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The thought of being surrounded by drunk guys who don’t understand personal space when I’m so on edge already makes me want to run and keep on running. But I can’t spend my life that way.
Not if I want to survive.
So I’ll work a few nights at the bar, and hope that Nathan doesn’t find me there. If he does, I’ll run. And if he doesn’t, then I’ll have earned at least a little money that I won’t be forced onto the streets wherever I run to next. At least not right away.
After that? I’ll think about it when I reach that point.
IfI reach that point.
18
ADEN
“She wants to work here.”
Dariel stares up at me from behind his desk. He doesn’t ask who. “Why?”
I rake my hand through my hair. “Says she wants to make up for letting her stay.”
“And that’s a bad thing why?” Dariel lifts his glass of water to his lips.
“It’s a bad thing because how long will it be before she figures out what you and Kade are and runs? She’s talking about working for a few days—enough to earn the money to buy a bus ticket out of town.” I tug my phone from my pocket to glare at the screen. No missed calls. No text messages. Nothing. “Where is Kade? I left him a message.”
His glass stops at his lips. “Who knows? Maybe this isn’t a bad thing. Her leaving.”
I stare at him. “You don’t believe she’s the one.”
“What I believe is irrelevant, Aden. She’s trouble. She—”
“Saw through this fucking mask in one day. A mask that not one of the staff down there who sees me every night has ever managed to. She saw the picture of us on the wall, and do you know what her first question was? ‘Why are we so sad?’”
A frown creases his brow. “You mean the photo of us—”
I laugh, but it’s a hard sound. Brittle. “Smiling away, fucked out of our minds. That one.”
His eyes probe my face. “Why would she think we were sad? Did you say something? Maybe imply that—”
“I was in the bedroom making up the bed for her. Came out to find her staring at it. She asked who had died.”
Dariel stills so completely I know he gets it. That hefinallygets it. “How could she have known?”
There’s not much space in Dariel’s office, but there’s enough to pace. Maybe that’ll work off some of this rising tension that Lily will disappear and we’ll never find her again. “She couldn’t have known about Nica. That’s the point. She sees the picture, and guesses something isn’t right with us because she knowsus. She’s ours. Where the fuck is Kade?”
I tug my phone from my pocket again and call him for the third time since I left Lily to return to the bar. It rings and rings. But it doesn’t ring out. It disconnects soon enough that I know he has the phone in hand, and he’s just cut me off.
“Drowning himself with booze and women, I imagine,” Dariel says. “What else did she say? Maybe she’s been to the bar before and saw—”
“Will you pull your fucking head out of your ass and pay attention? It isher.”
Dariel doesn’t seem to move, but before I can blink, he has me pinned to the back of the door, his hand like a manacle squeezing the air from my lungs, and a snarl on his lips. “You donotspeak like that to me.”
A feral creature stares back at me, unblinking. Enraged.
I lower my head. “Shit, you know I didn’t mean it. We can’t let her leave.”
After a moment, he releases me and steps back. “I know. But this… you, Kade… all of this is just another sign she needs to go, before…” His mouth snaps shut right after the last word.
When I lift my head, he’s buried the wolf because it’s no longer in his eyes. “Before she hurts us like Nica?”
