Page 34 of Even if You Fall

If Gray heard it, he didn’t give any indication. He just gave me a knowing look wrapped up in all that typical Gray arrogance as he twisted to continue walking backward into my living room. “Crazy how far you can get with people when you’reniceto them—when you don’t make them feel like they’ve done something wrong.”

My eyes rolled as I tried ignoring the guilt that had been lingering so close to the surface. Knowing I had nothing to say because he was right, I just went to get my tablet and laptopbefore joining where he was waiting on the couch, already talking.

“Nerd swears this Vance guy doesn’t harass or assault women—that he has no need to because women throw themselves at him. And, for the same reason, he doesn’t blackmail them. But she doesn’t even realize he’s been doing all those things to her.”

At the news Gray casually tossed out, I nearly dropped the laptop as I was passing it off to him, but I managed to keep it in my shaking grasp until he took it from me.

“Explain,” I ground out as I sank into the large, plush chair next to the couch.

Gray logged into my computer, already knowing the password because we’d had too many of these work sessions to count, then gave me a worrying look. “Remember the way Monroe got all swoony when she started talking about Vance?” When I grunted in acknowledgment, Gray nodded. “It was like that with Chloe, even though she has a lot of resentment toward him. It’s creepy to watch them talk about him. Like he puts them under a spell or something.”

“Details, Gray,” I said, anxious to know what all this guy had done to Chloe.

“Getting there,” he defended. “But that’s important because Chloe said from the first day she met him, she’s had this chill in her spine, like a warning. Every time she sees him, that chill’s there, worse now than before. And even through that, it was like finding out she existed—that she mattered—whenever he so much as looked at her.”

I ground my teeth but didn’t say anything as I forced my head to dip in subtle nods, waiting for him to go on.

“A couple years after first meeting, they started seeing each other, even though Chloe couldn’t seem to understand why thisVance guy would choose ‘someone like her.’” Gray made a face like he was still trying to wrap his head around that comment and what it could mean. “She said they went on dates nearly every night—dates only at first, because it’d been important for her to save herself until she was married.”

My heart missed a beat or two, the feeling excruciating as I rapidly absorbed the use of the past tense and how that small detail had me wanting to destroy a man I’d never met...all because of a girl I hardly knew and didn’t trust.

Not only that, when I’d twisted everything around onto her, I’d made it out to be something more. I’d madeherout to be something more—something worse.

“When they eventually started sleeping together, she made it seem like it was her idea,” Gray went on, tone all business because this wasn’t destroying him the way it was me.

Because she was just another girl to flirt with to Gray. She didn’t actually mean anything to him.

I had a feeling if we were talking about Monroe, he wouldn’t be so at ease.

“Was it?” I asked through clenched teeth.

“Not in the least,” Gray said as he took another drink from his beer. “I let her tell me the whole story, then backed her up to when they’d first started seeing each other. Getting every detail I could.”

He gave me a concerned look. “You saw how Monroe reacted to justoneencounter with Vance. With that and how Chloe genuinely has no idea this guy assaulted and manipulated her more and more until he fully coerced her into sleeping with him—all while blushing and trying not to smile like she was reliving great memories? Not to mention the way she brushed off his blackmailing as him beingromantic. This guy’s dangerous, Thatch.”

I forced myself to release my stylus when I realized I was clenching it, letting it fall and roll across my tablet’s surface.

I knew I needed to ask for the details because that’s what was expected of me for this case—every case. I needed all the information Gray had so I was prepared going into the Donut. But my thoughts were on Chloe.

“Did you tell her what really happened?” I asked.

A flicker of worry for the girl in question marred Gray’s expression. “No,” he said after long seconds of hesitation. “She needs to know—she deserves to know. But it didn’t feel like the right time.” His head slanted. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure she’d hear me with the way she kept getting this dazed expression whenever she talked about him before their fallout.”

Pieces of my short conversations with her both yesterday and today—of her tears and her shame—flashed through my mind. “What was their fallout?”

“Finding out he was married,” Gray said as if he knew he wasn’t informing me.

I barely managed to hold back an eye roll and asked, “How does a marriage go unnoticed?”

Frustration flashed in Gray’s eyes, letting me know he didn’t just have a general idea of what I’d said to Chloe earlier—he knew exactly what I’d said. But he couldn’t make me feel worse than I already did.

“How does this guy make women think sexual assault is something they want?” Gray tossed back. “How does he make them think blackmail is romantic?” When I didn’t respond, Gray released a heavy sigh and said, “He told Chloe he was divorced, which, I already know what you’re gonna say about it, but he was convincing. She also stayed at his house plenty of nights.”

My jaw already ached from how much I’d clenched it today, but it neared the point of painful at that information. Information that shouldn’t matter to me...but it did.

If I wasn’t careful, I was going to fall for a girl I had no right falling for. A girl I didn’twantto fall for.

Scuffing my hand over my face, I tried ignoring the jealousy growing stronger by the minute and forced myself to listen as Gray continued.

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