Page 200 of Their Arrangement
I stared at the screen.
Then typed again.
Paused.
Deleted it.
Typed another.
She’s not okay.
But she’s safe.
I didn’t send it.Didn’t need to.The words sat heavy in my chest like they’d been burned into the muscle. I sat in the car a little longer. Let the engine idle. Watched the entry camera on my phone flicker.
The feed from her hallway was quiet. Still. A dim yellow cast from the overhead bulb. Royal wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Not on his watch. But this wasn’t about trust. Itwas about presence. About knowing that if she screamed again, I’d hear it. This time, I’d get there in time.
I opened the message thread again.
Typed:
I’m outside.
Deleted it.
Typed another.
I’m not coming up unless you ask.
Deleted that too.
Because I knew she wouldn’t. And it wasn’t her job to reach for me. It was mine.
I sat back. Closed my eyes. And promised myself this wasn’t over. Not until the person who sent him knew exactly what it felt like to bleed for someone who never thanked them. Because safe wasn’t a feeling. It was a decision. And I’d already made it for her.
30
CLOE
The car ride was silent.Not the kind of silence that held peace. The kind that tightened. Like it was stitched into the seams of the leather. Like it lived in the air between us.
Wolfe didn’t speak. He kept one hand on the wheel, the other on his thigh. Eyes forward. Jaw locked. Not angry at me—at least not yet. But something inside him was still burning. The kind of fire that didn’t need oxygen anymore.
My fingers curled in the fabric of Wolfe’s hoodie—mine now, I guessed. He’d handed it to me before we left. No questions. Just… handed it over.
I wore it over his shirt like armor. It didn’t help. The sleeves hung past my fingers. The hem covered the bruises on my thighs. But it didn’t stop the way I flinched every time a shadow moved outside the window.
When we pulled up to the building, my stomach twisted. It looked the same. Same brick. Same rusted railing. Same cracked sidewalk. But I wasn’t the same girl who’d walked out of it the last time. That girl didn’t know what silence sounded like when it was used as a weapon.
Wolfe parked but didn’t turn the engine off. He didn’t move until I did.
I reached for the handle. Paused. Then looked at him.
“Are you coming up?”
His jaw flexed.
“Do you want me to?”
