Grizzly looked at her.
“You want to leave with him?”
“No.”
Grizzly turned back.
“Then she doesn’t.”
Reuben’s smile vanished.
“You do not understand the situation.”
“Explain.”
“She is emotionally unstable.”
Samantha felt heat rise in her chest.
Reuben continued.
“She has been under considerable stress and is making decisions she’ll regret.”
Grizzly looked at Samantha.
“Sammy?”
“I’m not unstable.”
Reuben sighed.
“See? This is what she does.”
Wyatt’s eyes narrowed.
Samantha suddenly understood something.
Reuben needed the room to believe he was the reasonable one.
Always.
That was the foundation beneath every cruelty.
So she stopped arguing emotionally.
She reached beneath the bar.
Pulled out her phone.
Opened the saved voicemail.
Then pressed play.
Reuben’s recorded voice filled the room.
“You can hide for a week, maybe two. But you know how this ends. You come home, or I bring you home.”
Silence followed.
Reuben’s face changed.
“Turn that off.”
Samantha did.