’t talk, couldn’t get the words out.”

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