Page 103 of Trust Me

Eve smiles, and something funny happens in my chest. I don’t have time to process it before Eve moves over to me and wraps her arms around me. Similar to how she hugged Riley.

“Thank you for helping my aunt.” She smiles up at me. “She says I’m stubborn and don’t like to accept help, but I think I get it from her.”

Eve untangles herself from me and rushes off down the hall. Riley looks between the two of us before she quickly follows her niece.

Speechless.

That’s exactly what I am because all of a sudden, I miss Eve’s hug. I don’t know how long I remain standing there. I thought I was the one who had this situation under control.

Yet, when Riley emerges from Eve’s bedroom the dumbfounded expression on her face matches my mood.

“What happened to your security?” Riley hisses, bringing me out of my stupor.

“They were supposed to be protecting her.” She keeps her voice low but there’s venom in her words. “You fucking made me marry you under the agreement that she would be safe! What the hell happened to that?”

“She was safe,” I say. “My security was with her the entire time.”

“Then why didn’t I know she was on her way here?”

“Because I knew,” I blurt out. It’s not until then that I suspect it was an asshole move on my part to keep that knowledge to myself.

“You knew that my eleven-year-old niece was getting on a plane to fly halfway across the country alone? And you didn’t think to tell me that?”

“Like I said, she was safe,” I defend. “My security detail was with her the entire time, and they were giving me details along the way. She was never in any danger.”

“That’s not the point!” She throws up her hands, exasperated. Riley brushes past me and heads to the bedroom, leaving me to trail behind her. “No!” She declares as soon as I enter the bedroom.

“You know what, that’s even worse.” She’s pacing in front of the bed, hands balled into fists at her sides. “You knew every step of the way where she was and you never said anything.”

“Now you know how it feels,” I blurt out.

Her eyes bulge. “So, this was some sort of sick payback?”

“You lied to me since the first moment I laid eyes on you. I withheld some information, but Eve was never in da—”

“Shut up!” she hisses. “This is nothing like what I did to you.”

“Your scheming with Dean Walsh potentially endangered my family,” I argue back.

“I’ve barely given him anything. This not the same. Eve is a child!” Her voice grows louder but her eyes quickly dart to the door.

With a lowered voice she says, “She was out in the world alone.”

“She was never al—” I try to argue but Riley cuts me off.

“Shebelievedshe was alone. She didn’t know she was being trailed by your fucking security. And what if something did happen? Let’s say some crazy stranger tried to do something and your security swooped in. She wouldn’t know who they are. Eve would’ve been terrified.”

Her bottom lip trembles. She gives me her back.

The room falls silent as a sinking feeling comes over me.

“I—” My voice croaks and the words stick in my throat. I believed I had thought this through but the distress in her voice is making me rethink my decision.

“Riley.”

She doesn’t turn around when I call her name.

“I should’ve told you where she was.”

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