Page 216 of Where We Stay

He takes one step closer, and I take one back before I can stop myself. I hate that my body does it automatically.

He notices.

Nothing gets past him.

“Still scared of me?” Ben asks.

I try to steady my breathing, refusing to let him see the effect he has on me. “No.”

Lie.

I’m fucking terrified.

But fear isn’t the same thing as surrender.

My phone suddenly rings in my hand, making both of us look down at the screen.

JERRY

Relief hits me instantly.

Jerry knows something is wrong if I don’t answer. He knows where I’m supposed to be tonight.

I move to accept the call, but Ben rips the phone out of my hand before I can.

“Give it back,” I snap, reaching for it.

He pushes me away and looks down at Jerry’s name. “He still checking up on you?”

“Give me my fucking phone, Ben.”

Instead, he answers it.

“Blair?” I hear Jerry’s muffled voice through the speaker.

Ben looks directly at me as he lifts the phone to his ear. “Blair can’t come to the phone.”

Jerry says something I can’t make out.

Ben laughs and ends the call before throwing my phone onto the bed.

Fucking psychopath.

But Jerry heard him.

He knows.

He’ll call Dean. He has to.

Ben strolls over to the armchair in the corner of my room and sits down, making himself right at home.

“I have to say, you’ve made yourself a nice little life here.” He glances around my room before looking back at me. “What’s the name of that little girl?”

Ben clicks his fingers like he’s trying to remember.

“Aspen?”

No.