Page 62 of Even if You Fall

“You can unpack,” I told her and gestured to the dresser, all while keeping my attention off her. “All the drawers are empty. There are hangers in the closet.”

Without waiting for her response, I took my stuff into the bathroom to change and get ready for bed. Not that I’d be sleeping tonight. Not near her.

But once I’d brushed my teeth and was searching through my bag for clothes to change into, my hand curled around her phone.

Tapping on the screen, I saw the notifications for multiple texts, and felt a deep, unsettling rage slowly curl through mybody because I knew without needing the confirmation that they were from Vance.

I’d already seen Chloe’s messages. She didn’t message many people, and one of those people was in New York, probably having an amazing time, even if she’d initially been irritated with Briggs.

I studied the darkened screen for longer than I should’ve, wanting to do this without involving Chloe, but I’d never asked Gray for the passcode when we’d been going through it. And the more I thought of it, the more I realized Icouldn’tdo this without involving her.

She’d given us permission to go through her phonethen. Not now. And she’d already had enough of one man twisting her consent until it fit what he wanted.

Once I was changed, I grabbed one last item out of my bag before zipping it up, then headed into my room and stopped short.

There was nothing special Chloe was doing to cause the reaction I was having then. She was just propped up against my pillows, long hair up in that messy knot she sometimes wore it, reading the same book from the flight. But the sight of her there had me wishing I could come into my room and find this every night.

I forced my stare to the floor and reminded myself why that could never happen, why that wasdangerous, until my thoughts were clear again, then headed toward her.

“Here,” I muttered as I held out one of my hoodies.

I felt her hesitation and surprise. I felt her cautiously take it from me. But I didn’t look at her because some part of me was afraid of what I’d say if I did.

“We need to talk,” I began as I took a step away from the bed. “You have messages waiting on your phone, and I have a feeling I know who they’re from.”

I expected her to demand to know why I’d checked her phone at all or to give it back. But instead, she remained silent as her unease slammed into me. And despite my reluctance, my stare shifted back to her. Taking in the way she was staring blankly off to the side, uncertainty and shame plaguing her features as she gently clutched my hoodie to her chest.

“From that reaction, you think they’re from him too,” I assumed and watched as her hazel eyes flicked to me before darting away again, but her subtle nod was enough.

“This is still a case,” I reminded her. “I need to read them to know what he’s saying.”

“Then read them,” she murmured as if she wasn’t sure why I hadn’t already, then set my hoodie beside her to pick up her book again.

“I can’t get into your phone.” At the hint of surprise that betrayed her otherwise neutral expression, I reminded her, “You only gave the code to Gray.”

She whispered something that sounded like an apology when she had nothing to apologize for, then carelessly recalled the number for me to enter.

And that trust, her willingness to let me go through her phone all while she sat across from me, floored me. It wasn’t something I’d registered when Gray had first produced her phone last weekend, but it was blatant then.

I didn’t know many people who would voluntarily hand over their phones and let someone, who wasn’t their significant other, search it. But Chloe had gone above that and let Graytake itfor an entire weekend.

If I wasn’t so sure this was Chloe’s only source of contacting people, I might’ve worried she had another primary phone somewhere else. As it was, her lack of fear that we would find anything she didn’t want us to see had my previous suspicions crumbling to dust.

She was hiding something; I was still sure of that. But my certainty that she was a threat had already been shaky before today, and with that one act, it was gone.

I tapped into the messages and forced my jaw to unclench when I saw a few were waiting to be read from the sameunknownnumber. Before I allowed myself to dive into those, I read the other messages waiting for her and said, “Lainey saidhi.”

Chloe’s head snapped back a second before her eyes lifted from the page she was reading. “No, she didn’t.”

One of my eyebrows lifted just slightly at the sure way she spoke. “How would you know?”

“Lainey never texts me to sayhi,” she said confidently, then lifted a brow of her own as she closed her book, using one of her fingers to mark her place.

Whether or not that was true, I wasn’t about to tell Chloe what Lainey had actually said.

I shrugged and glanced back at the screen, my brow furrowing as I read through the messages again.

Lainey Pearson

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