Page 103 of The Lair

I wrap my arms around myself because my body can’t stop shaking. “I have nothing that belongs to you.”

“You do,” Johnny accuses. “We searched for it and didn’t find it, but you’ve always been sneaky. You must have kept a copy for yourself. We want it gone.”

My heart gallops. “What do you mean you searched for it? What isit?”

It hits me—the car, the break-in next door, the almost break-in in my apartment that made me move in with Travis.

Butno. It would be insane to think my brother or my parents were behind that. It would mean they have been in the area for months, and that’s simply not possible. I would’ve seen them.

“The video,” my mother snarls, interrupting my thoughts. “You had no right to spew such lies about our family.”

Lies?

“Delete your copy of the video at once and sign an NDA,” my mother continues. “You may be our daughter, but we won’t hesitate to take you to court if you so much as breathe a word to George Eden or his social-justice-warrior wannabes.”

They think I’m going to expose them on TV?

Unlike the rest of me, my voice doesn’t shake when I say, “I want nothing to do with youorGeorge Eden.”

Then I turn to my brother. To the boy-man I barely recognize anymore. “My car, my apartment…” My throat closes up. “Did you have anything to do with it?”

He doesn’t need to admit it. And he won’t, either, because we’re surrounded by witnesses. But the furious, arrogant look he gives me is more than enough.

“We want the video,” my father says. “Tell us where it is, delete it, sign the NDA, and stop this charade.”

A weird calmness takes over me, like that day at the warehouse. And before I know it, I blurt out, “Or what?”

The air shifts from tense to downright hostile. For a moment, I wouldn’t put it past my mother to throw herself at me and try to maul me like a wild animal—but then a heavy weight lands on the small of my back.

“What’s going on?” Travis asks behind me, tension radiating off his body.

I take a small step closer to him, my body acting on instinct. It’s only now, with Travis by my side, that I muster the courage to glance around.

Charlie’s eyes pinball between me and my family as if recognition has finally dawned on him. When his look of betrayal becomes too heavy a burden to bear, I have to look away.

Unsurprisingly, seeing Jude and Sandra doesn’t make me feel better. Jude is behind the bar, while Sandra is standing by the kitchen, their eyes on me. Jude can’t stop frowning, and Sandra looks a second away from crying.

I did this. I never told them the truth despite my multiple chances. I’ve ruined everything.

“Who are these people, Allie?” Travis asks, his voice low.

“These peopleare her parents and her brother,” my mother starts with no short amount of venom in her voice. “Don’t think we haven’t looked you up,Travis Ward.”

“Let’s talk outside,” I manage to let out, panic dulling my senses. They won’t get Travis involved in this mess. They have no right to.

“Wouldn’t you like that,” Johnny sneers at me before sliding his gaze to Travis.

The two stay locked in a cold, cruel stare off, and my heart betrays me. For a moment, it folds in on itself, forcing me to conjure an ideal future in which my parents never put me at risk, in which my brother doesn’t hate me, in which he only stares down Travis as part of an overprotective act because he doesn’t trust anyone to take care of his older sister.

But then reality sinks in, slicing my chest open as it does.

“Get out of my bar.” Travis doesn’t need to raise his voice. It drips authority on its own. “Or I’ll throw you out myself.”

My mother snarls, “Are you threateninga woman?”

“Stop,” I lash out, feeling like the world is about to collapse on me any minute now.

Pressure builds in my chest, and I know there’s no getting out of this. There never has been a happy, calm life in the cards for me. And the worst part is, I can only blame myself for it.

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