Ultraviolet ✔️

20.1

Chapter Twenty

"You're avoiding me," Joel asserts later that afternoon, approaching me as I'm curled up on the guest bed with a book in my hands.

I glance up at him, swallowing my anxiety. "What do you mean? No, I'm not."

He clenches his jaw, reading my face and body language for a few seconds. "You're a terrible liar, Vi. You handed me back my phone and disappeared two hours ago. Did the chief say something to you? Did I do something wrong?"

"It's nothing," I insist, staring down at my novel. It's a self-help book about yoga that I swiped off Mallory's shelf, but I really couldn't tell you much more than that. I've been reading it, but the words haven't really stuck with me.

"It's not just nothing," he says, sitting down beside me on the mattress and gently prying the paperback from my fingers. "Tell me what's going on with you. Remember what we said about being honest with one another?"

"Just leave it be, Joel," I plead, my voice coming out less assertive than I'd like. "I just needed some space."

"Sure," he grumbles.

"Please don't be mad at me," I say. "I have a lot on my mind."

He gets up and turns to go. "Fine."

"Joel, stop!" I call out. "This whole thing is such a mess. It's really hard for me to feel like I can trust anyone right now. That's what's bothering me. That's why I'm... that's why I'm up here."

He turns, releasing the knob, brows furrowed at me. "You can trust me, Vi."

"Can I though?" I wipe my sweaty hands on my jeans.

He flinches as if I've just slapped him. "Are you serious right now?"

I don't know what to say to that.

"After everything we've been through, you don't think you can trust me? What are we doing, Vi? Why would I bother taking you here and trying to keep you safe if I had any intention of hurting you?"

His green eyes are locked on mine, his fingers closed around my wrist.

"Tell me what he said to you, Vi," Joel demands. "Tell me what he said to make you doubt me for a second."

"He said the people doing this are probably close to me," I say, my voice cracking. "He said the timeline, between you moving here and the hack, matched up. And I don't believe it, but that doesn't mean I'm not utterly freaked out."

He takes me in his arms and runs a hand through my hair, trying to comfort me. "I'm sorry for snapping at you. If anything, I should be angry with Chief. He should know me better than that. He never should've planted that seed."

"I basically accused you of betraying me," I remind him. "I wouldn't blame you if you were at least a little irritated."

"I don't want to fight with you," he says. "I don't know what to do. I'm terrified right now, Vi. Everything we know could be destroyed. I want to keep you safe, I want to make sure nothing bad ever happens to you, but there's so much that's uncertain right now. I don't know where to go from here."

"Maybe we should try contacting them," I suggest. "I know it sounds crazy, but maybe we could bait them?"

"We could get you and me murdered in the process," he counters. "Absolutely not."

"Look, I don't know what to do. It's not like we're swimming in options here, Joel."

"I can figure this out," he tries to assure me. "Chief will find them and end this. And then we can go back to business as usual."