Page 113 of Contempt

But I also know the reason she’s so good at using makeup to cover bruises doesn’t have a goddamn thing to do with hickeys.

I feel sick as I put the car in park. I want to say I didn’t mean to get her in trouble. I didn’t even consider that she wouldgetin trouble. It has been so nice all summer not having Anae around to worry about, and I was distracted by needing to protectmyselffrom Landon now that I live with him. I didn’t even think about what it would cost Hannah to play chaperone, and of course she didn’t mention it.

I’m not the only one with a psycho at home who wants to control me, but Hannah’s isn’t reined in by anyone else at home who cares to protect her.

I want to beg her to stay the night again, but I know she won’t.

I want to tell her I’m sorry, but there shouldn’t be anything to apologize for.

I should be able to have my damn friend over to watch movies and have dinner with me. There should be no conflict about her returning home after having spent some time doing something for herself instead of serving these ungrateful assholes.

I know Jackie is technically Hannah’s guardian, but only for one more month.

I want so badly to help her, but she won’t let me.

Powerlessness is perhaps my least favorite feeling in the entire spectrum of human emotion.

It’s all I feel as I watch Hannah climb out of my car and walk up to her door.

Restlessness moves through my veins like a livewire as I sit here watching the house. I know it’s probably pointless, but I want to linger here for a minute just to make sure Hannah doesn’t need any help.

It’s probably my anger that makes me do it.

The powerlessness that I can’t stand.

I’mnotpowerless. I’ve never been powerless. I’m Parker Johansson, and I can move objects out of my way with nothing more than the power of my mind.

I wish that were true.

It doesn’t feel true right now.

So, I use my fingers.

I’ve always had a temper. It’s not my finest feature. Usually, I control it pretty well, but nothing triggers me like the possibility of someone I love getting hurt.

I don’t follow Aubrey because I’ve never met her, and if I’m being honest with myself, maybe I have developed a slight aversion to the girl based on all the trouble she has caused my best friend. I know that may not be fair, though. That horrible, uncomfortable feeling I get not being able to protect Hannah from Anae? She probably gets the same one from not being able to protect Aubrey from Dare.

I just don’t care about Aubrey, so I try to ignore that.

I care about Hannah and her well-being.

Someoneneeds to protect her, and I’m all she’s got.

That’s why I use Aubrey’s profile to find Dare’s, and then I click the message button.

“You don’t know me, but I know you,” I type out. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing with Anae and, frankly, I don’t care. But leave Hannah out of it. Leave her alone. Block HER if you didn’t invite her into this on purpose. Whatever sick game you’re playing with the girls in your life, just leave her out of it. She has enough problems without you making everything worse for her.”

Normally, I would read and reread a message like this, tweaking words and moving commas to make sure it’s perfect before I send it, but the rational part of me knows the longer I have to think about this, the greater chance I’ll never send it.

Maybe that’s the right call, but it feels too much like doing nothing, and I’ve had my fill of that tonight.

Deep down, I don’t even expect Dare to read this message. We aren’t friends, so it will go in a separate request folder that he probably doesn’t even check. As unfortunate as it is, while he has a black soul and no heart to speak of, he istragicallynice to look at. Consequently, no matter how evil or taken he may be, I’m sure a few hopeful strays wind up in the message request section of his inbox, and since he has never met me, he has no reason to fish me out of it.

Which is why I’m surprised when, a moment later, he responds.

“Of course I know you, Parker. I saw your picture on Hannah’s dresser when I visited her bedroom. Well, her former bedroom.”

My face heats to about a thousand degrees at the satisfaction I feel coming off the flat line of text. I remember Hannah saying she was moved out of her room because she “displeased the king,” and Dare was Anae’s evil king, wasn’t he?

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