Page 93 of Break The Ice

I nod. “He also took some things out of your room.”

She licks her lips. “Yes, my jacket. I noticed.”

I sigh and scrub my hand over my face. “I’m not mad, not anymore, but can you please explain your thought processes behind why you kept this all secret?”

She shifts uneasily, only to still when Callan puts a hand on her thigh.

She huffs and looks up at the ceiling. I tense, wondering how bad this is going to be.

“No one believed me.”

The world shrinks down to a tiny point. It’s like I’m hearing Kit all over again. The echo from the past. Am I doomed to keep living this cycle over and over? How can I protect them when the whole world is against us?

“What?” I whisper through numb lips. My gaze shifts to Kit and back to her.

“No one believed me. They thought I was trying to get attention. The police, the neighbours, anyone I spoke to about it, they just didn’t believe me. I even had a boyfriend for a while, but when his stuff went missing, he assumed I’d pawned it. He went crazy, shouting at me, trying to get me to tell him the truth, and, in the end, he broke up with me because I wouldn’t say what he wanted to hear.”

I close my eyes and try like hell to calm the raging storm of my emotions because I don’t want her to feel alone. I don’t want her to think I’ve rejected her.

My parents always said that I react first and that reaction isolates people. I think they underestimate my control, but, in this, I will not waver.

Ryann has been through enough.

I puff my cheeks and blow out my breath as I stand up and start pacing.

“We saw a man standing in the middle of the road, right?”

“Yes!” Kit says. “And the letters with no letter inside.”

“The flowers,” Wren says.

“All the empty boxes addressed to Kit on the porch.”

I glance over my shoulder and can see them rapidly adding up clues and coming to four.

“So, you want to fight him, Ryann? Is this your battlefield? Is this your ice? Are you sure?”

She stares at me with wide violet eyes. Her auburn hair is loose, and, to me, she looks so very alive. I want her to fight. I want her to say the words that she’s done with him.

“I’m ready to end this, Raider. I’m sure.”

Her eyes well with tears.

“You believe me?”

Her damn voice is so tiny and scared.

“Of course, we believe you!” I growl at her.

“I’m so tired,” she admits.

That’s all I can take. I pull her into my arms and sit in her spot with Wren and Callan on one side, and Kit on the other.

“We’re going to help you. We’re going to be with you every step of the way. It’s going to be okay,” I murmur and swallow the emotion that’s sitting thick in my throat.

She curls up against me. We sit like that for a long time. Kit orders pizza from the 24-hour pizza place and lays it on the coffee table. Although we eat, no one really has an appetite, but Ryann refuses.

Callan pulls her out of my arms and coaxes her to eat more, teasing her until she cracks a smile.

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