Page 55 of Betrayed

Bastard.It wasn’t enough he’d stolen my childhood, but he’d destroyed my chances for a happy future.

I stepped out of the bathroom while rubbing a towel over my head to dry my hair and bumped into Blake.

“Sorry,” Blake whispered without looking at me.

“It’s my fault. I should have been watching where I was going.” I stepped aside. “It’s all yours.”

“Thanks.” she bit her lower lip as she turned away.

Damn, that’s fucking sexy. So were the rainbow pajamas hugging her ass and breasts.

Double Fuck. I adjusted myself, dropping the towel to hide the movement in my pants, and marched to the kitchen.

“You okay?” Jamie asked.One of these days, I’ll smack one of those grins off one of their faces.

“Fine. Blake’s up.”

“I heard.” Jamie chuckled as he noticed me hiding my still noticeable attraction. He smiled and joked around a lot more now that he was happily in love.

Something I can never have.I practically barked, “I’m going to start breakfast.”

“Suit yourself,” Jamie said around a laugh.

God, I fucking hate how easily these guys read me. To be fair, I’d loved how close we were until they realized I had it bad for Blake. Now they were thorns in my side, using that knowledge to goad me.

The same way I did with Jack? And Jamie? And Doug?

Karma’s a bitch.

By six, everyone was in the kitchen, where I’d set out a buffet of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, yogurt, and fresh fruit.

Not wanting any surprises, we were watching the video feeds from Jamie’s and the safe house. Getting the motion sensor sensitivity right was tricky, and the ones at the safe house were paranoia level sensitive, which meant we got a lot of alerts because of the local wildlife.

Better too sensitive than not sensitive enough.

Chapter 28

Blake

After breakfast, John, Doug, and Jaden escorted us to the safe house. I thought three cars were excessive, but they didn’t.

My heart raced while AJ and I waited in the truck for the other guys to check the small, run-down farmhouse. In the middle of fucking nowhere west of Dallas.

As John walked out of the house, I couldn’t help but replay his greeting earlier at Jamie’s. John’s calm, fatherly tone when he told me he was updating my father regularly almost brought on a fresh round of tears. Especially when he relayed my father’smessage, quoting him without hesitation. “I love you. Please be good. This will all be over before you know it.”

It was already too late to be over before I knew it.I wish it had never started.

A loud noise caused me to jump in my seat and scream.

“It’s okay. It was just Jay tapping on the hood,” AJ reassured me.

It sounded a lot louder than a tap, but I didn’t trust my voice enough to say it.

“You ready?” AJ asked.

“Do I have a choice?” I asked. “Sorry.” AJ didn’t deserve my snark.

He nodded.

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