Page 18 of Concealed

“Did you work in Vegas?” he asks.

The wine is making me shockingly loose, and I struggle to keep a straight face. “I was an exotic dancer on the strip.”

Wyatt’s eyes widen in comic disbelief, and he chokes on his falafel. “What?” he sputters.

“What?” I repeat. “You don’t think I could do it? Maybe I’m not attractive enough?”

His eyes are all over me when he says, “You’re far more thanattractive, Rebecca. And I didn’t mean any offense. I just… didn’t imagine… I mean…”

I put him out of his misery and let out the giggle – yes, giggle – that’s been dying to come out. “You can stop backpedaling. I’m a teacher. Hopefully, after the summer, I can land a job here, even if it’s substitute work. I love it and really want to get back into the classroom.”

He laughs, too, and the sound comes from his belly. His sexiness ratchets up a thousand notches when he smiles. “Now that I can picture perfectly.”

“I didn’t work for long in Vegas, though,” I admit. “Matt decided it would be best for me to just stay home. But now that I’m calling the shots in my own life, getting a job is my first step toward freedom and independence.”

“Do you think you’ll stay in Sunnyville?”

I shrug. “It’s as good a place as any. LA was always too busy for me, and Vegas is the last place I ever want to go back to. Sunnyville could be my perfect fresh start and exactly what I’m looking for. Exactly what I need.”

I don’t mention that I can’t go home. The last thing I want is to send Matt knocking on my family’s door, at least until I have a better plan to keep them safe.

Right now, my hope is that Matt will eventually lose interest in me and move on. How I’ll know when that happens, though, is another story.

But Matt doesn’t know Wyatt, and we have absolutely zero connection – I made sure of it. So, there’s no chance – okay, very little chance – he’ll find me here if I’m careful enough.

“I loved living in the city,” Wyatt confesses, and maybe he’s about to tell me why he’s in Sunnyville. “It’s a very different vibe here, but it will do… For now.”

“So, you don’t think you’ll stay?”

“Not if I can help it. I’m hoping to go back to work on my old force.”

He studies me as though wondering how much I know, but Gabe didn’t tell me anything. Not that I asked. I was in a massive panic and just trying to keep my head on straight while making a completely life-altering decision.

I don’t ask a follow-up question, not because I don’t want to know, but because I want him to tell me on his own timeline. Of all people, I understand what it’s like to field uncomfortable questions from neighbors and friends, and I don’t want to put anyone else in that position.

Oh, Rebecca, what happened to your eye?

How come you’re canceling at the last minute – again?

Did you fall down the stairs again?

Didn’t you say that you have a boyfriend? We never see him around.

And then the invitations stopped, and I lost contact with everyone except Matt. Alex is the only one who persisted, and she seemed to understand that our relationship would mostly happen over text messages.

The other teachers who worked at the school could have become my friends if Matt hadn’t made me quit, or if he let me leave the house unattended other than for errands.

Matt started to let his guard down, though. He assumed that he had beaten me down enough that I’d never fight back or leave. He stopped verifying the shopping receipts to make sure that I spent the cash he gave me where I was supposed to, and that’s the only reason I managed to escape.

And because I had so much to hide when I was working, most of my colleagues assumed that I was standoffish or stuck-up when really, I just couldn’t figure out what was safe to say.

So, I stopped saying anything at all.

I completely lost my voice.

I lost myself.

When I stand to clear our plates, I have to reach forward to steady myself on the table, finding the metal shockingly cool on my heated skin. The effects of the alcohol are suddenly hitting me square in the face and sending me off-kilter.

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