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"He's mafia." Jack's eyes were serious as they met mine, and I didn't have any doubt he was telling me the truth. What he believed the truth was, anyway.
But Greyson had been so sweet and kind...
"A little respect," Greyson chided. "I'm more than some mafia goon at this point."
"You're so arrogant, you can't resist bragging to her that you’re a mafia kingpin," Carter shot back. “Like you can’t see she’s too good for you.”
I took a step back down the steps.
"Kennedy," Jack said.
"I've heard enough," I said. "I don't want to talk to any of you."
I turned and stumbled off down the steps.
Carter started to follow me.
"Leave her alone," Greyson growled at him. "Unless you want to lose the other knee. Give her space."
"Come on," Jack told Carter, clapping his shoulder. "We need to get back inside. Away from this...PR mess."
When I turned back, Jack and Carter were limping up the steps. They didn't turn back to look at me. Of course. They never cared about me. Greyson was probably right: they had some old vendetta, and they just cared about making sure he didn't have me.
Greyson, though, was watching me. His sharp jaw worked back and forth once, and he looked as if he had forgotten to staunch the wound across his cheek, he was so focused on me. Then a police car turned the corner, lights and sirens blazing, and with one last look after me, he cut into an alley and disappeared.
I couldn't help feeling as if I'd never see him again. After all, I had disappeared once, only to have no one ever come looking to find me.
I was halfway down the block when I realized I was still carrying Greyson's bouquet of flowers, and I had no idea what to do with it. The strangest frantic sensation came over me, like someone would realize I was connected to him because of the flowers. Like an FBI raid would descend on my apartment.
I turned back to make sure none of the guys were following me. Part of me still didn't want to hurt Greyson's feelings. He had been so kind to me. But panic made my hands shake as I pushed open a trash can and deposited the bouquet inside. Tiger lilies joined old Burger King trash. I stared down at the beautiful petals for a second, feeling as if I'd just made the wrong choice.
But I couldn't make sense of anything that had just happened. Even as I wanted to run back to the arena, to get Greyson's side of the story, I made myself turn my back on the flowers.
Tears blurred my vision as I walked the dark city streets.
Alone.
8
Iwas a mess as I arrived home from—whatever the hell that was. Confusion and loneliness were sparring in my chest. I’d thought waking up in the hospital five years ago with no idea who I was was the worst thing that could happen to me.
And the last five years of trying to figure things out had certainly not been a picnic…
But this? These men seeming to know me, or at least the whiplash they were giving me by being interested one second and then not the next…it was going to drive me insane.
Why were Jack and Carter so worried about me hanging out with Greyson? What did they know about me that they weren't saying? And what was the truth about Greyson?
Questions swirled in my mind like a never-ending storm, tearing at the never healing wound inside of me that had formed in the hospital on the day I woke up. It was as though I was trapped in a web of secrets, and every attempt to unravel them only seemed to entangle me further.
I’d discovered one thing about myself though…the little bit of kindness and affection Greyson had shown me…it had done something to me. Or at the very least showed me how desperately pathetic I was.
Because I realized I was willing to overlook a lot if it meant getting more of that.
The fact that I’d lost my memory, that there were pieces of my past that had been stolen from me—that was one thing. But since I’d stumbled into that hockey arena, it was the fragments of the present that haunted me the most. The feeling of being watched, the cryptic warnings, the feeling of deja vu…combine that with the inexplicable connection I felt with Jack, Carter, Sebastian, and Greyson…and I was feeling like a pawn in a game I couldn't understand.
With each step I took, the loneliness of the night seemed to close in around me, and everything felt…hopeless. Like I’d never find the answers I so desperately sought. The darkness of the night matched the darkness in my heart.
I fucking hated it.
