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“Yeah, you’re not…you know, running from him, by any chance?”
I coughed and spluttered, sucking in the salt air. “Finley?”
His father’s savage gaze rose in my mind.
“Yeah, Finley,” she repeated carefully.
“No,” I answered, feeling the heat rising in my cheeks. If it wasn’t for the cold ocean air, it would’ve been a dead giveaway. “I’m not running from Finley.”
His father, on the other hand…
“Okay,” Kat leaned back with a sigh. “Okay, that’s good. ‘Cause if you were…you know my family could help you. We’re connected. Maybe notthatconnected. But still, I’d help any way I could.”
Notthatconnected. The words slammed into me. Still, she kept talking.
“I dated a son of one of the Commission once. It was fuckingawful…a daddy’s boy, through and through. The guy couldn’t even take a piss without checking he wasn’t violating‘one of the rules’,pfft. Still, they aren’t the kind of guys girls like you tangle with…not without getting hurt.”
Her phone let out abeep.She tore her gaze from mine for a second, reached down and pressed the button, staring at the screen. She froze at the message, her eyes grew dull, fear moving deep.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she answered, still staring at the screen, then she forced a smile and put her phone away. “Everything’s fine.”
Getting hurt.I swallowed hard as panic rose. Would Finley hurt me? Would he use and discard me? Jesus, I could still feel his hands on my body.I want to be here.Heat bloomed between my thighs at the memory of his fingers sliding inside me.Right here.
“Oh, honey.” Kat pulled me closer as I shuddered. “It’s going to be okay. You got yourself tangled up, then you got yourself away. I’m glad you came here to the island. I’m glad we’re friends. ‘Cause it’s all going to be okay. I told you before, I got your back.” Her voice went quiet. If she hadn’t pulled me against her, I’d never have heard her. “We all have demons, Anna. Every single fucking one of us. The secret is to look him in the eyes,then kick him right in the balls.”
When I thought about the demon we were running away from, it wasn’t Finley I saw.
It was his father.
His cruel, controlling father, and the millions of his dollars we had hidden away.
She held me like that, pressed against her. There was a tremble in her hand as she clutched me tight. In that moment I didn’t know who needed the comfort more—me or her.
The crash of the waves lulled us, until the silence settled that ache inside me to stone. There was a haunted look in Kat’s eyes when I pulled away, one I hadn’t seen before, until she forced a smile. “Feel better?”
“Yeah,” I answered as she slowly climbed to her feet.
I lifted my gaze to the waves, knowing Dad was out there. He’d risked his life coming to get me, and for what? To find out this island not only protects…it imprisons as well. There was no getting away from the Institute, not until this was done. Maybe that’s what the contact was banking on? Maybe that was why we were so safe. Unless you were part of the Commission…theCosa Nostra.
Maybe they lived outside‘the code’,maybe for them there was no damn code at all?
“Come on,” Kat said with a jerk of her head. “It’s getting late and we’ve got classes tomorrow.”
I followed her back to our building, hating how part of me was a little relieved I was stuck here. The elevator lights were unforgiving, casting shadows under Kat’s eyes as we rode in silence to the penthouse. A penthouse Kat’s father had spared no expense getting for his daughter,and in turn, for me.
Still, I wanted to ask about her demons. The ones who seemed to haunt her as she lowered her head and made for her room.
“Kat.”
She lifted her head and met my gaze. “Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
Her smile was quick and small. “Just tired, Anna. I’ll see you in the morning, roomie.”
“Okay.” I watched her disappear into her room. “'Night.”
