Keep Me Safe (Slow Burn #1)(54)

“Dane?”

The quivery jitter to her voice made her sound like a terrified little girl. Not an adult woman who’d seen the harsh realities outside the privileged existence she’d lived for twenty-three years.

“Yes, Tori, it’s Dane. Are you okay now?”

Tears flooded her eyes and sobs welled from her throat as she slumped in relief.

“Oh God, Dane. You have to check on Caleb. I think he’s dead.”

Dane’s head jerked up and his gaze narrowed, causing the hard lines of his face to seem even scarier than he normally was.

“What are you talking about?” he asked sharply. “Talk to me, Tori. Did you have a vision?”

Her mouth fell open and she stared at Dane in absolute shock and dismay. “What are you talking about?” she whispered.

“I know,” he said. “So does Eliza. But no one else. Not even your brothers’ other security experts or hired muscle. Now tell me what happened, Tori. Is Caleb in danger?”

She scrubbed her face with her hands, her eyes burning like they had sand and grit blown into them.

“I don’t know,” she said in frustration. “Ever since . . . ​him . . . ​I don’t know what is a vision or simply a nightmare brought about by what happened to me. Oh God, I thought I was past this. I thought everything was going to be okay but I swear I think I’m losing my mind. The other night I dreamed that someone shot me. And now I dreamed of Caleb covered in blood.”

Carefully Dane pulled Tori into his arms, slowly easing her against him as if he were afraid she’d freak and bolt away.

“Shhh, Tori. You aren’t losing your mind. You’ve undergone a lot of trauma both physically and emotionally. That isn’t going to go away in a week, a month or even a year. It takes time but you’ll get there.”

“You believe in my abilities?” she blurted out, peering up at him from underneath her lashes.

Dane had always intimidated her and if she was completely honest he scared her to death. There was a harshness to his features that made him look extremely dangerous. And he never missed the slightest detail.

He certainly hadn’t treated her like she was damaged goods as everyone else did. Not that she blamed them because that was what she’d fostered. Because it was easier that way. If she gave the impression she could break at any time then no one pressed her. No one made her do more than she wanted to do.

Only, Dane hadn’t particularly cared whether he upset her or not. He’d coldly told her to stop acting like a spoiled child and stop treating Ramie like she was the enemy. And Ramie wasn’t the enemy. But she was Tori’s past. The only person who knew precisely how close Tori had come to losing her very soul.

Shame crowded into her heart and she winced as those terrible days came back in a rush.

“Please. Go make sure Caleb is all right,” she begged.

“He’s fine,” Dane soothed.

“How do you know?” she demanded, anger replacing the bone-deep sorrow she was immersed in.

“Because he went to bed with Ramie hours ago,” Dane said. “And all is quiet on the home front. No one makes a move on this property without us knowing about it. Trust me when I say that he’s just fine.”

“What if it was a vision?” she whispered, giving voice to her greatest fear. “What if they were both visions? What if Caleb and I die? I don’t want to die, Dane. Maybe once I did but not now. I’m scared to death that I’ll die before doing anything with my life. I’ve never had to do anything for myself. It didn’t used to bother me until I saw just how much my brothers protected and shielded me. Do you know how ridiculous it is that I can’t go to a movie or a restaurant without a contingent of security? Who the hell lives like that?”

“All I know is that at least for tonight, nothing is going to happen to either one of you,” Dane said matter-of-factly.

For some reason she drew comfort from the fact that he hadn’t offered her blind assurance by saying nothing would ever happen to them. Just that it wouldn’t be tonight. If he’d claimed anything else she would have known he was simply placating her and spouting nonsense.

For that matter he was the only person who didn’t handle her with kid gloves. Everyone else was determined to protect her from the slightest upset as though her mental state was so fragile that any stress would cause her to have a nervous breakdown.

And maybe she was just that close to the edge.

How did Ramie do it time and time again? Once was horrific enough. Tori narrowly escaped with her life, even if she’d lost pieces of her soul in the process. But to endure such atrocities over and over? Who the hell was that selfless? It damn sure wasn’t Tori.

Tori hadn’t been fair to Ramie. She knew it. Acknowledged it. Even if she couldn’t quite make herself blindly accept Ramie’s presence here, Ramie was a stark reminder of every single painful thing Tori wanted to forget.

Tori blinked, yanked from her thoughts as realization dawned that she and Dane were sitting on the floor beside her bed, the sheets and comforter in a tangle, barely hanging from the bed.

She suddenly felt very exposed and vulnerable and she hated that feeling more than anything. But neither did she want to freak out on Dane and drive home the fact that she was hanging on to her sanity by a single thread.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized in a low voice. “I didn’t mean to wake you. The vision—dream, whatever it was—scared me. It was so . . . ​real.”