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She eyes me. “You’ve never told me what you do.”
I nod. “You’re right. I haven’t.”
She rolls her eyes, getting back in the bed and covering up. “How are we to become something if you don’t let me in?”
My chest all but seizes, heart stopping completely. Sure, we’d fucked around, we had a string of amazing moments, but in my mind, she’d never be with someone like me. Ever.
Suddenly, I’m wracked with urges to climb back in bed and say fuck the world, lie next to her an open myself raw and let her see every fucking inch of me, scars, and all. But I don’t have time.
“Are we going to? Become something?” I ask, boring my eyes down into hers and waiting for her truth to shine through her features.
But it doesn’t. “Gage, if that is your real name...”Ouch.“I really want this to go somewhere, but I can’t be with someone who hides anything from me. I need to be with you a hundred percent or not at all. I’ve never felt the things I feel when I’m with you. You make me feel...alive.”
I sigh, knowing that’s far from love or emotional entanglement. “Yes, but what about when that wears off?”
She laughs awkwardly. “This is really heavy shit for first thing in the morning.”
I nod. “Well, I’m an intense man, little one.”
“I gathered that,” she agrees.
“Listen, I have a work thing. We will pick this up, yeah?” I ask, leaning over the edge of the bed and kissing her forehead lightly, lingering to take her scent in. Her usual lemon verbena wafts up my nose, mixed with my own rustic scent. I can’t say that I don’t fucking love it on her.
I marked her as mine last night, but something still feels disjointed between us.
“I’ll see you later?” she asks.
“I’m sure I can find a moment for you.” I smirk wickedly as she slaps my arm playfully. It’s the most unguarded I’ve seen her with me.
“I’ll feed Tigger so you can get some more sleep. I know you’re tired,” I tell her on my way out the door.
She yawns and it carries down to my ears as I hit the first steps. “Thanks, babe.”
Stopping on the landing, I look back up to the door. It’s not what she called me, it’s the easy, nonchalant way she’d said it. As if it was the simplest word in the world to utter.
Fuck, I’m in deep.
After feeding Tigger and getting to the coffee shop, I plop down in front of Trevor, who I notice is on edge. His leg is constantly shaking as he looks around the room.
“What is the deal with you? Too much caffeine, already?”
“What have you gotten into with this Emery guy?”
I eye him, shrugging. “Nothing I can’t handle. Why?”
“Well, to start off, your father and his are in business together. Well, suffice it to say, Emery Stanner is in business with your father because his father is dead, and he took over that company.”
The blood leaves my body, ringing pounding through my ears.
“What do you mean?” I ask, my body feeling like I’m floating.
“Okay, there was an incident, and of course your father loves to keep records on his clients for blackmail if needed. A cleanup crew was sent to a house in Rochester called Westpoint House—old historical house, the significance doesn’t matter. Your father sent the crew, but also had them take evidence from the scene...”
“As he usually does,” I say, cutting him off.
He nods. “Anyhow, there were two bodies in the house, three if you count a female in the bathroom. Your father took IDs off all three. Declan Smith, Carina Eder, and Amanda Eder. Two of the bodies were removed and disposed of. Your father notes that upon going to get the third, it was gone. The crew looked high and low for Carina, but she’d escaped somehow. The place was burned, and the authorities were paid off to look the other way. Case closed. Until you asked me to look into this, and now you’re poking around in the case and I’m not too sure you should be because your father is fucking scary.”
Don’t I know it, Trevor.
