Watch Me (Phoenix #1) - Stacey Kennedy Page 0,28

to wake up from, the little voice in her head reminded her that, while it felt good to be this brave, sensual woman, she couldn’t forget people weren’t always who they said they were. Even though she was having incredible sex with Rhys and he appeared to want to protect her, she really didn’t know him at all.

A dog’s loud bark snapped her eyes open. She stared at the quote another groomer had put on the wall: “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” Josh Billings.

Sometimes, Zoey loved dogs more than people. She looked above the quote to the clock and cursed. She was five minutes late for her next appointment. In a rush, she hurried out to the waiting room, where a pup was whining.

“Hilary?” she called.

The woman with the honey-colored hair sitting in the corner stood. “Hi. Yeah, that’s me.”

“Come on this way.” Zoey waved her forward and led the way back to her grooming room. “I’m sorry I was a couple minutes late.”

“Oh, that’s no problem at all.”

Zoey smiled in thanks and shut the door behind them. She immediately turned her focus onto the caramel-colored Labradoodle and squatted next to the dog, giving her head a scratch. “You must be Daisy. Aren’t you just the cutest?” She touched around the dog’s neck and ears and belly. “I feel a few mats, but those shouldn’t be a problem. How short do you like her? Or do you have any pictures you want me to look at to go off of?”

At the deafening silence, Zoey looked up to meet Hilary’s gaze, and that’s when she knew one thing for certain. Hilary was not here to get her dog groomed. Zoey didn’t know if it was the sadness in Hilary’s eyes or the paleness of her face, but all her internal alarms began blaring. And yet…and yet, she couldn’t move, because Zoey recognized that look on an intimate level. She’d seen it in the mirror when looking at herself for the last year.

“It happened to me, too,” Hilary said softly.

Zoey swallowed. Hard. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You do,” Hilary replied, her voice shaking, eyes pleading. “I didn’t know how to do this, how to approach you and not scare you. But what Jake did to you, he did the same to me, too.”

Zoey wanted to move, to run, to do anything, but she remained motionless, frozen by the fear racing through her. “I…I…don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know a Jake. I need you to leave. Right now.” Needing desperately to get away, she shot up and flew back against the grooming table.

“No, please, no.” Hilary reached out, grabbing Zoey’s arm. “I don’t want to scare you. We have to fight against him. We can be strong together.”

Rapid thoughts rushed through Zoey’s head. How does she know about Jake? How did she know I confronted him and Scott? How? The room spun a little as the blood slowly drained from Zoey’s face, making her legs wobbly. “I don’t want to fight against anyone. Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. You need to go.”

Hilary’s grip tightened. “You need to fight. We need to fight.”

The woman was obviously not taking no for an answer, and Zoey ripped her arm away, moving farther away into the room, near the window. “No, I’m sorry. I can’t help you.” The thought of her life being exposed again, ruined in ways she could never imagine, crippled her. “I can’t do this.”

“They won’t believe me,” Hilary implored, tears welling in her eyes. “If it’s just me who comes forward, it won’t be enough. It’s Jake’s word against mine. You know him. He’s rich and powerful. He’ll get this buried. They’ll destroy me.”

“Exactly,” Zoey shot back. “No one will believe us. Jake already ruined my life once. I can’t let that happen again.”

“But we can try,” Hilary said, stepping forward. “We can fight.”

Zoey’s lips parted, yes nearly leaving her mouth. Her heart roared to fight against the injustice that had been done to her. But at the image of her life being front-page news, bringing down a big gun on Wall Street, had her stomach roiling. Heat blasted across her, bile rising to her throat. She rushed to the trash can in the corner of the room and emptied the contents of her lunch. “I’m sorry,” she breathed when she could speak again. “I can’t do this…can’t help you…I just…I can’t go through that again.”

Hilary blinked,