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What if the police didn’t believe him and charged him for murder?
I couldn’t stand losing him. Not now. Not ever. “Let me call my grandmother. She needs to know what’s happening.”
He held my eyes, and for a moment, I forgot about everything. We hadn’t even touched. Our only tender moment was while hidden in those scratchy bushes with him holding me tight.
“What?” A glimmer of a smile touched his lips.
“I was just thinking that you haven’t touched me yet.”
He rubbed his neck. “Well, it hasn’t exactly been a romantic getaway. Has it?”
His edgy tone scraped at me, and tears burned in my eyes. I’d never cried as much as I had since being with Drake.
Toughness had once been my middle name. My mother always said that emotions weakened us. But Drake had penetrated so deeply into me, he’d smashed that hard shell that had once hidden my heart and soul. Even from me.
My lowered guard had turned me into an emotional mess, though.
Everything affected me. Before Drake, I had been a virgin to love, and I’d become so sensitive that it was like scorching sun on pale skin.
Perhaps my unaffectionate mother had a point when she said that love turned us into weaklings.
But then, love had also helped me bloom into the person I could become.
Drake kept staring at me with those deep-blue eyes, making me forget myself again. He must have read my insecurity, because he took me into his arms and held me close to his chest, almost crushing me. His heart beat against my ear.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been so messed up I haven’t exactly thought about how you’re going with all this crazy shit. We nearly fucking died.”
He kissed my hair, and suddenly, life felt good again. I could handle anything with him close to me.
“I love you, Drake. I hope you realise how much.”
His silence bit hard, and instead of a smile or even that warm look he often wore whenever I expressed affection, Drake stepped away and fiddled with the shopping bag.
“Here.” He passed me a new phone. “It was one of the cheaper ones.”
I took the phone from his hand. “I’ll upgrade when life goes back to normal.”
Normal? What does that look like?
Sudden insecurity filled the space. Like I could almost touch the air between us. Where were those sparks that ignited that invisible force of attraction?
I passed him the phone. “Do you mind setting it up?” I scribbled my details on a pad by the hotel phone.
He tinkered with my phone for a while, then I noticed a deep line grow between his eyebrows.
“What?” I opened my hands.
“Fuck, Manon.” He tossed my new phone on the bed like it was on fire.
I picked it up, and glaring back at me were the images that Rey had threatened to show to the world in all their brutal, slutty shades.
The food I’d just eaten made its way up my throat.
“What were you doing going through my messages?” I snapped.
“They were impossible to miss. I read ‘Deadline or else’ with Crisp’s name against it. I thought he was about to threaten us with more of his heavies. But then I saw that.” He pointed at the phone like it might be a bomb.
He shook his head. Disgust and hatred shone from his eyes, and my chest ached like a knife stabbing my heart.
