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“Uh huh.” I toy with the hem of my shirt.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Tom,” he says. “But you’re safe with him. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“I know.”
He sighs. “I rang Tom on my way here. I told him we all need to sit down and talk when we get home.”
My chest tightens. “N-no, that’s okay. I was just in shock before when you told me. I’m sure he doesn’t want to talk about it. It’s fine. I’m fine.”
A frown mars his face as he glances down at me. “No, you were right. That’s something I should have told you before you moved in. Everything happened so quickly whenyou arrived, and we barely know each other. I’m going to fix that.”
I tuck my shaking hands into the pocket at the front of my hoodie as he leads us out of Wren and Brady’s building. If Tom and Harley open up to me about their secrets, they’re going to expect me to open up about mine.
Harley helps me onto the back of his bike after I put my helmet on, and I’m thankful that we don’t have to talk on the way home. I’m still trying to work out what I can tell them that won’t put them in danger when he pulls up in the driveway.
“WE REALLY DON’T have to do this,” I say again, staring down at my fingers as I trace the wood grain on the dining table. “I know you’re not a bad guy, Tom. I was just surprised that Harley hadn’t said anything.”
“I was more concerned about you having shown up here with nothing but a change of clothes,” Harley points out.
I swallow the lump in my throat, knowing we’re getting dangerously close to me having to share something about why I’m here. I need to redirect the conversation quickly, so I force my gaze up to meet Tom’s. “Can I ask why you were in prison? Harley mentioned something about selling drugs.”
He nods, running a hand through his cropped dark hair. “We didn’t have a lot growing up, which is not an excuse, and I fell in with some bad people who were making whatseemed like easy cash. I was stupid and thought I’d try and make a quick buck. Unfortunately, it backfired on me, and I got caught.”
A shiver runs down my spine. “Were you scared? In prison, I mean.”
He glances at Harley before returning his eyes to me, and I wonder if these two have even spoken about what it was like for Tom. “It wasn’t a fun place to be.”
“How did you get caught?”
Harley scowls. “Principal Foster dobbed him in.”
“Wait.” My brow furrows. “Foster? As in…”
“The guy Conrad thought was his dad?” he offers. “The one and the same.”
Suddenly, Harley’s anger towards Conrad is starting to make sense. The connection to Tom going to prison, finding out they’re half-brothers, and then losing his girlfriend over it. That’s enough to make anyone bitter. But…
“You don’t seem to be mad at Conrad, though,” I say to Tom.
He shakes his head. “None of it was his fault.” Harley scoffs, and Tom shoots him a filthy look. “I thought you two had sorted your shit out at Ivy’s birthday. Ellie didn’t want–”
“This isn’t about her,” Harley grits out.
“Ellie’s the complicated ex.” His head snaps up to meet mine, an unreadable expression crossing his face. “And she’s Conrad’s sister.”
His shoulders slump. “You know?”
I nod, hoping he doesn’t ask mehowI know. I don’tthink he’d appreciate the fact that Conrad was the one to tell me, and I don’t want to be the reason he has something else against him. “I don’t understand why all the secrecy.”
“It’s not like we know everything about each other,” he says with an arch of his brow. “We know next to nothing about you, apart from the fact that you’re from Sydney, and you’re running from something.”
I drag my gaze up to meet his, knowing full well what he’s not saying but also grateful that he’s not going to out my secret to Tom without my permission. At the same time, he’s pressing me for information. Information that I can’t share without putting him and Tom in danger, and I won’t do that.
“I had a fight with my parents.” It’s a half-truth. The week before I left, I went to my father, begged him to find a way out of the contract. He just sneered at me and told me I’d do whatever it took to further the family empire. He didn’t give a shit about me, or what was happening to me. What was worse, my mother sat there the entire time, a blank look on her face as she watched me cry and scream at my father that he was a monster for signing his only child’s life away.
“So, you took off with no money, no clothes…” Tom prompts me, pulling me from my memories.
“I–” I look over at Harley, seeing the tension in his body as his fists clench. I swallow around the lump of fear in my throat. He’s putting two and two together and coming up with three, but he’s not far off. My father might not have been the one who put bruises all over my body, but he’s thereason I was put in that situation. He effectively sold me into the arms of the man who could have killed me with his bare hands.
