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“You do.”
“I don’t. If you wanted to hug me, that’s okay with me.” His voice is so neutral, it’s impossible to read what he’s thinking or feeling about this strange girl he brought to his apartment.
But I don’t hug him. I don’t even look at him.
He saved me from the pimps and I’m grateful he’s given me a safe place to stay. That’s all this is.
“I won’t be here for long. Just tonight, and I’ll leave in the morning. Early,” I tell him.
“You can stay for as long as you want.”
“I’m a stranger,” I remind him, “and this is your apartment. One night is already too much.”
Because Nathan is out there somewhere hunting me and if he hurts Aden, I couldn’t live with myself.
“You’re not putting me out. Stay for as long as you want.”
I turn to face him. “I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but I can’t stay,” I tell him, my voice firm so he knows I mean it.
“Do you like pizza?”
I blink at him in surprise. “What?”
“Pizza? Do you eat it?”
I used to. Before Rylan. I mentally snort when I remember the look on his face after I suggested ordering a pizza for dinner. He had no problem tearing into a rabbit as a wolf, but ask him to eat a slice of pizza with his fingers and it was as if you’d asked him to eat from the floor of a public restroom. “Um, yeah.”
“Meat lovers or are you vegetarian? Vegan?”
What does this have to do with me staying a night in his apartment?
“I don’t see how—”
“I’m guessing meat lovers. Extra pepperoni. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Since he’s giving me no opportunity to say anything else, I shake my head. “You’re not wrong.”
Smiling, he backs up. “I’ve left my cell phone number pinned to the refrigerator. The phone is on the coffee table. Call for any reason. In twenty minutes, someone is going to knock on the door and leave. No reason to think it’s anything bad. Butdoopen the door. You’ll know why. The same thing will happen tomorrow at ten in the morning, again, you’ll know why. So you can’t leave early. I’ll stop by later in the day to see how you’re getting on. Goodnight, Lily.”
I gape at him because none of this is making any sense. By the time I’m thinking again, the door is snicking shut and Aden is gone.
Just like that.
Leaving me alone in his apartment.
My eyes pour every surface. Aden must keep some cash lying around. All I’d need to do is find some, shower, dress in the sweats he told me I could borrow, and run.
I could be out of the city in under an hour, depending on how long it takes me to find a bus or train station.
And then what, Saige?
What do you do when Nathan finds you in the next city? Or the next?
I don’t move. Just spend the next several minutes trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do. Staying in the same city as Rylan is so stupid, it’s only a matter of time before Nathan catches up to me. He’s Rylan’s hunter.
But I don’t do the thing I know I should. I don’t run when every rational thought in my head is screaming at me to steal whatever money Aden has lying around and never look back.
My eyes return to the picture of the three men. The hounds.
