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I can’t help but be affected. I did that to him.
Me.
The prim and proper girl from Gravestone County.
I’m not that girl anymore though. She died a long time ago when my family decided I was tainted goods.
As if Cole hears my thoughts, he brushes the hair from my face and says, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re not good enough, Dove.” He kisses me again before shoving me gently over to the passenger seat.
“I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” He watches me climb out. I don’t want to go, but I can’t exactly ask him to stay.
Besides, despite the fact that he finally opened up to me tonight, I don’t think we’re quite at the stage of planned sleepovers yet.
Cole is... complicated, and I know there’s so much more to the boy with darkness in his heart and pain in his soul.
I glance back one last time, knowing that I’m walking a dangerous line. He killed someone. But he did it to save Ace. And Charlie wasn’t innocent—he was, by all accounts, a very bad person.
I’m aware this isn’t a normal response to murder, but I haven’t been normal since my parents forced me to make a decision that forever changed me.
I’m different now.
Intrinsically altered.
Maybe I am bad... or dark... or whatever you want to call it, but I can’t feel sorry for a man like Charlie Jagger.
I won’t.
Slipping inside the building, I tiptoe down the hall. It’s quiet, and I make it to my room unnoticed. I know I should probably change out of my sand-ridden clothes, but I leave the hoodie on, loving the way it smells of me and Cole.
Within seconds of slipping under the covers, I fall asleep.
Something startles me and I open my eyes, searching for the sound.
My cell phone.
It’s my cell phone.
Fumbling on the nightstand, I snatch it up. “Hello?”
“Hadley?”
“Remi?” I sit up. “What is it, what’s wrong?”
“Is Cole with you?”
“No.” I rub my eyes. “What time is it?”
“A little after two.”
“He didn’t come home?” My stomach sinks.
“Conner seemed to think you were together.”
“We were, but he gave me a ride back to the dorms about midnight. Are you sure he’s not there?”
Dread snakes through me. If he’s not at the house... Oh God, Cole. What did you do?
