Page 105 of Love Me

I pin that asshole with a glare. His son definitely takes after him.

“How do they come and go?”

“It’s virtually impossible to get inside. Celine and Hunter have scouted the area, but it’s heavily guarded. We can’t breach it from the outside.”

While they talk, I study every opening I can find.

“Yes, but knowing my father, he has another way to get there. He uses the tunnel for that.”

“Celine said the same thing.”

I itch to find her, to go to her. I open my mouth to ask him when he says, “Don’t even bother.”

Fucking great.

“Look, it’s up to my daughter. It says something that she prefers to stay away for a few days when we have this much to work through.”

I slam my palms on the table. “This is what fucking happens when there is mistrust and secrets we both inherited, courtesy of our fathers.”

He flinches, and two guards step inside.

“Everything all right?”

He dismisses the guard. “Thank you, Benjamin.”

Sebastian looks straight at me. “You’re nothing like him.”

“I take that as a compliment,” I say and walk away.

My phone rings, and I say to Bailey, “I trust you with the move back to the house. Take Mia and Hunter with you.”

“But?”

“Trust me.”

Time is slipping, and if Celine’s mother is alive, we have even more reason to work together.

I need to get away. My feelings for Kaden consume me to the point of mad obsession. I can’t keep doing this, wanting him, loving him. Kaden’s occupying so much space in my head and heart that my entire being is spilling over with him.

There is so much bitterness between us. He didn’t choose me. I think if he did, I would have said screw everything, but he didn’t, and I have to respect that.

I call my father next, informing him I need a few days for myself, and the disappointment in his voice hits me with the force of a cyclone. But I need to grieve so I can come back and be who he needs me to be.

Mia, Blake, Bailey, and Hunter are in the living room, huddled in front of the television, eating popcorn. A smile lifts my lips. It’s good to see them getting along. I’m sure all the tension in our group is because of Kaden and me.

Well, not anymore. I move closer, and all eyes focus on me. Maybe it’s my heart aching, but hugging each of them grounds me.

Hunter pauses the movie and says, “It just started.”

“I’m tired.”

I go to my room and put clothes in a duffel bag even though I don’t know where I am going.

Bailey peers inside. “I knew something was up.”

“Because I hugged you?”

“That broken smile gave you away. What happened?”

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