Page 73 of Concealed

Most people have the fight or flight response, but I was blessed with freeze. My body was just learning to enjoy living without abject terror, and now I can’t even remember how to protect myself or make my feet work.

Wyatt.

I need him.

But my unjustified fear isn’t his problem.

He’s at work, it’s a busy night for him, an important night, and I haven’t even agreed to be his girlfriend yet. His crazy roommate has inconvenienced him enough, and I can’t mess up his career on top of everything else.

And then Matt appears again.

My eyes land on his face in the crowd that’s parting like the Red Sea, and he smiles, the eerie sight stopping my heart.

Is he really here?

Maybe it’s a mirage?

Am I totally insane?

I grip the bench so hard that my fingers ache, squeezing my eyes shut and ordering myself to relax. By the time I dare to open them again, Matt isn’t there anymore – if he was ever there at all – and the normal scene before my eyes mocks me.

I need to get back home.

Gabe!

He answers on the first ring, but it takes me three tries before I can get any words out. My voice is muffled by the blood roaring in my ears, and I can barely understand myself.

“I think he’s here.”

Whether I’m crazy or not, the certainty that I’m being watched eats away at my gut like poison. Gabe will believe me, and that’s what I need right now.

“How?” he demands.

“I screwed up. Alex knows my location. I didn’t think she’d say anything, but maybe he threatened her. She would warn me, though, wouldn’t she?”

“Are you positive you didn’t imagine it? Where’s Wyatt?”

“He’s at work. I’m standing on the boardwalk, and I can’t move. I was running, and now I can’t even walk. He was here. I think. Jesus. I don’t even know.”

“Breathe. Okay? Rebecca, breathe. Ten in, ten out.”

Even though it seems like a ridiculous thing to do while standing in public, I listen to the soothing sound of his voice and try to get my head on straight.

If Matt was here, surely he would have – what? Grabbed me? Or at the very least, approached me and made his presence known?

Matt doesn’t do subtle.

He uses his fists.

“Okay. Okay. I’m okay,” I manage, only now realizing that I’m crying.

“I’ll stay on the phone with you until you get home.”

Moving terrifies me, but staying here isn’t safe either. I need to get home and lock the door behind me. I never should have gone out alone, but I also can’t hide for the rest of my life.

Something has to give because the isolation is making me crazy.

I’ve had enough hiding out and healing.

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