Page 110 of Little Sunshine

Ash sent him.

I’d already suspected Ash didn’t trust me. Hell, on some level I’d been suppressing, I knew he didn’t.

But the confirmation nearly took me to my knees.

And that was what finally did it. What killed my crush. What hardened my stupid heart.

What severed the glimmer of hope that there could be something more.

There would never be more.

It wasn’t just the confirmation that Ash trusted me so little that he had security follow me.

It was because he was right to feel that way.

We’d met when I’d tried to steal a wallet. He didn’t even know about all the times I’d succeeded.

That I’d gotten attacked and was able to play pretend for a while didn’t change anything. Not who I was or what I’d done.

People like me could venture into the opulence. Our buses could pull next to the chauffeured cars. Our penny slots could be right outside the high roller rooms. Our simple burger restaurants could be down the hall from the upscale steakhouses, where the overpriced meals didn’t even include sides.

The windows of our budget hotels—The Roulette and others like it—may have faced the same direction as their luxury resorts, but the views were not the same.

We could be in the middle of it. We could enter and spend time there, but it wasn’t for us. We didn’t belong.

We belonged in the slums and dives and abandoned blocks. Where trash lined the ditches, windows were boarded over, and apartment elevators never worked.

Where stale crackers and peanut butter were a treat.

My skin suddenly felt too tight. The pit in my stomach grew to a bottomless abyss. Mortification froze me in place. I probably looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

It would’ve been comical had it not been for the fact my pride was no longer wounded.

It was eviscerated into nothingness.

Before I could figure out what to do, the man’s gaze went behind me. I turned to look at the far end near the doors I’d come out of.

Like a torpedo locked on its target, Ash stared me down as he easily made his way through the crush of people who darted out of his path.

With security distracted and Ash headed right for me, I did the only thing I could.

I ran away.

Chapter 16

Never Mind, You’ll Still Be Disappointed

ASH

After getting Mila set up in my penthouse, I went down to Maximo’s office.

Cole was already on the couch with two laptops—one opened on his lap and the other on the coffee table in front of him. He had his screen shared to one of the monitors on Maximo’s stalker wall.

“Hope you’ve got your messages turned off before a sext pops up,” I joked.

“Yeah, that won’t happen,” Cole said with a dismissive laugh. His clenched jaw said he didn’t find it all that amusing.

Huh.

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