Page 80 of Guarded
Lyle bared his teeth at me. “Fine. Be like that. But you’re the one stuck with me until this fucking roadshow is over. You can’t stay awake forever, Noah. The second you fall asleep, I’ll have it from you. I’ll tell your little lover all about your secrets. About how you always come back, begging me for more. You’re a cock slut, Noah, and it doesn’t even matter whose it is. Does he know that?”
I gritted my teeth, refusing to rise to Lyle’s taunts. We both knew they weren’t true. Up until Jem, he’d been the only one I’d been with.
More fool me.
However, I also wasn’t giving Lyle the chance to mess with Jem the way he had with me. Nobody had protected me from Lyle, but I was going to protect Jem from him. He wasn’t tainting anything good in my life.
Never again.
Releasing a blast of power, I sent Lyle slamming back into the room. He collided with the wall, his spine snapping on impact. It killed him, but only temporarily. Just long enough for me to do what I needed to.
My hands shook as I pulled up a number. It wasn’t the one I wanted to call, but the one I needed to.
Micah.
He agreed to meet me right here in a few minutes. I wasgoing to give him a quick rundown of my plans and ask him to look after my phone.
Lyle couldn’t get hold of it if I didn’t have it.
My voice was cracking by the time I hung up, Micah’s concern enough to push my frayed emotions to the limit. There was no way I could call Jem now. Not like this. I wouldn’t be able to hide my stress from him.
Maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing. He could come and stay nearby. That might help.
I pushed that thought down as I opened our text thread. I wasn’t asking that of Jem. It wouldn’t be fair. This was my problem to deal with.
A tear fell as I read the messages he’d sent me earlier in the day. There weren’t many, just a photo of a beautiful sunrise and his hopes that the conference was going well. But right now, they were everything. Hope, just as Jem had said. A reminder to hold on, because things would get better. That Juniper wasn’t my life anymore. That I could and would be happy.
I just had to get through the conference first.
Micah’s footsteps echoed down the hallway, and I hurried to type a message to Jem.
Noah
The conference is awful. It’s too much to go into here, but I’ll fill you in later.
Wish I was with you. I miss you.
I wanted to say more, but Micah’s worried mouth was already opening with questions.
So instead, I powered down the phone and sent a silent apology to Jeremiah.
He’d understand when I explained everything.
I just had to hope and pray he’d give me that chance.
Thirteen days with Lyle had pushed me to and beyond my limits. The glimpses of lucidity Atlas had mentioned had been nowhere to be seen.
I’d thought Lyle was bad before, but this monster wearing his skin?
He was the lowest of the low.
I’d heard every foul insult he could think of, watched him try to escape over and over again, and fought him back every time.
Atlas had been right. I was strong enough to contain him.
But I wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to survive this. To survive Lyle. He’d almost broken me once before.
Now, he was on the verge of doing so again.
