Page 76 of Hide and Keep

Crue releases my wrist like it caught fire.

“I’m not your opponent, miss. I’m your personal protection agent. And crying’s for pussies.” He nods toward my lap, his top lip curled. “Like yours is doing right now.”

She’s crying all right, absolutely pleading for Crue’s touch, the one he gave so freely five months ago but looks revolted to have to give now… Now that the cloth mask’s been replaced by a less visible yet much more permanent one.

Is it jealousy that has him so worked up today? You can admire a waterfall without ever considering taking a dip. Theonly thing Crue Brantley seems interested in is becoming my dam.

I watch him work on my other shoe, my thumb still up to my mouth as I repeatedly drag it back and forth across my bottom lip.

As soon as he’s done, Crue drops my foot.

“Goddess, your bedside manner could use some work.”

“How can I ever be at your bedside when you’re never in it?”

“Touché.”

“Also, you locked your fucking door.”

“And got both keys,” I add, quite proud of myself.

“I would’ve given you both.”

He actually looks wounded that I didn’t give him the opportunity, but he would’ve needed to go inside my bedroom to install a new handle and that’s a risk I was unwilling to take.

Now that he’s talking to me, at least somewhat, I inquire about the bats.

“They’re out,” is all he gives me.

“How’d you get them out?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. Remember that whole speech you gave? What’s important to me is important to you?”

“If they were so important to you, you shouldn’t’ve stuck two dozen in my room before skipping off into the night.”

An unladylike snort rips out of me before I can stop it. “I didn’t skip anywhere. You saw me.”

“I saw Satan’s spawn returning to the hell she belongs.”

“If that’s where I belong, why are you trying so hard to keep me here?”

“Because it’s my job.”

“Do you have to be such a dickhead while doing it?”

“No.” He drops his gaze.

Right as I expect him to offer up another apology, Crue looks at me, and says, “But it feels so much better when I am,” throwing my own smartass comeback in my face.

“Move,” I bark as I pass him, my left ankle buckling almost instantly.What?I glance down to see Crue fastened the strap wrong. He did the first hole, not the second. And if the partially smothered chuckle behind me is anything to go by, it wasn’t accidental.

Dickhead.

I need space. Privacy. I need color and hope in a dull, depressing world. I need to know flight’s still possible even if I’m not the one in the air.

“I’ll meet you in the dining room for dinner,” I call to him.

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