Page 148 of Safe Word

‘Niece,’ he began in Italian, his tone steady but carrying an edge of concern that immediately put me on high alert. ‘Sorry if I woke you.’

‘No, I was up.’

‘I just got a call from my friend at the border patrol.’

My grip tightened on the phone. There was a long pause, long enough for the tension to knot my stomach. Then he spoke, his words heavy and wary.

‘A man by the name of Travis James Harris arrived in the country two weeks ago.’

The floor seemed to drop away, a cold wave breaking through my chest as the name sank in. It was him. The one who had shattered me, bruised me, and left me piecing myself back together. A name I’d worked so hard to bury, a phantom I never wanted to face again.

Air caught in my throat, my knees threatened to buckle.

‘No…’ I whispered, more to myself. My chest threatening to cave in as if the mere memory had the power to reach out and crushed the ribs there all over again.

The angelic mask back in Obsidian flashed before my eyes.

‘Yes,’ my uncle said grimly, switching to English. ‘I am in Turkey at the moment, Paula.’ His voice softened slightly, as if he could sense the terror spilling through the line. ‘I can’t get to you. Gianna’s asleep and won’t answer her phone. Is there somewhere you can go tonight? I don’t want you alone.’

Of course not.

‘Thank you for telling me,’ I said, my voice thin and barely holding steady. ‘I’ll… I’ll handle it.’

After a back and forth about who he could call to get me to safety, I managed to deflect everything he offered. I couldn’t bear strangers’ eyes blaming or pitying me for my predicament. That’s why I left home in the first place.

When the call ended, my erratic heart threatened to jump straight through the bones of its cage. Memories surged like floodwaters – Travis’ fists, his rage, the way he had made me feel so small, so powerless.

I pressed a hand to my face, trying to steady my breathing.

It wasn’t working.

Before I even realised what I was doing, my thumb moved towards Cain’s name in my contact list. The thought of calling him felt so natural, so instinctive, that it startled me. He’d become the only thing keeping me afloat without me even noticing, the one person I wanted to turn to when the walls felt like they were closing in.

Because I knew he understood me. He could see the shapeless chains around my neck.

My finger hovered over the call button, the temptation almost unbearable.

I pressed it.

The phone didn’t even ring once, and my heart already jumped into my throat. Just as quickly, I ended the call.

What the fuck was I doing? We set boundaries, and though we agreed to be each other’s ‘knights’, I couldn’t just call him for every single thing. Cain had looked exhausted, drained from the weight of his own burdens. He didn’t need mine on top of that.

The screen went dark, and I stood there in the quiet, my phone still clutched tightly in my hand.

For all the terror Travis’ name had brought back, it was Cain I had thought of first. And that fucking scared me.

The phone felt heavy in my hand, the call to Cain glaring back at me, a reminder of my weakness. I set it down, inhaling deeply to steady myself.

My stomach growled, a sharp contrast to the tension winding tighter with every passing second. Food. I needed food. Something grounding, something normal.

My fingers brushed against the cool wine glass, and I set it on the counter with a soft clink. The action gave me a brief sense of accomplishment, but my mind betrayed me, pulling me back to the name: Travis James Harris.

A chill ran through me. Travis had been my nightmare. But now he was here, closing the distance.

What did he fucking want from me? Why now? The questions spiralled, dark and endless.

Twisting the corkscrew into the bottle, the faint pop broke the quiet. Then I reached for the phone, opening the camera app to review the footage from earlier. It was a habit I’d developed after moving here – paranoia, maybe, but one that had always brought me peace of mind.