"And you're sure it's him?" Brooks asked quietly, his dark eyes masked with concern.

I shook my head. "No, not at all. But who else could it be? Besides, it makes sense. Maybe he conned Mia into telling him when and where I was going to arrive in Beaufort and that's how he took the photo of me getting off the plane. She told me she's been texting him. Plus he was at Marc's party so that takes care of that one. And the one I found earlier—" I paused for a moment, releasing an unsteady breath. "He knows where we live. He must have taken the picture and snuck it into my bag."

I noticed that the muscle in Brooks' jaw had clenched, his teeth gritted together. "That son of a—" He muttered, trailing off.

I placed my hand on his shoulder to regain his attention. "Look, the most important thing now is keeping Mia safe. We have to keep her away from Luke... maybe we should tell her everything."

It was one thing for me to be okay with Mia liking Luke when I had no reason, other than a bad first impression, to go off. But now that I knew what he was capable of, I could hardly stand by and let her in harm's way.

Brooks nodded in agreement and reached for the door handle. Just before opening it, he hesitated and turned back to look at me. "What about you?"

I frowned. "What?"

"What about you? We can't just let him get away with this. It's sick."

For a split second, my breath caught in my throat. There was a fire blazing in Brooks' eyes, a fierce protectiveness that I hadn't seen since I was little and Brooks had caught a bunch of kids picking on me. Despite the circumstances, I wanted to remember this moment forever. Because that look meant that some part of Brooks still cared about me— that there was hope for our friendship after all.

I smiled, my whole body relaxing. "I'm fine. Stuff like this happens all the time to people like me. Now that I know who's doing it I'm not scared anymore." And it was mostly true. Luke had lost his anonymity and I had gained the upper hand.

Brooks didn't say anything as he continued to scrutinize me, and I offered him another small smile as I leaned over to open the door fully. I led the way through the house into the living room, where Mia was curled up on the couch next to Dallas, her knees tucked under her chin. She glanced up when she saw us, her mouth forming an 'o' and her eyes filling with tears.

"There you two are! I'm so sorry, if I'd have known he'd been drinking I wouldn't have done it." Mia cried, rushing over to us. "I was just lonely and a little tipsy and, and—" Mia faltered, glancing down at her hands

Brooks frowned and took a step towards his sister, standing so close to me that our arms brushed. I tried to ignore how my heart sped up, telling myself that the direness of the situation was what was making me nervous.

"What are you talking about, Mia?" Brooks asked, his eyes narrowing. 

She stayed silent, her downcast eyes sullen as she fiddled her fingers together.

"Mia." Brooks repeated, his tone so authoritative that even I felt like I was in trouble.

A beat passed as Mia sobbed until, finally, Dallas spoke up. "She invited him here." He said tightly, the usual glint of humor gone from his pale eyes.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that he'd been drinking— I never would have asked him to come if I knew." Mia said, reaching out to grab her brother's arms.

Brooks tensed beside me, anger practically radiating from him. Sensing that he was about five seconds from murdering Mia, I reached over and grabbed his arm, squeezing gently.

"Mia, did you ever tell Luke that I was coming to Beaufort?" I asked her softly.

Mia's delicate face became confused. "What? What does this have to do with anything?"

I bit my lip. "I know it seems irrelevant but it's important. Did Luke know when I was coming to Beaufort?"

Mia's eyes roamed around the room while she thought. Eventually she gave a small nod. "Yeah, I think so. I mean, I was so excited for you to get here I—I'm sure I m-mentioned it to him."

I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment before turning to look at Brooks, who had gone ridged.

Mia's gaze flickered between us, sensing that what she had just revealed meant something important. Her hands flew to cover her face. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to cause any harm."

I sighed, walking forward to grab Mia's hands and releasing Brooks' in the process. "That doesn't matter now Mia. The main thing is that you stay away from him okay? You have to promise me that you won't talk to him or text him or even say hello when you pass him at school. He's not who you think he is Mia. Trust me."

Mia turned to Dallas for reassurance, but he wasn't paying her any attention, busy staring at the ground. So she flicked her gaze to Brooks, who raised an eyebrow in warning. Finally she looked at me. "Why? I know what he did last night was stupid, but that wasn't him, I—"

"For God's sake Mia." Dallas suddenly snapped, jumping to his feet. I stared at him in shock— I had never seen Dallas mad before. "The guy drove two hours here whilst drunk— Lord knows how he even made it here alive— and then proceeded to try and beat the shit out of your brother and your best friend. When are you going to wake up and see that he's bad news?" Dallas was fuming now, his handsome face pink as his chest heaved. "I don't care if he did something nice for you at a party a million years ago. One good deed doesn't equal a hero. Luke is and will always be an ass, and if you can't see that even after he put people you love in danger, then you're definitely not the person I thought you were."

And then without another word, Dallas left the living room and clambered upstairs. I watched as Mia held back tears, frozen in place as she tried to process what her usually so calm friend had just said to her.

Sometimes it didn't matter how much you cared about someone, when they were hurting themselves without even realizing it, your only option was tough love.