Page 209 of Hide and Keep

“I don’t know. And I don’t think you do either or you wouldn’t be my bodyguard, stuck living the same day over and over again.”

“What I was doing before being yourpersonal protection agentwas repeating the same day over and over. This gig’s the most challenging I’ve ever had.”

“Is that why you took it?”

“I took it because…” Now he’s the one looking away. “Of the money. After three years, I should have a little over a million dollars stacked up.”

A million dollars? He won’t even make a tenth of that.

“What are you planning to do with it?”

“Promise not to laugh.”

“Not if you say you’re gonna spend it on a time machine.”

He rolls his eyes before bringing them back to me. “No. Just regular travel. I want to go somewhere no one knows me.”

I don’t laugh, but I do tell him, “See? You don’t belong here.”

“Do you?”

“This is the birthplace of Munreaux Motorcycles. Of course I do.”

“Do youwantto be here though?”

Aside from the climate and the history, I don’t know enough about Sea Haven to know if I like it, only that I don’t like who I am here—who I have to be here.

“Anonymity isn’t an option for me,” I say instead.

“Especially not after you take over for your father.”

I force my head to bob slowly.

“Why don’t you want anyone to know who you are?”

“I just think it’d make it easier.”

The tattoo artist beckons us over.

“Make what easier?” I ask on our walk to the back.

“Living.”

My steps slow momentarily, causing me to have to hustle to catch up.

“What’s hard about living here? For you?”

“The people. I can’t go anywhere in Sea Haven without running into someone from high school. You saw what happens when I do.”

The police officer. Sure, that was awkward, but not exactly flee-worthy.

As Crue listens to the artist’s spiel about his process, I settle in next to the tattoo chair. This parlor isn’t technically in Sea Haven. I assumed Crue drove this far out because he wanted the same artist that did his other tattoos, but there doesn’t seem to be any familiarity between the two men whatsoever.

“So it’s just the people from your high school you want to avoid?”

“Them…and anyone that recognizes my name and looks at me the same way you did when you found out.”

“How did I look at you?”

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