Page 62 of Kept

“Listen to me,” he says firmly. “We’re not going to let him near you, Zella. You don’t have to go back there. Not now. Not ever. We will keep you safe.”

The words don’t reassure me. When I glance away, fingers lift my chin.

“Tell me.” It’s an order, given in deep, rumbling tones.

“What if I’m not here? And he finds me?” I ask carefully, and his head jerks back.

“Are you planning on leaving?”

I manage to shake my head and shrug my shoulders at the same time. “I… I don’t know. Ryder said—,”

“What did Ryder say?” Velvet over steel, something cold in his voice. “I told you that you could stay, Zella, and I meant it.”

His words loosen something inside my chest, and I take a deep breath. “Okay. That’s… that’s good.”

“Tell me what’s bothering you. Apart from the obvious, that is.”

I don’t want to admit that I’m having a meltdown over Ryder not wanting me, and I’m definitely not about to explain how I spent my morning, so I shake my head. “It’s nothing. Ethan… has he been to the apartment?”

Maverick’s hands pause in their stroking for a moment. “He has.”

Deep breath, Zella.

“Okay,” I whisper. “So he knows I’m gone, then.”

A throat clears. “Zella…,” Maverick’s voice is gentler than I’ve heard it before. “I wasn’t going to show you this. But I think you deserve to know.”

Phantom prickles linger at my neck. “What do you mean?”

Instead of responding, Maverick pulls something out of his pocket. My eyes widen as he taps the screen and it lights up. “What is that? Is that a phone?”

Maverick pauses, and he lets out a low laugh. “I keep forgetting that you wouldn’t have seen a lot of this stuff. I think we need to introduce you to technology, Zella. Yes, this is a phone.”

He shows me how he unlocks it with his fingerprint, and he presses buttons on the screen until a little film pops up. My mouth is open.

I thought you used a phone to call people, like a radio. This is insane.

My attention is drawn when he presses the screen, and I see the apartment. The bright white space looks too bright, the lights on throwing shadows from the statues across the floor. Confused, I look at Maverick. “How can you see this?”

“The guys put up a camera before they left. Watch.” At his urging, I look back to the screen, flinching when a figure appears. It’s unmistakeably Ethan, the picture crystal clear as he moves across the floor.

My whole body flinches involuntarily, and I swallow the surge of fear down when Maverick looks at me, staring down at the images instead of meeting his eyes. This is ridiculous. I shouldn’t be this scared of Ethan.

He saved my life when I was a baby, raised me, looked after me. The last few weeks with him weren’t great, but there’s no reason for the chill invading my body as I look at him.

But as the images change, I lean in closer. “What… what’s he doing?”

“Nothing good,” Maverick says grimly. The little screen version of Ethan moves around the apartment, his mouth opening and his head turning from side to side. He disappears out of view for a few minutes, and when he comes back, he has something in his hands.

The chain from my ankle.

I jump when he lifts it, smashing it into the kitchen side. His arm sweeps away my few kitchen items, and my coffee machine smashes to the floor. His feet move over the broken parts, and my breathing speeds up as the camera follows him to my little reading nook.

The table is thrown. My little bookcase is picked up and thrown against the wall, my chair tipped over.

Maverick rubs my back again. “Breathe, Zella.”

But I can’t, my chest constricting as Ethan leaves again. “Is that it?” I ask Maverick, trying to keep my voice level. “Has he gone now?”

---