AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I wasn’t asking. Let’s go.”
His mouth pinched into a line, but he reluctantly nodded.
“Now, tell me what you’re doing sneaking out of my house,” I demanded.
Dylan was tall—not as tall as me—and had the build of a runner. Lean and sinewy. “You want to explain why you’re sporting a fat lip?”
“Watch it, kid. And before you say another word, you need to understand that Waverly ismybusiness. She’s my family now, and under my care. So think very carefully about what you say before you fuck around and lie to me.”
“I was hanging out with Waverly in her apartment.”
“No shit. But you know you’re not allowed in her apartment at night,” I stated.
“We were just hanging out, I swear it,” Dylan said.
“Dude, stop. I was a teenager once. I know how it goes.”
“But you don’t know me,” he stated. He halted, forcing me to stop walking. “I want her. I do. But I also love her. She’s not ready, and I’d never do anything to hurt her. All I want is to love and protect her. And Ihave—”
My jaw clenched, as did my fists. “You were the one.”
“The one what?”
“The one who broke Cal’s fingers. It was you.”
“No, it wasn’t me. It was a mugger.”
I smiled as he failed to backtrack. “Give it up, kid. You let it slip…And I have…”
Dylan paused a moment and then a slight grin spread across his face, but then he got serious. “Are you going to stop me from seeing Waverly?”
“No. I know what it’s like to fall hard and fast for a Gravestone woman. I can see that in your eyes. You’re done for.”
“You won’t tell Willa?”
“We’re men. You have my word. I won’t tell Willa. But you can’t keep sneaking in and out of Waverly’s apartment. If you want to hang out with her, you come to the front door, you hang out, you leave—also through the front door. Got it?”
“Got it.”
We walked until we were at Dylan’s bike, which he’d parked far enough away from the house that there was no chance of his engine being heard when he started it up.
“How’d you do it,” I asked.
“Do what?” He straddled his motorcycle.
“How did you get away with smashing Cal’s fingers? How did the cops not tie you to it?”
“My uncle. He knows the owner of the gas station where it happened. He called a favor in and suddenly the surveillance tapes accidentally got wiped.”
“Your uncle knows people,” I said. “The right people.”
“Yeah. He does.” Dylan strapped his helmet on. “We good?”
“We’re good. Come to dinner later this week, yeah?”
Dylan nodded. He turned on his bike and then zoomed off into the night. I stood there and watched his taillights disappear before turning around and heading home.
I let out a small laugh as I walked.
