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My gaze rises and goes back down, only to rise again with an unsettled feeling flashing through me, to take another look.
Chloe’s not dressed to be out in public. She’s in pajama pants and a baggy t-shirt with sneakers that aren’t even laced like she couldn’t get out of the house fast enough. Her hair’s down and windblown.
“What the fuck is she doing here?” I mutter beneath my breath and drop the knife on the cutting board. Before I can even wipe my hands off, she’s brushing past Eddie, ignoring him completely. She doesn’t hesitate to go around the counter and make her way back here. “Sebastian,” she gasps my name with a mix of relief and desperation.
My heart pounds harder as every man and woman in this place watches us. I can feel all their eyes on me as I keep my shoulders straight and head to the sink to wash my hands. I’m trying not to let her or anyone else see what I’m feeling deep down in my gut. This isn’t a good look.
“I need you,” Chloe speaks before the swinging door that separates the kitchen from the front of this small shop even closes.
The adrenaline pumps harder in my veins.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” I ask her although my gaze is focused on Eddie. I try to swallow but can’t, so instead, I watch the water run down the drain before turning off the faucet and drying off my hands. She doesn’t answer me, but she steps closer to me at the sink.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her in a harsh tone with no room for her to question how I feel about this shit. No one comes here. No one who knows any better.Sheshould know better.
Her baby blues flash with something—shock, or anger—I’m not sure which. Her loose t-shirt nearly slips down her shoulder as she takes a step back. The place is silent save the exhaust fans as she takes a moment to look me up and down.
“I need you,” she tells me honestly, with a sincerity that everyone could hear, even if only spoken in a whisper. She brushes her wavy hair behind her ear and moves her gaze to the vinyl floor of the kitchen, blinking away the emotions ravaging her. The muscles of her throat tighten as she wraps her arms around herself. “Do you have a minute?” she asks as if she didn’t just run back here and disrupt everything while having no consideration for what she’s doing. The type of danger she’s putting herself into.
With a deep crease in the center of her forehead and a pained expression in her eyes, she tells me again, “I need you.” It’s the third time she’s said it since she got here, but she’s never said those words to me until today. Fuck, I can’t describe what it does to me. Her left foot kicks the floor as she slowly seems to notice everyone else as if they didn’t even exist before.
I watch her gaze as it moves to Eddie, who’s looking at me curiously and I give him an icy stare until he looks away.
I know he tells Romano everything that happens and having her come in making a scene like this is something that would get his attention. Talking to me about something as if I can save her… that would get his attention too. Romano needs to know everything, or so he tells us. But I don’t plan on telling him shit.
Especially because it’s her. And the way she’s going about this is going to cause problems.
That anxiety comes rushing back, not just from what everyone else is wondering, but also from what Chloe has to say.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” I ask her again and toss the hand towel onto the steel counter.
“Angie keeps asking me that too,” she mutters beneath her breath. Swallowing thickly, she looks over her shoulder before gripping my forearm and whispering, “I need to talk to you.”
Her pale blue eyes plead with me, sinking deep inside of me like she always does. And for the first time in so long, I wish she wouldn’t.
“Did something happen?” I ask her innocently, every hair on the back of my neck standing on end. I can hear people moving again, going back to their business, but they’re quiet and slow to move. They’re listening to everything.
“Did you see the news?” she asks me, and I stare back at her straight-faced as I shake my head no. I already know what’s coming before she keeps going. It’s only now that I regret going to see her; I invited her to think she could rely on me. She doesn’t know what she’s doing though, and all the shit I’m in right now.
“Tamra Stetson is dead,” she tells me in the barest of whispers as if she’s speaking a sin in the holiest of churches.
She has no idea what she’s doing. She doesn’t know how everyone is watching her. Watchingus.
This city will talk, and word spreads like wildfire. That could be dangerous, but I already knew I was fucked. I just can’t risk her going down for this.
“Why don’t we go out back?” The question is really a demand as I grab her elbow. Her gasp is short-lived as she walks quickly beside me and my grip on her tightens. Using my forearm, I shove open the back door and pull her out back. The heat and the sun are blinding for a split second.
There may be no one out here, but there are plenty of people watching. Listening. It’d be naive of me to think that Eddie is the only person keeping tabs on me for Romano. Waiting to hear something they can use against anyone who has anything they could want.
Like her.
Chloe hisses between her teeth as the door closes with a loud clack. “Did you have to be such a dick?” she asks me with a fierceness I fucking love.
She rips her arm away and the action makes her shirt slip off her shoulder, showing me more of her soft skin and the dip in her collar.
The second she sees me looking there, she pulls it back into place.
“You should know better than to come here,” I warn her, keeping my voice low, making sure she hears the threat. She’s reckless, beautifully so, but it’s dangerous. Right now, I can’t have it.
