Page 54 of Delicate Escape

Thea’s dark brown gaze cut to me as if just realizing I was there.

“That’s the cycle. The good and then the slap.” I’d learned my share about abuse growing up with a family that fostered. I’d seen some of the worst of the worst. Saw how the mental scars—not the physical—took the most time to heal.

Tears dropped from Thea’s chin to the legs of her overalls. “He never hit me.”

“If you think that it wasn’t abuse because he never laid hands on you, you’re dead wrong. He isolated you, cut you off from your support system. He deprived you of sleep, berated you. And I’m sure there’s more you aren’t telling me.”

Her gaze shifted to the side.Fuck.It had gotten worse.

“You don’t have to share it all.” As much as I needed to know everything, I wouldn’t be the monster she’d been with before. I’d let Thea share when she was ready. “But if you want to, I’m here. And I’ll always be here.”

“I stayed way too long,” Thea whispered. “Even now, I can’t explain it. It’s like I slowly lost my mind. I was so exhausted and panicked that I couldn’t make smart decisions.”

I reached out, my fingers linking with hers. “But you’re not there now.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m not.”

“You’re hiding from him.”

It wasn’t a question, but Thea answered it anyway. “Nikki helped me. Her brother’s an accountant. We set up a trust I could hide behind. That’s what purchased this house. What pays my mortgage and car insurance. Everything else I pay in cash. I don’t have a phone, a computer, nothing that’s traceable.”

“There are ways you can have those things. Ways to protect?—”

“No.” Thea’s voice slapped across the space between us. “You don’t know him. He has connections everywhere. People bendingover backward just dying to do his bidding. And he’s got a thing for computers and tech. Taught himself how to hack into people’s emails, their whole systems.”

A weight settled in my stomach. I knew someone else who’d been good at computers. Silas. The psychopath who’d targeted Rhodes and Anson.Fuck.I needed to get Anson’s read on this. See what he thought we should do to protect Thea.

“Okay,” I assured her, squeezing her fingers. “No tech.”

A little of the tension running through Thea eased.

“You haven’t heard from him since you moved here?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. Not once. But that article, the one that freaked me out, said he’s filming about an hour from here.”

My back molars ground together. Too damn close. But it was also far too much of a temptation. Because it wouldn’t take much to find out exactly where he was and pay a visit to the bastard.

“He’s not going to find you. And even if he does, you have people around you. You’re stronger, and you know the truth.”

Thea hiccuped a breath. “You don’t know everything he can do. All he can ruin.”

I saw it then. The true fear in her eyes. She was terrified of him.

“He won’t. I promise.”

Thea didn’t answer, and I knew it was because she didn’t believe my words. I’d prove them to her. But for now, she’d had enough. Her skin was pale, her eyes rimmed in red.

“Will you go someplace with me?” I asked.

Her brows pulled together, skepticism sweeping across her face. “Where?”

Of course, she needed all the facts. “It’ll be more fun if you don’t know.”

Thea mulled it over for a moment.

“Trust me?” I asked. It was the ultimate question. She’d given me that trust last night, but things were different now.

Her gaze locked with mine, and she sucked in a breath. “I trust you.”

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