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I knew nothing about his world—I still don’t—and he took full advantage of that. What else did he lie about?
“Because of…?” Aden prompts.
I shake my head. “Nothing. It’s not important.”
“Why do I have a feeling that it is?” Aden’s voice is soft.
I don’t respond.
“When you rushed into the grocery store, I knew I had to help you,” he says.
There’s no hint of deception in his steady gaze. No sign he’s being anything less than truthful, in his voice or his face.
When I say nothing else, he gives me a small smile. “I’ll leave now. There’s plenty of food in the refrigerator and you have my number if you need me. Just call, okay?”
I nod, even though I won’t be calling him.
When his smile fades, he must know it too. But he leaves.
I wait until the door closes behind him and I’m alone in the apartment. Only then do I climb out of bed, hunt out a pair of tennis shoes that are far too big for me, stuff my feet in them, and head for the bathroom.
It takes seconds to climb out of the window and minutes to descend the fire exit, my heart pounding all the way.
The moment I hit the bottom, I start running.
30
DARIEL
The destruction is a thousand times worse in the brightness of a new day.
My eyes scan the bar we poured thousands—hundreds of thousands—of dollars into making it the best we could afford. If it had failed… well, you don’t owe the sort of men we had borrowed the funds from without paying it back with interest and then some.
All of it is gone, just like that.
None of the bottles survived. Most of the tables and chairs will have to be replaced. And the DJ area? We might be able to salvage some of the equipment, but the odds aren’t looking great.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Kade?” I mutter.
My phone vibrates and I pull it from my pocket, scanning the caller I.D. before answering. “Whatever you want, Aden, not today.”
Where do I start the clean-up? The bar? The seating area? Or should I go to Kade’s apartment and beat the shit out of him first? Maybe that’ll make the hours I have ahead of me a little more bearable.
“She’s going to run,” Aden says.
The bar. I’ll start there.
“So let her run. She’s caused enough trouble as it is.” I go looking for a broom.
Aden is silent for so long that if I couldn’t hear him breathing, I’d have thought he’d hung up. “He was protecting her.”
“Is that what he was doing? Because from where I was standing, it looked an awful lot like he was having fun pounding the shit out of someone the same way he’d poke at me until I’d add a little excitement to his night.”
I stand there holding the broom before I realize I should’ve gone for a garbage bag. Then it hits me this job is too big for one person to tackle. I could’ve called some of the staff in, but the thought of being near anyone when I’m barely hanging onto my control made that a terrible idea.
That’s if the staff would even want to step foot in the place, and I have my doubts about that.
“You saw the bites on her neck, Dariel. She’s running from shifters. One walks into the bar and moments later, Kade loses his shit. You have to see the connection, right?”
