Page 37 of Stolen Trophy

I run my eyes over them. Their expressions are guarded, and their bodies are stiff. Their secrets have been exposed, the truth with it. We aren’t so different. We all did things we clearly regret to survive—things good people don’t understand, things they could never understand.

We are more alike than they think.

“I won’t tell them,” I offer softly, knowing it’s the truth before it comes out. I might be angry about what they have done to me, but part of me understands. Plus, they haven’t hurt me, not since Gage knocked me out in the beginning. They clearly don’t want to. They are trapped in this situation just as much as I am. “When I go back, I won’t tell them about you. I promise.”

Gage snorts, and even Booker looks away, but I look into Archer’s eyes, needing him to see the truth. Once I give my word, I never break it. They might not believe that, but I will always keep my promise, and for some reason, I’m promising to protect them like no one else ever has.

I guess that makes me as crazy as they are.

“I just want to go home is all,” I add when he doesn’t respond. “Nothing else—no revenge, no retribution, no backlash…just home.”

Another truth.

Because staying here with them is too hard. It’s too real. It’s making me feel things I shouldn’t. It’s making me second-guess my choices, my life. It’s making things too difficult.

Theyare making things difficult.

The masked men who stole me away in the night.

Only, as their masks fall off, I realise they aren’t the villains at all. They are just people trying to survive in this world…like me.

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