Page 27 of Hide and Keep

Crue glances over at me, but my gaze is set straight ahead.

“Your dad said that’s why you’re…” He lifts his fingers off the steering wheel. “This. Because you’re having a hard time with her death.”

This.My father is the reason why I’mthis. Not my mother. And not her…death.

“My father’s a liar.”

“So the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

I wish I did. I wish I fell far from both my mother’s and father’s trees. Or branches. Or… What does that saying mean exactly?

“I’ve been upfront all along with what I want.”

“And what is it exactly that you want, Ever?”

To see if you kiss as good in the light as you do in the dark.

“For you to quit.”

“Not happening.”

“If this is about the money, I can pay you. Not as much as my father, but I can pull out some cash to give you.”

“You’re surrendering already? I was kinda hoping you had a little more fight than that.”

“I’m not surrendering. I just…” Don’t want things to get uglier. What tops trying to send someone to jail? “Have a lot going on and don’t want to deal with you.”

“I don’t know what it was like with your other guards but I can keep up. You don’t gotta worry about me. Just live your life, and I’ll be right here alongside you, making sure you’re not doing anything to put it, or your future, in jeopardy.”

“My future?” I can’t hold back my laugh. “You mean my father’s legacy.”

“That’s his concern.”

“It’s not yours?”

“No.”

“What is your concern?”

“I told you. You.”

Another laugh, one much sadder, bubbles up because as much as I don’t want to believe him, I think I already do.

Why does it have to be Crue?

And why, if I’m so spoiled, doesn’t anything ever go my way?

“Where are you going?” I call to Ever’s back as she practically bolts from my Bronco.

“For a run.”

“I thought you had beauty shit to do.”

This finally pulls her attention to me, and over her shoulder, she says, “I just got back from competing. All that ‘beauty shit’ was last week.”

I frown. Like I fucking know. She’s the one who said she had appointments to get that shit done. Liar.

Bitch.

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