Page 54 of Push My Buttons
I nod, grateful for his understanding."For a moment, I thought maybe he'd found me to finish what he started."
"But he wasn’t near here," Theo says, putting the pieces together.
"Taken into custody hundreds of miles away,"I confirm with my hands."Which means someone else knows who I am. Someone else is watching me."I pause, gathering courage for the next part."The day after his arrest made headlines, I came home to find flowers in my apartment."
Both men straighten, alarm flashing across their faces.
"Inside?" Jace asks sharply. "They got inside your place?"
I nod, my stomach churning at the memory."Roses and black lilies. Arranged on my kitchen counter. No sign of forced entry. Just those flowers where there shouldn't have been any."
"That's when you moved to the hotel," Theo says, not a question.
"That night,"I sign."I grabbed what I could carry and left. I've been here ever since."I don’t mention my brief stop at Maya’s, I already feel terrible for involving her to begin with.
"Smart," Jace murmurs, but his eyes are distant, calculating. He's strategizing, planning, thinking three steps ahead.
"And there's more,"I sign, forcing myself to continue."Yesterday, during our game. That glitch, Jace? A message flashed on my screen. It said 'HELLO, LILLIANA.'"
Jace's face goes completely still. "That's impossible. My screen only glitched, it didn’t show words. That would require deep access to the game's code to only have it on your screen. I would have detected an intrusion that significant."
"Unless it wasn't an intrusion," Theo says slowly. "Unless it was someone who already has access."
The implication hangs heavy in the air between us.
"Whoever this is,"I sign, my movements deliberate now,"they know everything about me. All my personas. All my hiding places. And they're getting closer."
I let my hands fall to my lap, suddenly exhausted. The weight of my secrets, now shared, leaves me feeling hollow and exposed. I look at Jace and Theo, searching their faces for disgust, for fear, for the inevitable moment when they decide this is too much.
"I understand if this is more than you signed up for,"I sign after a moment of heavy silence."You didn't ask to get involved with someone being stalked, someone connected to a serial killer. You can walk away. I won't blame you."
The words hurt to form, but I force myself to continue.
"You can forget you ever met me. Go back to your lives. It's safer that way."
For a long, terrible moment, neither of them speaks. They exchange a look I can't quite interpret, something passing between them that makes my heart squeeze painfully in my chest.
Jace is the first to break the silence. "Is that what you want?" he asks quietly. "For us to walk away?"
I shake my head immediately, unable to lie about this."No,"I sign."But I don't want to put you in danger either."
Theo leans forward, his expression uncharacteristically serious. "Let me get this straight. You think we're going to walkaway because some psycho is threatening you? Because your brother is a murderer? Because things got complicated?"
I shrug, not trusting my hands to form coherent signs.
Jace stands suddenly, crossing the small space to kneel in front of me. He takes my hands in his, stilling their nervous movement.
"Listen to me," he says, his voice low and intense. "I didn't fall for you because I thought it would be easy. I fell for you because of who you are—all of you. Wren. Silence. Vanta. Each piece makes the whole, and the whole is... extraordinary."
Tears burn behind my eyes at his words.
"He's right," Theo says, moving to sit beside me on the bed. "Did I expect to find out the three women I've been fantasizing about for months are actually all the same woman, who also happens to be the sister of a serial killer and is being stalked by some creep? No. That wasn't exactly on my bingo card."
A surprised laugh escapes me, my shoulders shaking silently.
"But here's the thing," he continues, his hand finding mine. "You're it for me. Have been since the first time you rolled your eyes at one of my ridiculous coffee orders. Everything since then, it just makes you more... you. And that's exactly what I want."
"We're not going anywhere," Jace adds firmly. "Whatever this is, whatever's happening, we face it together."
