Page 112 of Rear View
A small nod. “I’m so sorry, Xavier, I didn’t realize—”
“No apologies. You did nothin’ wrong here.”
She slipped her touch over my wrist, then turned her face into my palm. So damn soft. So damn scared. I bracketed my arms around her and pulled her to my chest. “Got any ideas on who it could be?”
She rubbed her ear, her voice muffled against me when she answered, “No.”
I hated preppy boy, didn’t think he was capable, but he was a dick to his core, so I still needed to ask. “You sure it ain’t Christian?”
“Yeah.” She nuzzled into me. “I’m sure.”
My hold flexed, burrowing into her back when I repeated, “Show me.”
She tipped her head up to see me and her eyes creased at the corners. “I still don’t think—”
“Be scared of him. Be scared of anything else. But don’t ever be scared of me.” I slid my hands along her jaw. “Show me, Ryah. I can handle it.”
Ducking her chin, she nodded, then pulled out her phone, trembling hard when she passed it over.
I made to give it back. “Put in your password.”
She pushed it toward me again. “I don’t mind you having it.”
My brow furrowed. “You sure? ’Cause that ain’t what this was about.”
“I’m sure.”
I inclined my head and waited.
She pulled that lip between her teeth. “Zero, four, zero, seven.”
My stare narrowed and I gave her a cocky side-eye, pleased when my favorite shade of pink spread over her cheeks. “My birthday?”
That pink deepened. “Yeah.”
I entered the code, and it popped open.
“The files are saved here.” She leaned in and tapped a box-shaped app on the screen, bringing it up. All of it.
And holy. Fuckin’. Shit!
I scrolled and scrolled, doing a quick pass to get thescope. There were hundreds of emails. Thousands. She’d taken screenshots of texts. Written notes about her police contacts. Where, when, who. I scanned the dates, my blood running cold at the one from that day.
Spotting another folder titled VM, I pointed to it. “What’s this?”
“Voicemails.”
I wanted to open it, but not in front of her. Later. ’Cause she didn’t need to relive it. Relivehim.
She shrank in on herself. “I was walking home by myself the night he attacked. He beat me pretty badly. I tried to fight back but he was too strong.” She was trembling so hard, it made her hair shake. “I try not to do that anymore.”
I inhaled deep to control the madness beggin’ to take over. “He ever do anything else?”Say no, darlin. Please, Christ, say no.
“No.”
My lungs released on a shudder. “You recognize anything about him?”
“Nothing. He wore all black and it was dark out and he disguised his voice.”
