Page 68 of Never Again

“The letter,” Nathan prompted when Casey didn’t say anything.

“Is none of your business,” Casey said with a stubborn tilt of her chin, a move that reminded him so much of Bailey.

Nodding, Nathan considered his next words as he sat there, watching her and found himself wondering who the real Casey was. For months, he’d barely noticed her, never really thought about her and when he did, he wondered why his sister hired her. She was beyond fucking incompetent, scared of her own fucking shadow, and-

“Was it all a lie?” Nathan found himself asking her.

“Was what all a lie?” Casey murmured absently as her gaze once again shifted to his apartment door and landed on the deadbolt.

“The act,” Nathan said before adding, “Pam.”

“Meaning?” Casey asked, shifting her gaze once again to the windows.

“Acting like you couldn’t walk and breathe at the same time,” Nathan said, watching as her lips twitched.

Clearing her throat, Casey said, “I may have overdone it a bit there.”

“Meaning?” Nathan murmured, shifting to get more comfortable as he watched her.

“That Bailey and I share more than just a mother,” Casey said, making him wonder about that.

“Were you mentioned in the letter?” Nathan asked as he ran several possibilities through his head.

“Yes,” Casey said as she pulled her phone out of her bag, only to sigh when he reached over and plucked the phone out of her hand.

“By name?” Nathan asked, turning her phone off before slipping it into his pocket.

“Yes,” Casey said as she held her hand out, but he simply ignored her and continued.

“Does anyone know who you really are?” Nathan asked before something occurred to him. “Does Bailey know?”

“No one knows,” Casey said, shaking her head as she gave up waiting for him to give her back her phone and dropped back against the couch with a sigh.

“Why is that?” Nathan murmured.

“Because she didn’t need to know,” Casey said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Then, why go through so much bullshit to get into her life?” Nathan asked, watching as she looked away while she mumbled, “I just wanted to make sure that she was okay.”

“And when you realized that she wasn’t…”

When she didn’t respond, Nathan slowly nodded to himself as he said, “You decided to stay.”

Jaw clenching, she bit out, “I didn’t mean to hurt her,” making him frown until he remembered the incident with the bat.

“You expect me to believe that?” Nathan asked, even though he honestly had no fucking idea what he believed at the moment.

For all he knew, she had a partner and that whole scene in Bailey’s bedroom had been a show to get him to relax his guard around her. It wasn’t a risk that he was willing to take, especially when it came to his sister’s safety. There was too much bullshit going on and he had no fucking clue who he was supposed to trust right now. He just-

“I don’t care what you believe. I wouldn’t hurt her,” Casey snapped, looking adorably pissed and god, did she fucking remind him of Bailey.

“But you’d lie to her,” Nathan drawled, watching as her shoulders suddenly dropped in defeat as she mumbled, “It wasn’t like that.”

“Then, what was it like?”

When it became obvious that she had no plans of telling him anything else, Nathan pulled his phone out of his pocket and-

“You can’t do that,” Casey said, sighing heavily as she plucked the phone out of his hand.

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